Chapter 12

"So what do you think?"

Hermione looked at Harry as they walked around the homestead.

"What am I supposed to think Harry. It's a house."

"It's an estate, a homestead and significant land," he said gesturing around the newly constructed or rebuilt buildings, Hermione wasn't sure which.

She wasn't going to admit it to Harry but she didn't know much about where they were, close to Land's End, but that was about it.

"We're in Porthcurno, or somewhere close to it." Hermione glared at his answering her unspoken question..

"Where's Ginny? I thought she'd be…enthused to spend some time with you, I haven't heard much of you since New Year's Eve. When you stood me up."

"I was fighting aliens!" Harry said stuffing his hands into his jacket.

"And Ginny?" Hermione asked; concerned, crossing the short distance between them to gage her friend's expression.

It was a pained, annoyed expression.

Flashback - 1st January 2000

Ginny appeared on the balcony of Harry's apartment, his note crumpled in her hand. 'I'm at my apartment. You drank a lot. I thought it best not to wake you.' She remembered why she had drunk so much, just those two words 'alien blood' had frightened and scared her more than anything she had experienced, that those words, with such conviction had come out of her boyfr-, out of Harry's mouth, she couldn't understand it.

Aliens were something that muggles made up to explain magic, her father was often telling her about incidents in the ministry.

There were even some wizards who believed in 'aliens'. A chill ran down her back, just at the thought of them. Mum spoke about it once or twice, but no one ever really talked about them.

They didn't even bother with St. Mungo's. Usually there wasn't anything that could be done for them, often they left the wizarding world and went off and 'became' squibs.

There was no such thing as aliens, everyone knew that. Except muggles, but that was magic.

She had thought Harry knew that as well, Hermione had never mentioned she thought aliens were real. She thought Hermione knew better, more than that, she could recall telling Hermione about crop circles and how they were created and that quaffles were what muggles thought of as UFO, Hermione had said it stood for 'Unidentified Flying Object', at least muggles had got that right.

But aliens…no wizards no sane wizards even entertained the idea.

Ginny took a breath and knocked on the sliding door. Harry had asked her not to apparate into his apartment, which was why she was knocking on the door outside.

Inside she saw Harry look up and say loudly. "Come in, it's open!" With a smile.

Ginny twisted the note she had in her hands into a tighter knot and stepped in.

"I think we need to talk," she began as she looked over at her bo-at Harry as he walked over to the kitchen area, seemingly making some tea.

"Yes, we probably do," he said with a smile. "Is it about my shoes?"

"Your shoes?" She repeated.

"Yes, the projectile vomiting on my shoes," he paused and then added. "Though they're more boot than shoe I suppose."

"No," she said anger building within her as she started twisting the note in her hands again.

"I quite liked my shoes. Good thing they're water proof," He continued with a smile.

"No it's…" He cut her off again.

"Or was it when you were clawing at my pants and slurring something about blood?" He wondered.

"It's…" She started again, twisting the note further in her hands.

"Not that I didn't think that was a bit odd, but you were drinking a lot of shots," Harry continued with a smile, he placed a steaming cup in front of her.

"All I said was that it was alien blood. You…" She held up her hand.

"There's no such thing as aliens Harry!" Ginny almost shouted.

He blinked. "Of course there are."

"No, no there aren't, that's just muggles." She shook her head.

Present…

"And then what?" Hermione asked. They were sitting in a courtyard that was shielded from the wind, the sun keeping them relatively warm. Harry had somehow produced a thermos of tea from a pocket, made to Harry's unique preference black with something like a spoonful of milk giving it a deep dark colour that wasn't quite black tea.

Harry took a sip and sighed. "Then she told me I was lying about aliens, I showed her my pants." Hermione made a face.

"I was in the middle of washing them, trying to get the blood out, it was rather viscous," he explained as she looked at him.

"Then…?" Hermione prompted.

"She said it was some potion or something," he paused. "Then she called me insane, I said she was being close minded. She accused me of being delusional," he sighed again. "I showed her the device I used on Ron."

"The one that healed him after" She paused and looked at Harry. "After what happened at the Ministry?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"And. I can see that wasn't of human or at least human-now origin," she said.

Harry nodded. "Then she said I was being a stupid muggle."

"Oh," Hermione said.

"And I said I was, that at least some muggles believed in aliens," he continued.

"Oh." Hermione said again, looking into her tea frowning into its murky contents.

"Then she said only the 'deranged believed in aliens'," he quoted gesturing in with his hands air quotes.

"Okay," Hermione said slowly, unsure what to say, but saying something seemed right.

"And I said that deranged and insane basically meant the same thing."

Hermione stared at him. Harry shrugged. "I thought it would lighten the mood."

"You thought it would lighten the mood," Hermione repeated.

"Repeating what I'm saying isn't helping Hermione," Harry said giving her a look.

Hermione sighed and made a 'go on motion' with her hand as she drained her cup.

"Then she made to grab the device and told me that to give her anything else, that she was going to get me 'cleared up'," he finished giving Hermione a look.

"That makes it sound like a…" She trailed off as she thought about it. "Like a drug addiction or something. I guess you didn't take to that idea did you? Considering who gave you that, and the other things?"

Harry shook his head. "He's been a friend to me for a long time Hermione, I wasn't going to let her destroy things like that over…I don't know what…" He sighed.

"Did her 'legendary temper' flare up?" Hermione asked.

"Ron's said something about that has he?" Harry smiled, Hermione looked over at her friend, it was a ghost of his true smile. "She then shouted at me to give it to her. I told her no. She drew her wand on me. Her wand. On me," he sighed.

"I thought you'd be used to that by now Harry?" Hermione asked lightly.

Harry nodded slowly. Perhaps duplicity was a Weasley trait, he kept that thought to himself though.

"Then I asked her to leave. She kept pointing her wand at me and tried to levitate the device to her. I may have sworn at that point and grabbed it back and put it in the cupboard with my tea. Then she swore at me, called me some things."

Hermione opened her mouth to ask what things, but it was a bitter look on Harry's face that stopped her. "Then she said 'Don't you ever come after me Harry Potter' and she disapparated."

"Oh. I'm so sorry Harry," Hermione on impulse threw her arms around him drawing him into a hug.

Harry hugged her back and for a moment was quiet and then said. "I just…I just wasn't expecting the reaction I got."

"What?" Hermione drew back looking at him.

"Howlers, a lot of them." He shook his head. "You did Muggle Studies."

"For a year," she countered.

"While using a time turner." She glared at him.

"Hey what's the glare for?" Hermione just shook her head. "You're the friend with a time traveller, you could have told me!" She exclaimed.

"I…I…" Harry just sighed shaking his head smiling.

Hermione handed him back her cup and crossed her arms. "Well?"

"Was there anything in it about aliens or why Ginny was…" He trailed off.

"Was a little mad?" Hermione offered diplomatically.

"I was going for bat shit crazy Hermione, you didn't have to sit through the howlers, one exploded, I had to get the glazers in to replace the windows."

"Oh Harry I'm…glazers?" She asked suddenly.

"The windows on the apartment, I don't think my rental agreement covers howler explosion," Harry took a breath. "I actually found her craziness enduring, some of the time," he said in a moment of reflection.

"Are they still coming?" Hermione asked after a while, listening to the wind around them.

"No. Tenacity is something else I liked about Ginny you know, two months of letters, howlers and her popping in once or twice. The crazy…" Harry swore under his breath.

"Language," Hermione intercepted. "There's a lady present."

"Sorry Mistress," he replied sarcastically. Hermione hit him lightly on his arm.

"You wound me my lady." Hermione glared at him. "Just promise me you'll never do anything like that."

"I don't think you and I will ever be like that Harry, in any case you don't have any bombshells to drop on me," Hermione said.

"In an alternate universe I'm married to a half-Veela Draco Malfoy and he's had my babies," he said after a moment.

Hermione coughed and then blinked and then swore.

"Language." Harry smirked.

"Language my arse Harry Potter, what did you just say?" She demanded.

"In an alternate universe I'm…" He began.

Hermione waved her hand to stop him. "No I heard it the first time. This is what you talked about with the Doctor, that last time?"

He nodded. "I asked him about alternate stuff. It's amusing don't you think all these alternate versions of yourself out there…"

"How would that even work?" Hermione decried after a moment of thought and a shudder, probably at too much thought of the intricacies of it.

"-ucked if I know." Harry said, his words stolen as a car horn alerted them to its presence. "That'll be the agent," he said getting up.

"Agent?" Hermione asked.

"Final walk around before I sign the papers."

"You're buying this place?" She asked surprised.

Harry grinned and nodded.

-/ - \\-

Hermione leaned back against the tree, it was nice, having a peaceful day with a friend. Harry had extracted a picnic basket from his car, obviously Harry couldn't be simple and apparate, that was too boring for him. Admittedly she appreciated 'muggle' forms of transport also, though being able to apparate did mean she could leave her rooms just before her classes.

"How is your study going by the way?" Hermione looked sharply over to him and wondered how he had known she was thinking about that, or it could just have been that was what they'd been chatting about in a general sort of way.

Hermione's shoulders slumped. "It's been hard," She admitted after a while. "Cramming my A Level study and testing as well as my NEWTS, it was hard."

"Least you got some paperwork from the Ministry to help along the way," he offered.

"You wouldn't believe the paperwork, bureaucracy at its most pathetic." But she was doing something she wanted to do. Not stuck in some meaningless job in the Ministry. She was pursuing something interesting, something fascinating.

Harry started to repack the basket with the empty plates and the blanket they'd been sitting on.

"But you're enjoying it?" He asked.

Hermione thought for a moment, it was hard, difficult and challenging. But yes, she was enjoying it. "Yes."

"What about you Harry, you've been saying you've got an idea. Now you've got all this what are you doing?" Hermione asked as they reached his car.

"Well…" Harry began.

Hermione leaned back into the racing seats of Harry's car a McLaren F1 he had said with a grin, she made a mental note to look it up on the internet when she got back to the university.

His idea was as large as it was localised, and tied into what he'd experienced so far. As he'd said "After New Year's Eve I realised what was needed. That they can't go everywhere." But…

"How are you going to pay for it?" She blurted out after some silence.

"That's been my thought, I'm going to hit the government up for some money."

Hermione snorted. "Good luck…especially given…" She trailed off, not wanting to say Ginny's name, if that was how wizards reacted to the idea of aliens. It would be an interesting research topic, if she could publish it somewhere that people might appreciate the historical analysis.

"Hermione…?" She shook her head.

"Sorry Harry, caught in thought. What did you say?" Hermione queried.

"I'm going to take your path," he said.

"How's that?" She looked at him in the rear view mirror."

"Bombard them with research and information and hope they'll give me some money to get rid of me," he explained.

It was a good thing glares couldn't kill Harry smirked to himself and decided not to look in the rear view mirror for a while.

Though Harry thought to himself, he would also use the Doctor and Master's method, devious confusion, in equal measure.

-/ - \\-

He walked through the Ministry, he even had a reason to be there, with papers and everything.

He still hated the praise and fawning that everyone felt they need to show him.

He really wished they wouldn't.

In fact as he stepped into the lift and jabbed the button for the Minister's office he really, really wished they wouldn't stare, even the letters seemed to be looking at him.

Or he could just be being paranoid.

"The Minister will see you now Mr Potter."

Harry entered the office, it was much like other offices in the Ministry, just with a larger desk, filled with various scrolls, and of course there was the Minister, who was actually working behind said desk.

"Mr Potter," he greeted,

"Minister." Minister Shacklebolt gestured the chair opposite the desk.

"Your letter was rather oblique. What is it you wanted to see me about Mr Potter?"

"I'd like to speak to you about an issue, which you may or may not have noticed has been increasing in the muggle and wizarding worlds," Harry began.

"That is?" The Minister asked leaning back against his chair studying the young man with the piercing green eyes. He was sitting calmly in the chair, yet still held himself with a degree of tension, tension from the numerous battles the young man had fought. Plus there was the surviving the killing curse, twice. Kingsley considered that Harry Potter would never live down; having killed Tom Marvolo Riddle; Lord Voldemort.

"You worked for the muggle Prime Minister didn't you Minister?" Potter queried curiously.

"Yes Mr Potter. I did for a time," he said in a neutral tone.

"Did you ever hear mention of the United Nations?" Potter continued in the same curious tone.

"On occasion." The Minister looked at Potter, wondering where he was going. The dance of politics was something he was slowly getting used to, but Potter was being oddly cryptic, more so than he expected from him.

"What about UNIT?" Potter asked curiously.

Kingsley didn't betray any knowledge, but he knew that Potter knew what UNIT was. He only had brief contact with the UNIT people, muggle military that dealt with 'other things', things best left alone.

"How about Torchwood?" Potter asked again and smiled as he tensed.

"What is it you know Mr Potter?" He asked, continuing his level tone.

"Probably more than you do Minister, more than people want to know…" A slight pained expression was across his features for a moment.

"Mr Potter?" Kingsley wondered.

"Aliens, Minister," Potter said with a weight and knowledge few in the wizarding world used with regard to that word.

"Aliens," he repeated, a tightness in his voice, his hand hovering over his wand, a wand he used more for paperwork than any major spell use. Only the 'truly befuddled' started to speak of aliens and mean it. Torchwood, UNIT, they all liked to pretend they knew about aliens, but he always was told to know that it was magic.

Potter was leaning back in the chair, a calculating expression on his face.

"Please Minister, be reasonable." Potter's eyes flicked across to where his hand was poised over his wand.

Kingsley moved his hand away from his wand. "Mr Potter, I think you should leave, before…"

"Before I say the A word again?" Potter opened the bag he had brought in with him and grabbed a flat muggle folder and pushed it across the table.

"What's this?" He asked opening it with his left hand, keeping his right hovering over his wand.

"Evidence of non-terrestrial bugs attacking a magical community in Wales, they were eliminated on New Year's Eve, 1999," he explained.

Kingsley felt a chill go down his back, he had read a report of attacks from Magical Law Enforcement, but they didn't find anything, they put it down to random attacks brought on by holiday revellers, people conjuring out of control beasts, or something. He hadn't given it a second thought.

There were photos, muggle photos, he shook one to be sure.

"This isn't the first time either," was all Potter said as he removed similar folders, with more information. "Some of these just affected Muggles, but wizards have often gotten caught as well."

-/

Harry watched the Minister as he removed more and more proof out of his bag, said bag was given him to a person the Minister probably didn't want to exist.

"Where did you get all this information?" Shacklebolt, Minister Shacklebolt asked in a tight voice.

"A lot of it from Muggle research, freedom of information and all that. Headmistress McGonagall was nice enough to allow me to pop in to use the Hogwarts library to research some older things, the Prophet was surprisingly useful back in the day."

Kingsley wanted to take his wand and stun Potter, though considering how relaxed Potter was he wasn't sure what Potter would do.

That said often wizards who started ranting about aliens left the world quietly, they soon learned they were delusional.

But Potter didn't seem to be delusional, Potter seemed to be very sure about what he was saying.

That was what was worrying him, but everything in front of him could have been fabricated. He'd seen Magical Law Enforcement come up with some convincing documents to enforce a memory modification if the individual was particularly quarrelsome.

Potter was still sitting relaxed in his chair. "Still not convinced?"

Then he removed the creature from his unfeasibly small bag and hauled it into his desk, crushing several scrolls in the process. He had to shove his chair back.

The speed at which Potter had done this was interesting.

-/

Harry smiled, coolly as he stood at the desk. "Wrapped and packed for you minister."

"What…what…is it…?" Kingsley stuttered.

"An alien." Harry said simply.

"A…." He stuttered.

"A dead one," Harry added.

Kingsley sat back down into his chair, it was pushed up against the wall, where he wanted to stay.

"Put it away," he said keeping his voice level.

"Don't you want to take a look? Poke him?" Potter asked in a hurt tone as he poked the plastic covered alien.

"Put it away!" He said in a louder tone.

Potter smirked, Kingsley fancied that Potter was enjoying this display of a wrong thing, a thing that didn't exist. "Very well."

When the…when the object was gone Kingsley regarded Potter for several moments.

Potter didn't seem aware of what he was doing, what he was saying, what could happen to him if…if he sent off a letter or fire called an emergency word.

"What do you want?" Kingsley said eventually.

"Funny you should ask." Potter smiled at him, Kingsley was reminded of a kneazle grinning at its prey.

Kingsley tensed as Potter withdrew another folder from his bag.

It took him several minutes to read the proposal.

"You want money?" He asked incredulously. Potter inclined his head. "You could work within the Ministry." He started.

Potter snorted. "You were ready to lynch me Minister."

"So what is this?" Kingsley gestured at the folder.

"An independent group. Funded partially by the Ministry," Potter explained.

"And that's it the Ministry pays this and what, you won't…" He trailed off.

"Annually," Potter added.

Kingsley stared at him, Potter stared back and nodded.

"Why should I trust you Potter, you are after all a mad man," his hand still close enough to his wand to stun him, even if he was fast, Kingsley had training.

"That's what previous Ministers said Minister, look how they turned out," Potter's tone suddenly went from cool to icy.

"Is that a threat Mr Potter?" He asked watching the younger man carefully.

"No," Potter briefly smiled. "But to answer your question. You should trust me because I know about aliens, and what's more I'm willing to do something about it."

"Or you could be trying to swindle the Ministry out of money Mr Potter. You're not the first one." It sounded like a joke, but it wasn't. Bribery and blackmail was still rife despite the changes he was slowly implementing.

"But I would hazard a guess that I am the first one to bring detailed proof including a non-terrestrial life form into your office," Potter mused.

"Non-terrestrial?" Kingsley frowned at the term.

"Alien," Potter raised an eyebrow as Kingsley grabbed his wand levelling it at him.

"I could have you removed Potter," Kingsley said carefully.

Potter seemed unfazed by the wand being pointed at him, and just stared past it, meeting his gaze for a moment. "You worked in the muggle Prime Minister's office Minister, I'm sure you overheard things, unbelievable things," he began slowly. "Britain's got Torchwood, the UN has UNIT, what have we got?" Then he smiled at him. "Even if I am delusional, can you take the chance that a delusion might become real?"

-/ - \\-

A/N:

Minor update done March 2021.

I hadn't plotted out the main parts of this chapter before I started writing it. But when I started to think about Harry and Ginny being together or rather not together.

And it's the not working that kinda lead me here.

In an abstract way I kinda came to the concept of aliens, I haven't actually mentioned them specifically all that many times, with other (wizarding world raised) wizards around. Hermione and Harry were muggle raised (plus Harry's known the Doctor and the Master).

But it was this idea that came to me about how wizards might react to the concept of aliens, or the belief in the concept of aliens.

The wizarding community is often shown as a microcosm of the 'real world', intensified and enhanced. It struck me that the most weird person with the oddest ideas was Luna, but she was still accepted within the world, everyone thought she was a bit odd, but there was no real ostracisation, no attempts to change behaviour.

Which meant for me there was something worse than what Luna believed in, something so taboo that it would…totally pull apart relationships.

The concept of aliens has only been touched on as the examples in this chapter, crop circles and an escaped quaffle as a UFO (which is mentioned somewhere in the books).

Given how the wizarding community reacts to various 'other' elements I think it would be relatively reasonable for the wizarding community to react as Ginny does upon encountering people who believe strongly in the existence of aliens. Ginny is the rule rather than the exception.

After all, there's been plenty of alien incursions on Earth (and in London especially) and most regular people don't believe in aliens (even before 2005 there were plenty of alien incursions in England) and the wizarding world is smaller with less cultural influences to draw upon to influence how they'd deal with aliens.

Ginny will probably return (sorry Ginny haters). But it's going to be a very long road for Ginny.

Thanks for reading.