Chapter 04
Draco sat on the steps of the spiral staircase. Potter was dressed for departure; wearing a new jacket which he had purchased on Vremnya, apparently when he'd been indisposed...and anything else was secreted away in expanding bags within its ample pockets. It was almost wizarding in its cut, slightly longer than a muggle's.
Looking over to the console where the Doctor was moving around it carefully he could see several additional...pieces to it.
"And you're sure?" Draco asked the wizard beside him.
Potter sighed, it was almost of resignation that this was the conclusion to their presence here? "I don't know, I helped him throughout the night, had a..." he shrugged. "Some sleep, I don't know, had a wander through the library again while you were resting," Potter gave him a brief look and half smile of sincerity. "He seemed to suggest that this was it, he said something about using a bit of equipment we picked up on Vremnya or Rishik to lock the coordinates in, apparently Earth when we're from is throwing up all sorts of problems," Potter shook his head as if to stave off a question.
He didn't bother to ask Potter what that meant, he understood enough not to be driven mad by this whole situation and enough to know not to ask.
"Now, final go and materialising now," the Doctor said with flourish as he pulled down two leavers on the control.
Draco felt his stomach go light and looked to beside him where Potter seemed to had slid his feet sideways to grip onto the underside of the staircase and was reaching out to him because they were floating. He reached out, fumbling Potter's hand as suddenly gravity returned and he fell back to the ground; a distance of inches, but it felt like miles.
Something chirped from the console and the central element fell back to its resting state.
"There, London 2008," the Doctor said as he looked at the unfathomable gauges and over to them as he flicked the door controls open.
Potter leapt from the stairs walking over to the interface between the world within and the exterior world.
Following Potter he looked around; they were on the Thames the Houses of Parliament were on the other side of the river.
"He said he was aiming for my house," Potter said with a frown and a shrug.
"It appears to be London," Draco trying to watch Potter.
"Just in case, you remember the address of my house, if there's any problems, rendezvous there?" Potter said quickly as the Doctor walked out.
Why not meet back here had been obvious from their past few travels with the Doctor, he and the TARDIS seemed to attracted unwanted attention, if they were going to meet him here, then together was better. He did not wish to be left seeking out the Doctor alone.
The Doctor was given the air an exaggerated sniff. "Smell that 21st century air! Wonderful," he paused wrinkling his nose. "Full of hydrocarbons, sewage, scum and...just a hint of something unusual."
"Well, I guess I'll be off," Draco said, while he had...not so much enjoyed this brief sojourn he was eager to find some normality.
Potter nodded, offered his hand to shake and gave him a look.
Draco nodded and disapparated.
"That was rather sudden," the Doctor looked to him curiously.
"Draco's not exactly eager for the adventuring Doctor, it was all very unexpected," Harry mused.
"Yes...you said," he paused, frowning, the harsh lines on his face seemingly exaggerating all movements. "The TARDIS needs at least 24 hours recharging time here, the journey was stressing...not sure why."
Harry nodded. "Well, I'll pop home and then maybe we'll meet up..." he trailed off squaring off his shoulders as he looked around. "Something feels a little weird."
"Probably just the weather," the Doctor said brightly looking up. "It's a lovely day."
Harry watched the Doctor. "Just in case, there's something amiss-"
The Doctor handed him a phone, not the same phone he'd given him last time, it was a chunky phone the satellite phone he'd given Draco after their last venture into the past. "Call me Harry," he paused to smile. "If there is anything amiss," he looked up at the sky squinting. "But there shouldn't be I programmed the coordinates very carefully."
Harry looked to his old friend who still seemed a little too alien and less his old friend than the others whom he'd met, there was something weighted about that sentence that he wasn't sure about. "Okay, I'll pop home and then see..."
"Excellent! You pop off Harry," the Doctor encouraged as he pulled the TARDIS doors closed.
Harry watched him for a moment and disapparated.
-/
There was something off in the alley. He'd intended to come here and withdraw some money, purchase some potion ingredients to brew a mind calming potion before returning the the Manor, perhaps see a healer...not that he knew what he would say concerning these past...however long had passed.
He'd apparated to a location just near the entrance to the alley from the Cauldron and had not paid much attention as he walked through the familiar alley.
Or so he thought...
Draco looked at the glass at the front of Owl Emporium, at least that's what it used to be, now it seemed to be stocking a range of serpents and ravens. It was certainly an interesting pivot for the proprietors, especially as he had it on good authority their lease still had another 20 years to run before there were to be any further negotiations.
Someone brushed past him making him tense, and he forced down the urge he'd had for the past couple of days to grab for his wand.
There was paranoia and there was a lack of decorum and he was most definitely in a location where one should maintain the latter, the former should be implied, never so obvious to be jumping at shadows, a Malfoy, especially one such as he should not so be easily spooked.
He made a face at the snakes in the window of satisfied disinterest and turned, as he looked away he was sure the ravens turned to watch him, but that might be latent paranoia.
Continuing onwards he caught a gaze of one of the others on the alley, and it was a...he wasn't sure, a chaste glance at him perhaps?
Draco wondered if Potter, or the Doctor had gotten the time wrong, he had been in a temporal vessel. He had seen the reading on the console proclaiming the time and date, and it was as the Doctor had stated. They had been gone not more than a few days since he went in the cabinet.
He ignored his vexations and continued his slow, though deliberate pace towards Gringotts.
It wasn't until he was almost within the doors that he had made a mistake, or rather he realised the Doctor's mistake; and as he turned around, looking across the way at the lack of Flourish and Blotts he realised what he had been seeing.
Wizards, those few who were in the alley holding staffs and...others watching him.
Then there was a feeling; pressure all around him like when the Cybermen had launched the ship he and River has been on, and then a circle of what seemed to be spontaneously generated chalk surrounded where he stood.
He felt sweat appearing on his back and a feeling of impending doom that he'd not felt for a while; that he was somewhere familiar, where he'd been thousands of times in the past and now this place that looked familiar felt dangerous, and if he was right no one would be coming to assist.
Then it just seemed he was left, to be stared at by those in the alley. He could feel their gazes burrowing into him as though a muggle had walked into the alley. It was a gaze he remembered of his father whenever the new Hogwarts year would start, seeing the muggle parents of the muggle-born witches and wizards in the alley, invading their spaces.
But these people's gazes felt intense, they seemed stronger, more...something, he couldn't put his finger on as he turned around and looked at where he was being held.
Then someone walked up from within the bank, he wore the robes of a wizard and carried a staff.
"You have business here?" The wizard asked watching him carefully, his staff held firmly watching him.
And at that moment Draco Malfoy decided to lie, because somehow the truth of this world seemed far more dangerous and his truth was not worth it. "I have been travelling I have some currency to trade," he offered calmly as he formulated a fiction to weave, mentally scowling Potter seemed so much more at ease in the situations they had been in over the past few days.
The wizard watched him carefully as the chalk circle around him evaporated.
"You may enter..." The wizard trailed off seemingly waiting for him to say his name.
He didn't give it, he was still trying to formulate that while mentally preparing his occlumency skills for whatever was to befall him within the bank.
It seemed it had been completely altered by whatever and wherever, or maybe whenever he was now. The high counters were gone; now large offices sectioned off from the space, the soft sounds of people speaking.
"Please wait, there;" the wizard gestured to some stiff looking chairs that were off to the side of the room.
Draco nodded curtly and sat down, extending out with his senses he had the brief thought to apparate, but doubted he could, this was still a heavily fortified banking institution even if it was not Gringotts.
Where and when was he? And what was he to do now?
As much as it had been this past...week or more the answer would be Potter, and then perhaps the Doctor. He almost wanted to laugh that his fate and his assistance was again in Potter's hands.
-/
Harry Potter walked down the driveway of his house, and immediately was struck by several things.
One; the fields which he used very small portions for communications arrays and monitoring, the rest he leased to a local farmer to run their cattle on were not being used for such purposes.
Instead it seemed someone had put in a vineyard, which was nice he supposed.
The house was still there and someone had repainted the barns in a striking white as opposed to how he'd left them in their agricultural black or brown.
And there was a vehicle parked out the front an Alpine A110, he recognised that immediately. The mechanic who'd helped fix up his E-Type had had one in his workshop, he'd even been tempted enough to start browsing the classic car classifieds, until he remembered his still in pieces TVR Tuscan.
While he was reminiscing he extracted his wand from a pocket, keeping it held down at his side, just in case. He wasn't sure but he definitely wasn't in-
"Hello there, could I help you with anything?"
Harry turned around quickly to face the man who'd asked the question.
He had rough off-white shirt on, his sleeves rolled up and a curious expression as he read Harry's body language, briefly looking to his wand before looking to him more curiously.
Harry smiled briefly and wondered what he should say, and if he should stun the man and wait and see what happened, tell the truth, or a version of the truth that could work, or maybe...he was cut off in his thoughts again by the man.
"You look like you're a sorcerer?" The man paused, he had a slightly inflection of a French accent, but sounded like he'd been living in the UK for some years for it only manifest on certain words, like when the Doctor would sometimes tell him tales of Gallifrey; there would be a slight inflection of some other accent, posh, refined and...a sense of otherness. "And you're a traveller."
Harry beamed at him. "You have a wonderful sense of perception," he paused. "And I think I am much more travelled than first I thought."
The man laughed and gestured towards the vineyard. "You're not the first, come, perhaps you can help me, I've got some infestations of Nifflers, Murlaps and Gnomes if I put in a request for a sorcerer it might be weeks before they come," he looked to Harry hopefully. "Perhaps you can help, and I you."
Harry shrugged, he'd need to wait for Draco as they were definitely not where they were meant to be, and this guy was at least friendly. Hanging out where the TARDIS was would likely only lead to further problems. Based on everything he knew from those who'd travelled with the Doctor and his own stories of how things like this happened.
"I'm Harry Potter," Harry said offering his hand to the man.
The man grabbed it firmly; he had calloused hands. "You work with your hands Harry, not a soft-handed sorcerer then," he paused and gave him a look. "That you walked in not knowing who I am confirms you are indeed a traveller; Napoleon Bonaparte."
Harry didn't know what to say, but was not able to stop himself from laughing.
-/
Draco had been left alone for a long time, however he was practised in waiting, he had studied the bank's interior quite well, and had noted all the points which were poorly patrolled or maintained from a security standpoint.
These existed in Gringotts as well, but here there was an added...feeling, a sense that perhaps they were not as well protected, there was a sense of the foreign here, something he could not quite put his finger on.
He had after 38 and a half minutes been transferred to the owner's office, and it was not a goblin's office he knew that much.
There was a touch of the effeminate within the office, and danger, although of what sort he had not quite decided upon.
Looking around he made sure he had all mental defences in place, and a fictional but rememberable story to recite if confronted.
He was most definitely not going to use his name unless impossible not to, there was far too much unknown in this situation.
Klade River was the pseudonym he had settled on, an anagram based on the creature Potter had rescued him accompanied by, and a surname based on the woman who'd assaulted him, assisted him and then departed his and Potter's company. And it was a name he could keep straight in his mind, and more to the point spell easily, more so than the planets he and Potter had been recently, which had been his first thought. Additionally, the currency he retained from those planets, he was unsure if they bore the planets' names, that would be an unfortunate lie to be caught in.
Then a woman entered the room.
She had trousers on made of some fine material, possibly silk in a deep almost black blue. A long flowing white coat was worn over a shirt whose design he recognised originated in Venice, and on her hip a wand in a carefully crafted holster.
"I own this bank, sorcerers wandering in wishing to trade without an appointment is an unusual occurrence," she said as she sat down with a slight smile to him.
Draco was glad he was practiced at maintaining a neutral expression, especially when he saw her teeth; even though they were very subtle, far more subtle than he had personally seen, but there was still the unmistakable teeth of a vampire.
"But one that happens occasionally..." she continued, pausing to watch him with intense eyes, there was something vaguely familiar about her expression, but nothing immediately triggering of memory for him. "Your name is usually offered at a juncture in the conversation such as this."
Draco smiled carefully, he recalled it being said that Dumbledore had a gaze that could unsettle most, and when he'd been at Hogwarts he had been so, his death, even though not by his hand had weighed on him for some time. And since then he'd faced up to many of his father's former connections as his father retreated from active participation in dealings in the world. Not to mention, this past week or two, he had faced several incidents that had tested his resolve, and he had time to consider how to extricate himself form this situation.
"I've been travelling, customary conventions are sometimes misconstrued, a precautionary approach I find leads to better outcomes," he deflected calmly as he felt some legilimency pressure, or something like it within his mind. He was practiced enough to not reveal any outward signs of attempts to breach his mind, but smart enough not to gaze into the eyes of a vampire.
"Your name, if we are to begin to trade, I must have something," she paused and gave him a brief smile as if to explain things "for my records."
Draco met her brief smile with his own. "Klade River."
She seemed surprised. "An interesting name, I have not heard of it before."
Draco was smugly satisfied, though revealed none outwardly that he had chosen well.
"And what is it you have to trade Klade River?" She asked, she'd not revealed her name, annoyingly.
Draco removed three of the coins he'd decided could be worth something from a section of his jacket that he'd shifted around whilst waiting and placed the coins on the desk in front of him.
The vampire woman retrieved her wand and pointed it at the coins...and then at him.
Draco didn't move, but he must have twitched, a micro-movement that the vampire woman must have perceived because she continued to point her wand at him. "Would you be fast enough?" She wondered.
Draco wondered indeed.
"You will have noticed that the sorcerers here do not wield wands Klade River, those are not the implements of magic for beings such as they," she calmly explained,.
Draco didn't say anything for several moments. "I can just depart, take my business elsewhere," he mused calmly and slowly, but did not rise from his chair.
"You have the air of that headmaster at the Hogwarts Academy, he is also far too calm," she as she slipped her wand back into her holster.
"What's his name? Perhaps I corresponded with him during my travels?" Draco wondered and cursed himself for asking the question, Potter's influence no doubt being far too curious.
"You must be well travelled Klade River, to not know of the school of your fellows, the Imperator of the Academy is Head-Master Draco Malfoy," she explained with distaste in her tone.
Draco imagined Potter being quietly amused at this point and was determined Potter would know little of this when he escaped the vampire woman's clutches. He could also see the woman watching for a reaction, one he would not be giving.
"I have been away travelling for some time, the schooling here a matter not beyond idle curiosity," he explained simply. Cursing that this did not make a lot of sense if he were enquiring about who was at Hogwarts.
The vampire woman scooped up the coins. "I will take this and appraise them," she quickly rose from her chair.
"Shall I...?" He began to rise.
"No, Klade River, remain."
Draco knew an order when he heard one, and he knew when he was being held against his will, but he had been in situations such as this in the past, and knew eventually he would find away out, when the opportunity arose.
-/
Harry glanced to Napoleon to gauge his response.
He had elected to tell the man the truth as how he came to be here, that in another world; this was his home. That he and a friend were with a traveller in space and other places and they'd landed in London, thinking that they were home.
After hearing tales from the Doctor all his life, and from his companions and the trouble they got into the 'so mad it can only be the truth' path of explaining things would get him locked up or believed.
Harry banished another gnome that had been hiding behind a post supporting a grapevine as he looked again to Napoleon who didn't look like he was going to call the authorities.
Who the authorities were he was yet to learn, or how he was talking to Napoleon Bonaparte was another good question, but at this point he and Draco were not just time travellers but travellers from another universe (probably), so he couldn't really ask Napoleon to justify his existence.
"This may or may not surprise you Harry, but you are not the first to arrive and profess a tale such as yours," he said as he gestured down the row of vines, pausing to look at a bunch of grapes before continuing on.
"I'm not?" Harry asked with some surprise.
Napoleon shook his head and chuckled. "No, there was even one quite intimidating young woman who left something in case anyone should come."
"They did?" Harry wondered.
"Paid me quite handsomely for a corner of the barn," he chuckled. "Only use it to keep winter tyres for my Alpine in there."
Harry smiled. "Is there anything else I can help you I-"
"Your friend I assume did not leave a method of contacting him when you parted ways?" Napoleon interrupted.
Harry shook his head. "No, we stepped out into the world and didn't expect this," he said muttering "We should have been more careful," and silently mused to himself 'and I should have checked with the Doctor'.
"Of course, I appreciate good visitors, and..." he trailed off. "There are a few things, though not things a sorcerer would usually assist with."
Harry gave a half shrug. "While I'm here, I'm happy to help with anything you need," he paused and looked to the man. "As long as it won't get you in trouble with whoever the authorities are that watch over magical stuff?"
Napoleon laughed. "You care so well for a man you have just met?"
"You don't think I'm mad, have good taste in cars," Harry answered in a light tone and have a half shrug.
Napoleon laughed and clapped him on the back. "Good man."
-/
Draco was starting to plot how he could exit this room carefully, or even not carefully. Apparating was still unlikely. He was not game enough to draw his wand and cast to properly determine if he could apparate.
Something about how the vampire woman looked at him, and something about her tone suggested that if he were to draw his wand that would either be a social faux pas or perhaps something even more illegal. It would definitely reveal something of himself, to which he was not yet ready to reveal, and he wanted to escape this place alive and without revealing who he was.
But it had been over 2 hours, and he was starting to wonder if he had been forgotten. But as the fictional persona 'Klade River' he supposed he had to sit and wait. He wondered if the headmaster of the 'Hogwarts Academy' would be so patient?
-/
Harry swirled the mug of tea which had been 'enhanced' by Boney's brandy. The brandy itself and their conversation had warmed greatly as Harry had moved around some vats and repaired some of the roof in Boney's distillery, jobs he'd appararently been waiting for months to get fixed. They'd been hit by some sort of magical projectile, though he'd not been able to find anything, a sort of 'magical test missile' had impacted on the roof.
Harry'd never heard of such a thing, but Boney (as he'd insisted 'all my friends call me) had explained it in the vaguest sense. Which suggested that magic was quite in the open here, enough the lay person knew about it with the same sense that people knew about jet airliners, that they existed but didn't know the intricate details of how they operated.
Which was interesting.
Boney had said he needed to do some paperwork, and had pointed him in the direction of the barn where the book was waiting.
It was on a simple table in the corner of the barn and Harry recognised what it represented almost immediately, he'd been reading about this faction in the Doctor's TARDIS.
"Faction Paradox," Harry said to himself and looked over his shoulder cautiously, careful of not summoning anything, spirits or something else. But that said they could even just appear from nothing, driving their own creation, or something like that, maybe he was just being paranoid.
"And on that front..." he said to himself as he cast about with his wand.
There was still some weird energies here, not as bad as his barn and his house, but enough that he'd need to decamp to the road to apparate.
-/
Harry shaded his eyes at the setting sun as he watched an airship fly over the city. He was definitely over the rainbow.
They were.
"Point me Draco Malfoy," he said as he looked around quickly as he laid his wand on his palm.
He wasn't surprised as it twitched and shifted and failed to reveal or indicate a location, he doubted it would be so easy.
Nor was contacting the Doctor; he'd hammered on the TARDIS's doors when he'd apparated here, and looking inside the panel in the door revealed no phone, so the Doctor obviously had gone for a walk. And the one he'd given him had failed to connect.
Harry left a message scrawled with a bit of chalk he'd nicked from Boney's barn 'This isn't Kansas. Find me at my house. Harry.'
He was just about to consider going elsewhere to try and get a fix on Draco when someone tried to shoot him in the back.
He felt the flare of a spell and saw its reflection on the shiny barriers overlooking the Thames, this universe obviously liked its stainless steel rather than paint he thought to himself as he ducked and rolled drawing his wand and casting a shield ready to stop...
A bloke in a beard holding a staff.
"Halt," he said in an officious tone.
Harry looked around himself, he wasn't doing anything.
"You will surrender your..." the man frowned. "You...you have a wand."
Harry nodded as he tried to catch the man's eye. "What's your name?" He asked as he lowered his shield, there were multiple spells he could cast, likely faster (he hoped) than the bloke with the staff.
"A detection of transportation was made, show your portkey authorisation sphere and identity papers now," the man ordered as he thumped his staff.
Nothing happened, but Harry fancied it was meant to be a show of power.
Instead Harry took a step forward and looked at him more closely, there was something about the man that reminded him of someone, but with the beard it made him look a lot older, even though it was trimmed into a very un-wizard-like style there was something.
"I've been travelling and don't have any papers," Harry explained calmly, not wishing to bring up he had apparated.
The man narrowed his eyes. "Our instruments indicate you transported within the England," he said with a slightly annoyed tone.
Oh, Harry thought to himself, how interesting. "And of course there's no other method of travel," he mused as he took another step towards the man.
"You will accompany me to-" The man began again.
"You will tell me your name first," Harry countered as he took another step towards the man as he focused his gaze on him.
"My name is...my name is...my name is..." he shook his head as Harry took another step towards him,
"Your name is..." Harry prompted.
"Colin Creevey, Unified Magical Force. Halt your approach," he blinked several times as he gestured his staff at Harry.
Harry smiled in realisation. "Colin, of course, we've met before," Harry said casually as he fixed his gaze at the man again.
"We've met before," Colin repeated.
"At the photography..." Harry trailed off and hoped that there was some crossover between parallel universe.
"The photography at the academy," Colin said in a slight monotone as he recalled something.
"Yes," Harry said slowly. "You remember, and there is nothing you need to investigate, you have seen my papers."
"Yes..." Colin repeated as Harry gestured his wand with a subtle notice me not around himself. "I have already seen your papers..."
Immediately as Colin turned away from him Harry took the opportunity afforded to apparate away.
He'd heard far too many tales from the Doctor and his companions to know that hanging around in a situation like this would only result in the authorities being summoned and that was something he definitely was not keen on happening.
-/
Draco looked around the suite he'd been escorted to, it was certainly more opulent than the rooms above the Leakey Cauldron, even though the establishment below was nothing like it.
He also knew a prison cell when he saw one, even if it was dressed up in 'hospitality'. Even if the vampire woman assured him it was nothing like that.
That his coins were "valuable and of considerable worth, but I wish to consult further" was truth, as much as he could discern from her, that "she knew something of his travels" was either a good bluff or she was adept at reading into his person. If it was the latter he should be attempting to make his escape.
He couldn't apparate, no captors would be that stupid, and she had deliberately not indicated the guards outside the room, but he'd seen them there, those casually reading a paper a few doors down from the room he'd be led to.
The theatre of all of this made him somewhat confident that he may escape without resorting to more...direct means.
He fancied that Potter would have by now, killed or severely stunned the guards and made his escape.
And if he did, where to? Draco mused to himself as he walked around the room testing the floorboards, he had elected not to cast any spells, just in case he were being observed.
Return to the Doctor's ship or to Potter's house, the location and particularities of his domicile Potter had already instructed.
If anyone was to find a process through this situation it was those two, the Doctor whom he had known for little time, yet like Potter had a bearing on the man.
And Potter, whom he had known for a long time, but only recently properly appreciated his skill and perspective. Neither of which he'd tell Potter.
As he was pondering Potter there was a short knock at the door and with little pause the woman from the bank swept in.
This was much evidence that he was a prisoner, not a guest, the latter the host would wait for an answer.
"You've changed," he mused as she appraised him. She was now dressed in an evening coat; dressed for dinner. A brief musing in his mind that he hoped he was not the meal.
She smiled at him appreciatively, the fangs of a vampire showing more clearly now that the sun had begun to set.
"You present an interesting character Klade River, your coins too," she mused.
Draco wondered if she meant literally or figuratively, he didn't ask.
"Visitors such as yourself are usually far too much effort than they are worth," she continued briefly smiling. "But your coins are worth the trouble."
"Am I to be your guest in-perpetuity?" Draco asked in a break in her monologging.
She laughed and gestured at him. "The evening is long encroaching Klade River, and not safe for a visitor like yourself. I have an airship ticket, wherever you wish, tomorrow you will leave our alley, may you go on your travels."
She turned to leave.
Draco breathed in, preparing to ask a question.
"I know you are not of this Earth, or this world Klade River, you are not the first, the barriers are fickle, sometimes useful," she paused as she looked at him. "Disposing of people is so messy, hospitality is..."
"Easier to tidy up?" Draco wondered.
She laughed again. "Yes. Food and refreshments will be brought shortly."
"And in the morning I may leave?" Draco asked.
"You will be accompanied to the air dock in the morning," she confirmed and then departed, the door closing behind her.
Draco looked at the door and smirked to himself. Potter would definitely know nothing of this. He'd find it all far too amusing.
-/
"I wondered when you might turn up," Harry said as he poured himself another glass of the fine vintage Boney had served up for him. There was apparently a hearty meal in the oven, but his host had suggested that the sun setting over the vines was a majestic sight to behold.
The sounds of someone walking along the grass came around to face him.
The being wore a mask of bone which might have been a bat, or maybe a dead Time Lord, whatever it was, it was a bit creepy, in a weird sort of way. That was the point supposedly.
"How'd you know it was us?" The boy asked.
"You a cousin or a little brother?" Harry asked the boy.
"Initial contact's easy, cousins got better things to do than make house calls mate," he said as he turned and kicked a gnome hard, it flew over and into one of the posts holding the vines up exploding as it did so.
"With a kick like that you could win some soccer games," Harry mused idly. "Flipped through your book, you get a lot of people turning up, asking you for help?" Harry wondered cynically.
The boy pulled the mask up to look at him, raising an eyebrow at him. "You think you can do better?"
"Not sure I want to be a part of your empire little brother, I won't be visiting your 1752 any time soon I don't think," Harry mused.
The little brother smirked at him. "You read the book well then."
"And some more besides," Harry commented idly.
"Not game enough, to invoke the spirits Potter?" The little brother challenged.
Harry raised an eyebrow at him. "Not to mess around with paradoxes, no, I've time travelled, killed to make sure not too many big paradoxes crept in..." he trailed off, half expecting the little brother to say something of his time in the 1970s.
The little brother didn't say anything.
"If people like me turn up here, why isn't there something like the Book of the Still, why have you got your book here?" Harry wondered, he'd heard the Doctor talk about the book, and found a few references in his library. "Strange way to recruit."
"We're a strange organisation to some," he shrugged.
"What if I kill you now? Will you just pop back into existence?" Harry wondered, and seemingly to prove his question another walked up.
"'Nother will just pop up," he said patting himself on the back.
"I'm not a Time Lord, I don't care about your little tricks, little brother," Harry challenged as the second one snapped his fingers and disappeared.
"What d'you care about Potter?" The boy wondered.
Harry swirled his drink. "If I can transfigure this wine fast enough into brandy to use as a weapon against you," he smirked as the kid looked surprised. "But I think ironically non-interference and interaction might be better when engaging with you."
The little brother laughed. "You care," he nodded to Harry. "You travelled back to bump off your ex just to preserve the timeline, don't bullshit a-"
"Terrorist?" Harry wondered. "That's what some of them say you are."
The little brother gave him a feral smirk. "Makes it easier does it?"
Harry shrugged. "This isn't my universe why should I worry?"
The little brother gave him a cautious, almost curious look. "That's what makes this place slippery, hole-y, they're sticking it back with resin and amber, but there's plenty of places to slip through, good place to visit."
Harry wasn't sure what he meant, but presumed it wasn't good, and didn't say anything just in case. His working knowledge of Faction Paradox was still limited to their book and a bit of what he'd started to read in the Doctor's TARDIS. He intended to read up more, especially if this was what his life was going to become, sparring with time travellers.
There was a thud as the little brother kicked another gnome.
"I thought I'd dealt with all of them earlier," Harry commented idly.
"You can take the book if you want," the little brother offered.
Harry shook his head. "It'll probably try to eat my history or something."
"Spirits don't work like that," the little brother countered.
"Or maybe you'd just make sure it's a version of itself that got destroyed or something," Harry mused. "Maybe it got destroyed in whatever this world's Hogwarts had - in a battle."
"It's an academy, can tell you more if you want," the little brother offered casually.
Harry gave the little brother a look. "I'm not sure I want anything to do with something you're offering little brother, especially information I could find by exploring myself, that wouldn't be too difficult."
"Worth a try," he commented with a half shrug.
"Hardly a powerful offer," Harry couldn't help but say.
"You're the one tempted by knowledge," he paused and gave Harry a look. "Got you into trouble."
"I'm still thinking about killing you just to make you go away," Harry challenged casually.
"You're not that cold...yet..." the little brother trailed off and smirked at Harry before blowing him a kiss and walking off into the vines.
Harry almost called the Faction's mantra at him, but held off, suspecting that even doing so mockingly was probably as good as doing it respectfully, knowing even the little he did about them, doing so one way would be as bad as the other, or as good.
-/
Napoleon had offered him a room for the night saying "No one would be travelling after dark."
It was proclaimed in a rather ominous manner.
His host had allowed him the use of his computer 'I only use it to bank' and left him a glass of brandy, exceptionally good brandy. Harry hoped Boney would let him buy a bottle or two off him.
The 'Library of Alexandria' seemed to be this universe's free online encyclopaedia. The news side bar stated that the US Department of Defense had received a funding boost, adding to its Fringe Division.
Harry had to smile, that was one fo the names he had thought to call the League of Paranormal Investigations.
But clicking through revealed far more, far too much to properly understand, it was all a bit...
"Unbelievable?" Harry almost jumped that Napoleon had managed to creep up behind him while he was reading about the "amber" and its complicated history including the "resin" developed in French Empire and tested on several notable individuals...
"And here I thought you were a time traveller Boney!" Harry exclaimed with a laugh.
"I might as well be, come friend Harry, let's have a hot drink, and some cake, I have heard about your friend too..." he explained.
Draco had been made a "guest" of whoever it was that ran whatever was the wizarding equivalent of Gringotts wherever they were.
"He is fine, my friend says an airship ticket has been booked for him to come to the nearest port to here," Boney explained much to Harry's...relief. He did not really want to mount a rescue again. He probably wouldn't tell Draco that upon hearing of his predicament that was his first thought, no need to stroke Draco's sense of importance.
"You must mix in interesting circles to have friends that reach up into the banking of the-"
"Magical realms?" Boney cut him off.
Harry nodded, thankful of Boney offering a term up. "I'm sorry if this gets you into trouble."
The man opposite him laughed. "I am technically several hundred years old, I am used to the unusual Harry, these experiences, they are fleeting, and keep the mind and body invigorated."
"Deadly danger, dropping out of the sky and crash landing things," Harry reflected on his past couple of weeks.
The older man gave him a look. "I think I would like to know more, but," he said rising from the chairs they were sat in. "It is already late, and I have more work for you to do while you're here," he chuckled.
"Anything," Harry said as he rose from his chair, "Until my friend turns up, and we work out what to do with my other associate, I welcome being able to help you."
-/
Harry looked up at the large spire, it would have been used for radio, or something he assumed and then appropriated for airship travel.
Except airships seemed to have been a standard of travel since the 40s. And magic was an open secret in this world, or just an open...knowledge?
He'd spent some time last night and a little this morning researching, and this world was...weird.
There were definitely some dimensional problems mostly centred in the United States, but it was all...kind of exhausting to get his head around. Like reading an alternative fiction without all the lead up and context to make sense of it all, even on the Library of Alexandria's website page. There were similarities, and differences. He'd ended up helping Boney some more with his work to get his mind off it until the time for the airship's scheduled arrival.
Boney had suggested he walk, rather than apparate, much less conspicuous.
It was only a 20 minute journey to the airship station? Dock?
Lexical gap, that was the term he recalled the Doctor once recounting to him, the lacking of vocabulary to understand the world.
There were only a couple of dozen people descending down from the airship.
One of them was his friend Draco Malfoy.
"Draco," Harry greeted with a smile.
"Potter," he didn't smile.
"Strange world we've found ourselves in," Harry gestured away from the station or whatever it was that they were at towards the path he'd taken to reach it.
Draco looked around as they walked. "You have found a safe location?"
-/
"My house is occupied by Napoleon Boneparte, so I guess you could say yes, he makes a nice wine and a wonderful brandy," Potter commented idly as they walked.
Draco looked at him and shook his head with a slight smirk. "That is interesting."
"And you've likewise had an interesting time? Boney said he heard from someone you found your way to the alley," Potter commented as though he had become close friends with the man he'd known for barely a day.
"This is not the world we know Potter," Draco answered in a flat tone.
"You were't placed in danger I hope?" Potter asked, his voice full of concern, and not mock concern, although it was asked casually, there was genuine care and intent behind his words.
Draco was surprised at Potter's concern, even though their past several days had illustrated Potter's dedication to preservation. "I have been in more dangerous situations Potter," he paused as Potter indicated where they should turn on the path they were walking. "Although none so unknown as this."
"No," Potter paused. "We'll either need to wait for the Doctor to find us or locate him, I left a message on the TARDIS, and I tried calling his phone last night. When we're back with Boney I'll try again."
"And what's your new friend like Potter?" Draco wondered.
Potter shrugged. "Happy for the help, unperturbed by this."
"Can we not just apparate to the Doctor's craft?" Draco wondered looking to Potter.
Potter gave him a look and an arched eyebrow. "If you spent the night in the city, I assume you've encountered similarly..." Potter trailed off. "Dangerously officious people as I did," he sighed. "I wondered sometimes what it was like travelling with the Doctor and, our past brief travels felt like visiting an odd country with a bit of danger thrown around, but this..." Potter trailed off again.
"The familiarity mixed with the foreign," Draco began.
"Unsettling...though not quite, it's...odd," Potter hunched his shoulders, discomforted by his own musings.
"Like a path not taken," Draco said mostly to himself.
-/
How Potter had integrated himself into the friendship of the man who seemed to have the bearing of both a diplomat and...something else, and all in the space of less than 24 hours was surprising.
Potter only stating 'I told him the truth, it was kind of liberating'.
It was more than he had done, Draco mused, not that he explained any of this to Potter, he need not know for now what had happened.
Now they were both within 'Boney''s distillery repairing areas and dealing with various magical infestations.
"You will have noted the odd congruity of muggle and magical infestations and influences here Potter," he commented as he banished some gnomes.
Potter nodded as he finished patching a portion of wall that seemed to have been charred by a salamander, one such example apparently lived nearby.
"Yet not as close as I would expect with this amount of casualness," Potter looked over to him. "It's like...aliens on our world, but not quite, this sort of..."
"Tacit acknowledgement?" Draco wondered.
Potter shrugged. "Maybe. If we don't get a visit or something from the Doctor," he paused and looked to him again. "We'll have to pop back to London, in a way that doesn't alert the authorities."
-/
Unified Magical Force.
It was an odd, ugly almost muggle type of name. At least Potter's League of Paranormal Investigations sounded like a wizarding organisation, even if his sphere of investigation touched multiple realms, beyond the standard.
UMF, even their uniform was...almost utilitarian, a trimly fitted set of robes, and a staff. It was strange to see something like that carried so casually.
As they walked past where they'd apparated and then disapparated before walking back to where they were now, Potter beckoned from ahead. 'You can shoot them in the back as they approach me' Potter had said following up with 'Then I can throw them in the river, that should give us enough time to escape'.
Potter was stood in front of the Doctor's TARDIS, he tapped the door as he approached. "My message is still here."
"You think he hasn't returned?" Draco wondered.
Potter looked up at the box's exterior. "One time the Doctor told me there was a key hidden in a cubby hole above the P," he said as he cupped his hands together. "Look for me?"
Draco looked at him.
"Or you can give me a bunk up," Potter said casually.
"Exactly what are you two doing?" Said a voice of the Doctor.
"Trying to break into your TARDIS," Potter said as he let him down.
Draco stepped down, careful not to destabilise Potter as he did so.
Potter turned around to look at the man. "This is an alternate universe."
"Yes, the airships rather gave it away," the Doctor mused with an arched eyebrow.
"Fine," Potter sighed and looked to Draco. "I'll just tell Boney."
The Doctor frowned at him as Potter disapparated. "Boney?"
Draco sighed and wondered why he was left, but less than a 30 seconds later Potter appeared.
"He's gone out, we told him we might not return, but I left a note saying as much," he said looking between him and the Doctor, "we should probably head into the TARDIS."
"Why?" the Doctor enquired as he unlocked the doors.
"The UMF don't seem to like people without papers apparating," Potter said casually as he pointed up the river.
Draco turned to see a large group charging towards them, staffs raised. It was a slightly comical sight.
-/
Harry passed Draco a mug of tea, they were sat on the stairs watching the Doctor work.
Draco sniffed it. "Some of your friend's brandy?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah, got a few bottles from him," Harry looked to him. "Are you alright after all of that?"
Draco shook his head. "My curiosity Potter, this is the reward."
Harry smiled and nodded. "We haven't been hurt too much, and haven't been accused of anything yet, maybe this'll just be a speed hump in getting home."
"Your positivity regarding this makes me doubt your assertion Potter," Draco countered as he sipped the tea.
-/
A/N:
In theory this takes place in a version of the Fringe universe.
I had an idea some time ago to write a spin-off of Visited by a Doctor which was set in the alternate universe of the Fringe universe, as a crossover between Fringe and Doctor Who, but set in an alternate version of Visited by a Doctor. It never went anywhere because it was too many levels of crossover / alternate universe (because it'd be if Visited by a Doctor happened in the 'other side' of the Fringe universe, which also contained a version of the Harry Potter/Doctor Who universes).
It never went beyond a few paragraphs of notes, but the idea wouldn't go away so I used a few bits and pieces from those for this chapter.
I did contemplate making the vampire lady who's in charge of the bank Hermione Granger. But that felt a little bit too silly. According to the tropes of the alternate universe stories that's how it should've been, but...I didn't quite like it. It could be her though.