Here's some of the time they get to know each other. The Doctor and Harriet can be absolutely terrifying together if they want to!
Life With the Team of Trouble Magnets
She laid on the soft bed in her new room that TARDIS had provided and thought. The ship was sentient. Flowing and twisting and living around her, shielding everyone and everything inside. She closed her eyes and focused on her mind. To her link with the TARDIS that still blocked out most of her.
Oh, how she was glad her Mist had put her through mental discipline. She sent a rush of gratitude towards the bond. Viper's indigo grew brighter and smug.
After Snape and Lockhart she had doubted she ever would learn mind arts.
Still, now she was glad because that meant she could decide if she trusted TARDIS in her mind or not. The girl breathed in and out and opened her mind up more. She could feel the ancient ship caress every new aspect it found. It was light telepathy.
It felt nice after usually getting attack after attack.
Slowly she felt the TARDIS back and was surprised to find it heightened her sense of… everything. It was overwhelming. Like she was looking at time itself. If she delved deeper she had the feeling she'd either go crazy or gain another set of scary abilities.
Yes, she knew she was a powerhouse. She didn't need more power. Until she did.
Harry grimaced. It was annoying sometimes how she got the rarest abilities and stuff ever and then only managed to survive because of them. Seriously, parseltongue was just the start. Her magic was scarily powerful. She was a prodigy in fighting and had excellent reflexes. She had adaptability that could put well-groomed actresses and zen masters to shame. Her Flame type just had to be the rarest and most sought after.
Don't even get started with the basilisk venom and phoenix tears in her bloodstream.
It gave Reborn and many healers and doctors migraines when they tried to give her medicine or she got poisoned. The venom just burned everything that entered and the tears kept it from killing her. Luckily it didn't carry on to Flames. Especially when Reborn and Skull figured out how to amplify the phoenix tears. Harry's life and her utterly bipolar luck made sure everyone thought the things she'd experienced were the craziest there ever would be.
Though now that she'd met the Doctor she wondered a bit about that.
But seriously!
She couldn't even die.
Funny how after she defeated a man desperate for immortality she, wanting nothing to do with it, had that curse shoved on her.
The TARDIS hummed comfortingly. Harry smiled and lifted her defenses almost completely, sure that the ship wouldn't hurt her. After all, she felt Harry and Harry felt the TARDIS. When you were connected like that it became impossible to lie. At least almost.
And it only took a week to trust her enough!
Sighing happily the immortal drifted to sleep.
xXXx
Harry and the Doctor had gotten into a routine. Well, as much a routine as they could manage. Two trouble magnets living in the same space usually meant something either went wrong or strange or they shifted schedule so often it no longer mattered. Usually it was the latter or just something odd coming up when in the TARDIS.
They made many stops around the universe and history. The Doctor played tour guide as they visited breathtaking views, chased after distress signals, saved people and worlds, and just tested the universe's best places. Surprisingly trouble only found them about 35% of the time.
Well, it was maybe five percent higher than normal for either of them but who could complain? It made life interesting. Worth living.
Atonement, whispered a voice in Harry's head as she looked at the Doctor.
She hadn't pried. She respected his silence and would do so until both of them knew each other better. Yes, they made a good team. Great even. But that was only with their abilities and similar moral codes. More inclined to peaceful solutions than violence. Both of them were definitely impressed by the other. At this point, they could consider themselves friends.
Or tentative partners in save-the-world club.
Both had wounds and scars from their pasts and the company helped. Healed. Gave purpose. She was surprised to find that the ache in her chest for lost family had eased much more in the past month than the one before. The Doctor was getting better too, she could tell. There were many things they didn't talk about but that didn't mean they didn't find out more about each other every day they lived together.
They might not be okay yet but they were getting there.
xXXx
"Huh. Could've been worse", Harry stopped in her tracks to look at the Doctor looking into the first mirror they'd seen on a planet. It was easy to find one here. She'd have named it the Planet of Mirrors or something, "Look at the ears"
She raised an eyebrow. That sounded like he'd never seen his face before. Or, more likely, he had seen it and then it changed. Sounded ridiculous. But she'd seen more ridiculous.
"You can change your face?", she asked curiously.
He looked at her like he forgot she was there for a moment. She could see the flash of discomfort and decided not to press.
"Cool. One of my friends was a metamorphmagus. Could change herself to look like anyone. My Godson inherited the ability. It was fun to watch his hair change colors with his emotions", Harry rattled on with a smile, completely unconcerned of this new thing she had learned of her friend. She could see that he relaxed.
There was more to it. But then again, there was more to everything Harry told too. It was a friendship with secrets but that was fine. Worked for both of them.
For now, everything was fine and they found a crystal empire in need of saving.
xXXx
"She doesn't like that mallet"
"The TARDIS talks to you?"
"Well, not talk talk. More like sends feelings and images. Impressions. And only sometimes"
"Harriet, are you sure you're not telepathic?"
"..."
"Harry…?"
"I- I don't actually know. Does the practice of mental discipline and mind reading via magic count?"
"Definitely telepathic, how is mind reading not telepathic?"
"Huh. Okay"
xXXx
Harry had gotten into the habit of cooking.
After she tasted the nutrient bars once she had outright refused to let either of them live like that. The TARDIS cheered her on. It had become something of a past time to try and trick the Doctor into the kitchen to eat. He was grumpy with them. But mostly for show.
The immortal girl was sure he liked the food though. Especially after she started baking banana things.
His addiction to bananas rivaled Harry's enthusiasm for treacle.
When they found that out banana treacle tart became number one on the dessert list. That made for funny ingredient gathering trips. Shopping for things around the universe and getting them from a rainforest of bananas or the fountain of syrup (Harry insisted it was treacle) were two entirely different things.
Who knew you could find a plot for world domination on floating wheat fields?
xXXx
"Impossible!", the Doctor breathed out as he watched wide-eyed at a cauldron Harry had dug from her backpack. Which was apparently bigger on the inside.
Actually, it wasn't the cauldron really. It was the bubbling… potion inside it. Harry was completely unconcerned about any laws of physics and the strange things she prepared and threw into the liquid that shouldn't be liquid. There was no way the bones of some strange small creature could dissolve in water, aconite and some other liquids. And that radical a change in color with something so small and the glow shouldn't be possible at all.
Seriously! From red to turquoise to white! Then golden and glowing. It made no sense. At all. Like most of the stuff Harriet did. He was getting a headache and he wondered if this was what humans meant when they said their head was spinning.
Many of the ingredients only had poetic properties that worked and made a liquid able to do something that it really really shouldn't.
"Doc", he bristled at the nickname but had long since given up correcting his… friend. Yes. Friend. He had a feeling she did it just to annoy him. Luckily she didn't use it that often, "Just be glad it works or we'd have a big problem"
"But it shouldn't work!", he scratched his head, thoughts whirling as he gave Harry a light glare, "We're scanning this back in the TARDIS"
Harry's lips twitched into a smile as she put the last ingredients into the cauldron and stirred. Some were apparently dragon scales. He wasn't sure he believed that either. But Harry's world was definitely different so maybe he might.
"Okay", the witch agreed easily and cast something wandlessly to make the cauldron float behind them. Breaking even more laws of physics and gravity. He was getting used to that. And he could even feel some very small and surprisingly comforting ripples in time whenever she did it. That was kind of unnerving but nothing to worry about. He'd scanned. He scanned a lot of stuff Harry did. The girl who was definitely older than she looked (perhaps twenty-five) grinned at him with amused emerald eyes, "Let's just get this to the King before he blows up his castle"
Right. The Mad King and the meeting of Knights. Better worry about them first and Harry's daily impossibility later.
He just hoped her magic didn't explode the scanners again. Those were harder to Harry-proof ("Magic-proof, Doc. Magic!") than other electric equipment. Even harder to make them work with magic. The Time Lord would've loved to meet her genius friend. It was hard to believe her phone was made by a human.
"Doctor!", Harry snapped her fingers, "Focus!"
Oh. Right, yeah, focus.
Somehow thwarting evil plots had become way easier and less deadly since Harry came around. And much more fun. Even with the impossible distractions.
(Especially with them but he wasn't going to say that out loud)
xXXx
"Gaah!", Harriet's groan echoed to the control room where the Doctor was fixing TARDIS' heat circuits.
He raised his head to watch as she stomped into the room and walked up to him, hair ruffled into a messy bird's nest as she seemed to think furiously. The source of her frustration seemed to be the piece of paper she was holding. It was thrust in front of his nose.
"Help!", she demanded.
The Doctor gave her a sullen look before glancing at the paper once and rattling off the answer to the math problem almost instantly. It was like asking a basic twenty-first-century human what was one plus one! Way too easy. Only went up to the fourth dimension.
Harry stared at him like she'd never seen him before. He stared right back.
"Wow. You have a super brain", she said and grinned in delight, "Thanks!"
The Doctor was left staring at the empty space the girl had been to and wondered if he should be offended. Did she only just figure that out?
xXXx
One morning Harry woke up to someone knocking on her door. It was no surprise that it was the Doctor. But what was a surprise was that the door hadn't been in her room before. Rising out of bed cautiously she opened it to come face to face with a blinding grin. She rubbed sleep from her eyes and mumbled a good morning.
"What's this door doin' here?", she asked once she was awake enough. It was strange how easily she slept like a log on this safe telepathic ship.
He stepped away and swept a hand over the new room the door lead to. She gasped. It was a workshop. For doing… everything. She could do runes, potions, experiment on new magical things and so much other stuff that she didn't understand the function of. The Doctor was practically bouncing in place. If he ever did such a thing.
"So", he said, excitement coloring his voice, "Want to do some experimenting?"
xXXx
It was a normal day… night… uh. Normal time in the TARDIS. Well, in the Time Vortex.
Harry was marveling at the ship's ability to know exactly what she liked in her bedroom. It had a view of a sky like the Great Hall that gave all the light she needed. When she went to sleep the time machine gave her a night sky. She only needed about three hours. Boy had the Doctor been thrilled when he found out.
More adventure time (ha!) apparently. Not that she minded.
But right now they were just lazing around. Or at least Harry was. The Doctor was either tinkering or repairing the TARDIS. From what she'd gathered there had been a big, big event that had gone wrong and now she was damaged. She had offered to fix some things. After that the Doctor sometimes barged in on her or sought her out just to get a broken part mended with a Reparo. She didn't mind at all.
She was kind of bored. Thinking of what to do. There was no need to make food right then or anything else. Maybe she should come up with little projects to do when things were quiet.
Harry blinked, a memory popping to the surface. She shot up from her bed (not too soft, not too hard) and rushed to her backpack, tapping a stone on it thrice to get it to change to the right color before opening the flap and jumping in. Yes, she'd gotten a bit Extension Charm-happy. There were storage rooms in there, as well as a small bedroom she hadn't used in years.
Right now she was in the Memory Room. Or the one with the pensieve.
A few minutes later the Doctor jumped slightly as Harry plopped the heavy marble pensieve next to him. He blinked at it before climbing out from under the TARDIS console and looked at it curiously.
"What's this?", he asked.
Harry grinned uh oh that was a smile he recognized. A smile that promised something impossible and fun.
"A pensieve!", she stated happily, "It shows memories. I remember you said you wanted to see Verde's work"
There was a sudden surge of interest and approval from the Lightning bond. The Doctor was now looking far more interested in the big device. Harry summoned her wand in hand, this time the Holly one, and tapped it against her temple before dropping the silver strand in the magical water. She looked up to find the Doctor once again staring at her wand, thoughts definitely rushing in his mind.
"Go on", she encouraged, "Just touch the water and we'll see it from an outsider's point of view"
He did as told just as she put a finger in and they were plunged into the memory.
It was her and Verde in a lab. She was lounging in a chair and watching the green haired man's hands as he worked. The thing on the table was definitely a gun. But not the normal sort. Though you wouldn't really be able to tell from the outside. Just that it looked very futuristic for the time it was made in. The Doctor's eyes narrowed on it.
"He's making a gun", he said, voice tinged with disapproval.
Harry just laughed, "That's not a traditional gun. It's quite fun actually"
The Memory-Verde was shortly ready and picked it up to give it to Harriet. The raven-haired woman took it in her hands with barely contained excitement.
"Where do I shoot?", she asked with a manic grin.
Verde fixed his glasses to hide a smile and pointed at the opposite wall, "You shouldn't be able to burn that down"
"Oi! My Cloud Flames aren't that destructive!", she mock-scowled before turning and aiming.
The gun powered up and shot a beam of orange to the wall. It left behind a flaming oval. Harry could feel the Doctor's tenseness and wondered if it had been such a good idea to show him this one. But then the Memory-Harry shot to another place and this one had a darker tinge to it. The other oval's flaming middle dispersed to the sides just as another oval appeared next to the thing. Tenseness dissipated, leaving behind only curiosity and giddiness. The itch to try and make something.
Memory-Harry laughed and jumped to hug the scientist behind her, "You did it! You made a portal gun!"
Verde sighed in mock annoyance and awkwardly patted her back.
The memory ended and the Doctor and Harry found themselves blinking at each other in the TARDIS control room. Just as Harry predicted her friend immediately started asking questions, both about the portal gun and about the pensieve. She almost sighed in relief. Boredom countered.
Yup. Completely normal time in the TARDIS.
xXXx
"I shouldn't have brought you here", the Doctor moaned. Well, as close to moaning as he ever got.
Harry didn't even appear to hear. She was buried in a pile of books, eyes hungrily skimming over them as she read and read and read. The TARDIS had a library and there was no way she wasn't going to spend time there. Even if it cut on the Doctor's adventure time.
"Your fault for not showing it sooner", she said absently. Hermione had really rubbed off on her. And Viper. And Lal. And Verde. Everyone hardworking in her chosen family really.
xXXx
"Test thirty-six", Harry muttered as she directed her magic into the cube thingy the Doctor had made.
It started glowing a brighter and brighter golden orange. Magic filled it up and she braced herself to cast a shield in case it exploded like some of the earlier versions. Then she stopped and carefully took her magic away. Nothing happened for several seconds. The Doctor and Harry turned to each other with bright excitement and happiness in their eyes.
"It worked!", the Doctor laughed as he started flipping levers to get the cube down.
The witch bounced on her soles and laughed with before giving him a surprise hug, "We did it!"
He stiffened for a second before relaxing and grinning down at the girl. It was kind of fun to do these experiments with her.
Scratch that, really fun.
And now they had a very powerful magic cube ("Energy cube! Energy!", the Doctor protested but finally gave up on calling Harry's magic anything but that) for emergency fuel.
xXXx
"A planet with a sea full of soap bubbles!?", Harriet asked incredulously as they stepped out of the TARDIS.
"Yup!", the Doctor said cheerfully, "Welcome to the Kuplatus Sea!"
Before them was a landscape full of white bubbles that shone rainbow colors under the morning sunlight. The Time Lord was prepared for the usual gasp of wonder but heard nothing. Frowning in confusion he turned to find empty air behind him. He looked left and right, a twinge of worry in his light blue eyes.
"Harry?"
A giggle from above got him to look up at the girl lazily floating in a bubble of her own. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. That was fast. She just grinned down at him.
"I am so going to make a spell for this!"
The Doctor had a feeling he'd be roped to help with that. Especially with the maths, or arithmancy as she put it. Not that he really minded anymore. Did he even mind to begin with? He wasn't sure.
Then they found out someone was making illegal weapons out of some exploding bubbles and put a stop to the whole thing.
xXXx
They stared at the giant Statue of Liberty on a deserted asteroid used for deforming things and looked to each other in unison. Both steel blue and emerald green pairs of eyes were wide with fascinated horror. It was very very good they had decided to test this one somewhere it wouldn't hurt anyone even accidentally. Except maybe them but they had shields for that. Powerful shields accelerated with a rune circle, magic, and the more 'normal' scientific methods.
Just as the other rune circle they'd just activated. Though with that technology was the one to amplify the effects.
Still. This had to be verbalized.
"Did we just… Transfigure an entire mountain within a second?", Harry almost couldn't believe her words. Except she'd seen it.
The Doctor nodded slowly, "We did"
They stared at the statue for a moment longer.
"It can't stay here", the Time Lord noted.
Another silent second. Then Harry's quiet question.
"Should we do the same with a Bombarda Maxima?"
Some time later they were staring at a crater full of metal debris.
"...We are terrifying", Harry commented feeling a bit detached from the moment.
"...Can't argue with that"
They walked back to the TARDIS with this information weighing heavily on their minds. Then Harry started chuckling.
"Imagine what would've happened with a Bubble-Producing Spell"
The Doctor paused, imagining the giant cloud of unburstable multicolored bubbles, and started laughing too. They'd have given kids a giant playing ground. Yeah, they were terrifying. But at least they were the good kind of terrifying.
xXXx
"You can teleport!?"
"It's called apparition"
"You can teleport! And you tell me now!?"
"Didn't come up"
The Doctor grumbled under his breath as the witch calmly turned her just acquired key to their triple deadlocked cell. One day he was going to figure this girl out. One day.
"…Would this be the wrong time to say I have more than one way to do it?"
He looked up at the ceiling and tried to be patient.
One day.
"Seriously, we need a way to open a double or triple deadlock without me pulling extreme measures. Like blowing it up"
And he was back to conversing as they escaped.
"I'm surprised you can open a deadlock. What was the incantation again?"
"Alohomora. Learned it at eleven-years-old"
"Right. We're scanning it back at the TARDIS"
"Okay. We should also check out Aberto, Cistem Aperio and Dissendium"
The Doctor almost groaned at the words that sounded like they might be for opening different things. One day.
xXXx