Yay! Another chapter out. It was fun to write. Hopefully it's as much fun to read.

Of Anniversary Bombs and Icy Stars

A year. Harry had been with him about a year…

Well, a little less. Because if he got it right, today was her sixty-third birthday. He had checked about a month ago that she had been summoned on 14th August 2042. History in her world went a lot differently from 2006 onwards. Mainly because there were no aliens. Recorded ones at least. Mythical creatures were the thing there.

Yeah, they'd compared notes once or twice.

But anyway. Today was Harriet's birthday. Human's celebrated birthdays, right? At least they cared about age more than Time Lords did… And he knew Harry was having trouble tracking time inside the TARDIS like all of the humans he had traveled with. She had tried to use a spell called Tempus in the Vortex. Apparently it was supposed to tell the time ("We can't all have a natural time sense, can we?", Harry had commented).

Harry thought it had gone haywire because it had looked like twisting smoke and tendrils instead of the clock or numbers it was supposed to. The Doctor had just stared because he could feel time twisting with the smoke, tendrils, and the web of stuff. In the Vortex, the spell showed time. Literally. It was incredible. Brilliant even. But not very useful except maybe if someone who wasn't a Time Lord tried piloting the TARDIS.

That had been a strange thought and he was a bit scared that he hadn't immediately dismissed the idea of teaching her sometime.

He was getting sidetracked. Today was Harry's birthday so he would do something special. What did she like? Hmm… Flying with that broom of hers. Adrenaline rushes. Learning. Reading and experimenting with new stuff. New stuff in general.

Oh… There was an idea!

"Harry!", he called out into the TARDIS' corridors, "Come here!"

There was a sound of something crashing that he pointedly didn't think about as well as the sound of her near-silent footfalls. She rushed into the console room, a worried look on her face.

"What happened? Are we going somewhere?"

He gave her a cheeky grin, "Happy birthday!"

It was very satisfying to watch her eyes widen and her mouth go slightly slack. She wasn't surprised often. Then her expression turned from shocked to slightly sad and wistful. Maybe also a little guilty. He frowned. That wasn't what he wanted. Why was she- Oh.

Oh. This was the first birthday out of her own universe. And she had ignored the fact that time went by even in a time machine. That her universe was going on without her and she went on without her universe. Guilt about the fact she was managing, that she was happy, out of her homeworld.

He recognized it from the moments he spent thinking about Gallifrey. Of all the lives he had ended and thought what right he had to be happy at all. Exhaling softly he went over to his friend and placed hands on her shoulders. She looked up, clearly feeling lost. His eyes conveyed understanding and sympathy.

They stayed like that for a moment before Harry brought a hand up to cover his, a small smile tugging at her mouth. It was a clear thank you.

"So I'm sixty-three now", she stated, "How'd you figure?"

The Doctor grinned, releasing her, "Time Lord"

She rolled her eyes. Figures. Still, she was smiling.

"What have you got planned, Doc?"

Her friend mock-scowled at the nickname before turning to the console and flipping switches. He almost danced while operating his TARDIS. Harry watched on fondly.

"Have you ever tried street racing?", he asked with a wide grin.

She shook her head, "Broom racing only. But I do know how to drive"

His grin didn't let up an inch, "Think about mountains. A range that has many different sized and shaped rocks. Some that float because of gravity altering. An obstacle course like that", he pushed down a lever, "And then think of a flying race car"

Harry's eyes were sparkling as the TARDIS moved. A race. With flying cars. Oh, that sounded like her thing. She held onto the railing, the room shaking violently before stopping with the familiar wheezing sounds.

"Well, they're not really cars. More like mini spaceships that only fly on-planet", the Doctor clarified as he parked the time machine.

Then he moved towards the doors and opened them to a view of tall different colored mountains that twisted almost unnaturally into all kinds of different shapes. Harry gasped in awe as she stepped out. There was a hangar almost right next to them, presumably for loaning the flying race car things, and her head whipped around as the supposed racing vehicles flew overhead, all brightly colored with a sharp metallic tinge. The girl turned to the Doctor with a wide grin of her own.

"I'm going to learn how to fly those things?"

"They're called rechoes", he turned to her with smirk, "And yes. I'm going to teach you"

Without warning she jumped up to hug him. The Doctor was momentarily surprised before hugging back. It was a brief hug and she immediately stepped back to grin at him.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!", she repeated, almost hopping in place excitedly, "Race you to that hangar thingy"

The Doctor was about to protest as she rushed off at… not nearly at full speed. He had seen her move full speed with those Flames of hers and that was supernatural speeds for a human. She also threw her hair up in its signature curly-messy ponytail that left her bangs at the sides. Everytime she needed them not-in-the-way she did that. Huffing out a short laugh he locked the TARDIS before running after her. Honestly, he hadn't anticipated that much enthusiasm. It was nice though. He'd chosen this birthday trip correctly.

And he was also looking forward to flying a recho himself. It shouldn't be too hard to figure them out.

(Harry would later just shake her head at him in amazement as he admitted to never seeing one of the things before and still managing to teach her how to fly one. The Doctor would just watch her perform death-defying stunts through and around the mountains and muttered that of course she would be a natural flier. They had an amazing day with no trouble, surprisingly. It had been quite a while since they last needed to save the universe or something…)

xXXx

Harry lounged on the jump seat and watched the Doctor take things apart and put them back together for the third time in an hour. He was bored. He was definitely bored. She knew the feeling. Her eyes skimmed over the book that was on her lap but the words didn't register. A good sign of utter dullness. So why weren't they doing anything?

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, please let's just go somewhere!", she pleaded flopping sideways on the seat, "We're both bored"

The Doctor looked to her in surprise.

"I thought you were reading"

She stared at him, "I was waiting for you to stop fixing stuff that doesn't need fixing!"

"I was waiting for you to finish your book!"

A moment of silence. Then they just laughed and prepared for travel. Which was basically just setting the coordinates and making sure they had the sonic screwdriver and Harry had her pouch of emergency stuff. Like some potions, a portable swamp, and some tools for fixing or building things she couldn't with a wand. For example, anything electronic. Plus she had her mini cauldron and the included ingredients.

The handbag itself was Hermione's. The one they had used while on the run.

"Where to, Doctor?", she asked, fastening the pouch on her dragon scale belt.

Nowadays her normal attire included form-fitting flexible but durable pants, jean shorts for the belt, combat boots, an 'armor tank top' that was charmed unbreakable, her necklace with her broom and TARDIS key, and an open hoodie with the same spell. All equipped with a slight notice-me-not or perception filter to avoid attention. It wouldn't do to seem inappropriately dressed for whatever place they stumbled into.

The Doctor muttered that she had 'psychic clothes', ones that make people see what they expect to see. She had offered to charm his too. He just said that the TARDIS already did it for him and would do it for her too. Thought it wasn't that powerful and wouldn't stand closer inspection.

She still preferred her own way but if the TARDIS gave extra protection against sharp minds she was grateful.

The Doctor was grinning.

"I set her to random!"

Harry felt her brow twitch. Random was… random and thus the Doctor's absolute favorite. They used it when he didn't have a mad idea and Harry couldn't come up with one. Last time they had ended up at the bottom of a swamp with what amounted to deadly giant mosquitoes. It had been scary, fun, and absolutely horrendous. She had been smelling like dirty socks for three days after.

Well, random was also fun and exciting. So she couldn't really complain.

Her mouth quirked into a smile as she sighed theatrically.

"Oh great. Try to avoid smelly or crazy places, please"

"You know I can't. It's random"

And he stated the TARDIS up, flinging them out of the Vortex. Harry cheered and cast Tempus, which she could do wandlessly now 'cause time travel and it was useful. It was always mesmerizing to watch the glowing smoke of gold twist and turn, bringing up unimaginable shapes and beauty. With a bit of mathematical trial and error, shift in intent, and the Doctor's brilliant mind they had managed to reverse engineer it to show the date and year too. In Earth years of course.

Experiments were so very fun to do with the Doctor. She knew he enjoyed it too.

They came to a stop with a lurch and she tightened her grip on the railing to keep standing. The TARDIS was getting better. There wasn't nearly as much shaking as there had been when she had first met the Doctor. The song in her mind was happier too. Sometimes she wondered if the beautiful ship had come to the red desert planet on purpose to get her to travel with them. She wouldn't put it past her.

Harry and the Doctor traded an excited glance before each grabbing a door and flinging them open. What greeted them was cold. And an absolutely breathtaking view. It was a star. Not particularly bright but not really dim either. Harry slammed her eyes shut in fear of damaging them, even if they would heal eventually. Like any other injury she sustained.

If it didn't they still went away the next time she died.

"Harry, it's okay. The TARDIS protects us. Look!", the Doctor assured her and she cautiously opened her eyes again.

It was truly breathtaking. Even if she was trembling from the cold. The star shone with what seemed like a thousand different colors. Clouds of… something shiny and glittering was shooting out of it in waves, slowly making their way through space. Her sense of perception was thrown as she gazed out on it, open-mouthed. Swirls of shining rainbow colors. Light vibrating in a way that left her mesmerized and breathless.

"It's…", she couldn't get the words out. There weren't words that could describe this accurately. Just… beautiful.

The Doctor didn't say anything, he just stared out at the star before turning to Harriet. Her awe was plain on her face, emerald eyes and the lenses of her glasses shimmering with colors shining from the star. Shoulders relaxed, jaw slightly slack, hands clasped together in front of her heart. Her messy raven-hair also reflected the kaleidoscope of glimmering lights in front of them. She was beautiful, he noted.

And… trembling?

His eyes widened slightly as he noticed that it was cold, way colder than a human should be subjected to without protection. He was feeling it and Time Lords were naturally of a slightly lower temperature.

He quickly pushed the doors shut and pulled his friend away, rubbing his hands up and down her arms to get the warmth back. Harriet let out a chuckle. It had a slightly awed tone as she still reeled from the sight she had seen.

"That was just… Thank you, Doctor. For taking me with you", she said, slightly breathless and still shaking.

He paused, momentarily surprised, before taking her hands and rubbing them to get the blood flowing properly.

"You're welcome…", he cleared his throat a little in slight embarrassment, "You could've said you were freezing. Literally!"

"Freezing? …Oh"

The Doctor didn't know whether to laugh or stare incredulously. He settled on being thoroughly exasperated. Usually, she was so observant but now… Harry still managed to surprise him sometimes… That must be some sort of record. How many times had he been surprised within a year before? By the same person no less?

"...Why was it so cold? I mean, we've opened the doors to space before and it was just slightly chilly. And aren't stars supposed to be hot up close?"

And always asking the right questions.

"Because we've stumbled across an ice star. Fascinating. I've only read about those. No one said they were so beautiful"

Her eyes went wide. It reminded him of an owl. Must be her glasses making them seem bigger.

"Ice star? How does that even work?"

The Doctor stopped rubbing her hands and went to the TARDIS console, adjusting some buttons and then guiding Harry to the jump seat. It suddenly heated up slightly and the girl sighed in relief, warmth spreading pleasantly to her body.

"Think of it like a glowstick. It produces light without heat. This one has a bigger reaction, and more reactions, and thus it's brighter. Now, space is like a freezer. One at minus 270 degrees Celsius. And lots of gasses get liquified and freeze and the light dims", he dug around the console and pulled out a blanket that he draped over Harriet, "That means it glows less but longer, and since reactions are happening all over the star with crystallized structures moving about? The kaleidoscope of light and an effect of the glow shifting places"

He paused and thought for a minute.

"As for why it was so cold inside the TARDIS when space temperature is almost at the limit of possible coldness and she can easily withstand that… Must have been very, very small ice crystals flowing in. That star emits them in waves"

Harry gave a happy hum, "You're good at this lecturing thing"

The Doctor grinned down at her and ruffled her already much warmer hair that was the slightest bit damp, proving his theory. There definitely had been small ice crystals coming in. Now he only had to determine if the liquid was dangerous or not. Though he was pretty sure it wasn't.

Scanners showed that nope, it was just a normal liquid amongst these parts. Nothing dangerous. Though…

He stiffened, reading further, then started pressing buttons to get a clear picture of something floating towards the star.

Harry gasped. It looked like a metal disc with a countdown. The TARDIS translated it into minutes and seconds. 14 minutes and 28 seconds.

"It's a bomb. A time bomb. If that star is destroyed all the planets orbiting it will definitely shatter", the Doctor muttered, thinking furiously, "It's not supposed to be here. The war is going on about a hundred light years away"

The witch was up in an instant, clutching the blanket and brows furrowed in worry and concentration.

"Can you defuse it?", she asked.

"Yes, but I'd have to get closer. The TARDIS can't really lock on to it. Time and space suddenly shifting around it will definitely set it off. It's timed"

"Okay… Would bringing it closer do the same?"

"No, we're here and part of events. But how would-?"

"Will magic set it off? Or sharp movements?"

"I- It shouldn't. You can bring it here?", the Doctor looked to his friend with furrowed brows.

She nodded, "Just by opening the doors"

He stared at her for a second before pushing a lever up and a button down.

"There. Now the ice can't get in", he stated before they both went to the doors.

He flung them open as Harry readied her Holly wand, imagining the bomb clearly and then cast the spell. It was an object that she had never seen before and was very very far away. This would be tricky, so incantation it was.

"Accio!", she shouted and let her magic shoot forward.

At first, it looked like nothing happened. Then, about thirty seconds later, they saw the disc hurtling towards them. In a minute the bomb was almost there. It took two minutes for it to come to a stop right in front of them outside the TARDIS' doors. The timer said 11 minutes.

"Quick! I need tools…", the Doctor took the explosive gingerly and placed it on the floor before rushing off towards a corridor.

Harry went with him and they crashed into a room with lots of stuff. It was messy. Far from organized. They would never find the things in time.

"Harry, can you summon them?"

She shook her head sharply, "I have to visualize the object for it to work and I haven't the faintest idea what you're looking for"

The Doctor frowned. There really wasn't enough time to search for stuff. Even less to defuse it with what they would find. Hard pressed for time. This was a tricky situation. Maybe if… But Harry didn't know what it looked like. Well, he'd just have to tell her.

"I need an implosion", he muttered before taking Harriet by her shoulders and describing the machine, "It's about the size of my forearm, silver, shaped like a banana-"

"Not helping. I have to see it first!", Harry exclaimed before she turned thoughtful, "You're telepathic, aren't you? Can't you… I dunno, plant the image in my mind?"

He stared at her for a full second before whispering, "...You'd trust me in your mind?"

She seemed to pause to think about it before nodding slowly, "I would. Do it!"

With the time limit, he didn't stop to argue or think about the implications. Harry had told him about Voldemort and the mental violations she had endured as a teen. He reached for her temple, both closing their eyes as he carefully touched the surface of her lowering shields. Both gasped as something… snapped into place. A bond of some sort. They didn't really have time to examine it.

She felt… warm. And golden. Like a glow of gold that encompassed all of her. She cared. She really cared about him. Her mind unconsciously reached for his and caressed, brushing a strand of sadness and loneliness away.

It had been such a long time since he felt anything there. The empty place at the back of his mind once again filled for a moment, if just a little. He didn't want it to go away.

Still, he concentrated and sent the image of what he wanted to Harriet. She gently withdrew with a grateful nod and opened her eyes to watch his. Smiling slightly she reached up and took his hand in silent support. Then she turned towards the room, wand already in hand and waving. This time she didn't even need the incantation. The machine he needed stopped right in front of him and he grinned. That was very useful.

Then they ran back to the bomb, the Doctor immediately getting to work. There were only four minutes left.

"That will work, right?", Harry asked worriedly.

"Yeah. It'll create an implosion exactly the size of this explosion the moment the count is zero. I'll leave it outside the TARDIS just to be sure", he explained as he set the timer of the device exactly like the countdown.

He could feel Harry's mind even now. That was strange and new. Like both were just a single step away from being connected, from forming a bond that was permanent. Almost how he had always felt the other Time Lords, as just a mass of silent voices at the back of his mind. Though this felt… safer. Like nothing would be able to break it.

He was afraid of the part of him that wanted that connection. That craved to feel something instead of this mass of… loneliness. This empty space-like vacuum that screamed its need to have someone there.

Ignoring that for now he took the bomb gingerly before setting it outside and closing the TARDIS' doors. They waited tensely and watched through the screen at the console. A minute. Thirty seconds. Ten. Five. Harry grabbed the Doctor's hand. Three. Two.

One.

There was a flash of light, a slight shaking, and then silent. The bomb and the machine were gone. Harry let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Then a wide smile spread across her lips and she launched herself at her friend.

"You did it!", she laughed in relief, "You saved the star!"

He hugged her and spun around once, ecstatic at her happiness. Then he set her down and looked into her eyes seriously. He could feel the itching of a bond trying to connect at the back of his head. It would go away in a few hours if they didn't do something about it. She was looking up at him with a small and slightly sad and wistful smile.

"I wouldn't mind", she said, startling him, "I wouldn't mind being connected to you"

The Doctor was frozen in place, thinking furiously at what this might mean. He didn't want to be alone. But his mind was a dark place. She wouldn't know what she was talking about. And this felt… permanent. If she noticed she didn't like it she would still be connected to him and-

A clap stopped his train of thought.

"Hey! Stop worrying", her smile was still in place, "I told you that I was connected to my family. Flame bonds. That's what's happening here now. My Sky Flames reaching out to form another bond. But because this world has no Flames it concentrated on the telepathic link"

He was still staring frozenly at her, worry, fear, and a small spark of hope warring in his eyes. She let out a silent sigh.

"Reborn was the World's Greatest Hitman. Verde was a slightly amoral scientist. Colonello and Lal were soldiers. Fon worked as an assassin for the Triads, only somewhat against his will. I was a child soldier that got thrown into the Mafia where the strong slay the weak. We all did bad stuff and had to make hard choices because that was the world we lived in. Tsuna and I worked on changing it but that meant playing by the rules, at least a little. Do you think anything you have in your mind will scare me away? You're family, and family sticks together", she stopped her tirade to see if it had sunk in. He was still hesitant and wary. They stayed like that for a long moment.

"Whatever you choose, I will support it", she said at last, "I won't force you either way"

She gave him a reassuring smile before going to the doors and opening them to the ice star. She sat at the entrance, feet dangling into space. It was a truly beautiful view. A soft smile spread on her lips when just a minute later the Doctor joined her, dropping the blanket on her shoulders.

There was no need to talk about the possible bond. They both knew the Doctor needed to think it over. Probably many times. He might never ask or initiate it. She was okay with that. It would be his choice in the end. She had already decided. Harry would wait and if she had anything to say about it, she would stay with him as long as he lived. With or without the bond.

Right now they were content to watch the mesmerizing sight in front of them.

Together.

xXXx

That's that. Thanks for reading! Thoughts? Ideas?

Updating the chapter and checking others because italics didn't work... Sigh.