Chapter 15

Harry threw down a copy of the Hourly Telepress with some slight disgust onto the table. The adventures of the Karkus had been going down hill recently.

Outside his kitchen window it was beginning to look distinctly windy, there was also the noise of said wind, but that was so often around that he'd begun to think of it as background noise.

There didn't seem to be anything dangerous heading Earth's way in the lead up to Christmas, though he reflected it had been an interesting year thus far. Harry looked back to the Hourly Telepress on the table, tonight, despite the wind and cold outside he wasn't going to spend inside. Ioan had invited him to a midnight gathering with his friends some of whom had 'no fixed abode' supposedly they didn't like being referred to as 'gypsies', something Harry recalled Uncle Vernon calling those sorts of wondering people. From Ioan's description they sounded like they were outside the realm of traditional travellers.

Harry looked around his kitchen and wondered what one brought to a midnight gathering.

Or, he thought to himself looking out the window again what one should leave behind.

Harry shrugged his shoulders sparing one final look for his warm house and grabbed his keys and jacket, slamming the door behind him.

-/

Several kilometres away a figure sat with great difficulty on a broom and watched through a pair of Omnioculars that she had borrowed from her brother. She watched for several moments, wrinkling her nose up as the figure drove away before she too flew off home…

-/ - \\-

Flashback…9 months ago…

She stared at Hermione, she couldn't, no she could believe that she would believe in aliens.

"Ginny, you have to understand Harry's seen some things, I've seen things, there's evidence of aliens" Hermione looked at her.

Ginny cut her off. "DON'T say that word."

Hermione snorted. "It's Voldemort all over again," she muttered under her breath. "Ron asked, pleaded with me to meet with you, he said you've been fuming since New Year's Eve. Was it the blood?" Hermione shook her head. "I know what you said to him." She looked at Ginny across the table.

"He talked to you?" Ginny said, her voice rising.

"Yes, of course we talk, that's what friends do Ginny." Hermione shook her head at the younger woman, annoyed at the accusation.

"About deviant things?" She hissed, narrowing her eyes at the woman whom she thought would understand being a so-called 'rational' 'logical' person when they'd been at Hogwarts.

"Deviant?" Hermione stared at her before quirking a slightly smirk she had probably picked up from Harry. "Yes Ginny we talk about deviant things, sometimes we even talk about time travel."

Ginny shrugged, but still kept her eyes fixed on Hermione Granger, it was bad enough they were talking about this in public.

Hermione sighed. "Do some research Ginny, Harry's more than I think you even realise."

"Don't you understand Hermione? It's a delusion, a deviant delusion that's the creation for simple muggles." Ginny said with a mixture of disgust and anger.

"I'm a simple muggle then am I? For believing Harry, believing things I've seen with my own eyes," Hermione stood up. "I think we're done here Ginny, if you'll allow a simple muggle to leave your esteemed company?"

Ginny stared at the space where Hermione had previously occupied having disapparated with barely a sound.

-/ - \\-

"Hey Ginny, how'd your meeting with Hermione go?" George looked up from the account books as Ginny stormed in, he didn't really know what was troubling his young sister, Ron hadn't really spoken about it and when he'd been home mum and dad had only said that she and Harry were 'having problems since New Year's Eve'.

According to some of his suppliers, especially those from the Americas some very weird stuff had gone on in San Francisco, but nothing that could have affected people over here, especially his sister, or Harry.

Harry though had kept himself pretty much off the scene as far as George could tell, they had kept in occasional contact here and there. Since…since the war, Harry hadn't been to Diagon Alley all that much. Though George could understand why. And his letter asking for a special appearance by the 'absolutely wonderful, hero of the magical world and all that' had come back to him scrawled with red ink that just said 'bugger off', followed by a hole that was some unidentifiable hex, for some reason it made George chuckle, there was also the challenge of working out what hex Harry had fired at the letter before scrawling a response on the back of it to send him.

George refocused his attention back on his sister who was spluttering like a grindylow.

"It's Harry and Hermione they're…they…" She was gritting her teeth and looked like she was building up to a big rant.

"Ron." George called quickly to his brother who was restocking the Defence Against the Dark Arts section which despite the defeat of Volde' by Harry people still were buying them, supposedly the muggle world was becoming more and more dangerous, people seeing things that were real. "Come on Ginny, let's go into the office and we can have a nice chat, without scaring the customers, though we could do a display of our new calming tonics, they're carbonated, it's a muggle idea." George grinned at her, Ginny had an expression on her face that made the face Ron pulled when he asked to help him with some potions look like a dazzling grin.

In fact the look on Ginny's face could have curdled Doxycide.

"You look like Ron when he has to clean the potions cauldrons," he tried again to raise a smile from Ginny. He'd barely closed the door to the office when she began shouting, talking in a low voice and otherwise ranting.

-/

George half listened, idly scratching the place where his ear used to be, he could actually still hear through it, the parts that made him able to hear were still there, just not his ear. Harry had suggested something called plastic surgery to replace it, it sounded weirdly barbaric, it was something he'd been meaning to follow Harry up on, if he could work out where the man lived. All owls seemed to go through a mail forwarding company, some of his suppliers used a similar service to get owls quicker or internationally, his owls were sent to a location where they were bulk mailed with others on a faster bird.

For now he sometimes spelled a fake ear when he was doing business, he still didn't feel completely comfortable with no ear, when it was windy it gave him weird chills when the wind blew down the cavity.

George felt he had to stop Ginny in her spiel when she started asking him to help in an intervention.

"Ginny," he said calmly staring into her eyes, they were red with tears from the rage she'd worked herself into.

"What!" She snarled.

"The muggles aren't as stupid as you think," George said slowly, he never thought he'd have to say something like that to his own sister after Voldemort and his ideas, especially considering what it cost all of them.

"I never said they're stupid, they just believe that the tricks the Ministry uses and now Harry thinks, he thinks that…" She trailed off pausing to take a breath. "He's delusional, he needs help, don't you see that George he thinks that he's fighting aliens," she hissed the last word

"Speak like that more and I'll need a parsletongue translator," he commented idly.

"George, I'm serious, I need you to help with an intervention!" She looked at him angry.

George frowned, interventions were barely spoken of and more often than not still resulted in expunction by the Ministry if they were official.

"Why do you want to go and do that Ginny?" George asked with a sigh.

"Don't you understand what's going on?" She asked accusingly.

George stared back at her, mildly wary of her vicious temper, at the moment the flame was on high and the potion was ready to explode.

"I'm not going to help you with an intervention," He said firmly watching her, his arms crossed, fingers just touching his wand, just in case, just in case Ginny was over confident, which didn't matter as long as you had the determination to continue with it, Ginny did though.

"You're WHAT? You won't help me get this…this sickness out of him! If we let him keep thinking these things, you know what happens!" She exclaimed.

George had to admit he didn't really know what happened, of the people that did talk about aliens they generally didn't spend time very long around wizards, most never even made it to St Mungos, he didn't really know much more, just that they left to pursue their 'ideas', that was what he'd heard.

They were dangerous, deviant, delusional, the three Ds.

George tried changing tactics. "Ginny, Harry fought Voldemort! What makes you think we could get him in an intervention?"

"That's beside the point, he's afflicted," she shrugged dismissively.

George scratched at his ear region again until he felt his fingers get wet, he mentally cursed himself, it was blood, he knew it was, he'd done it loads of times, almost always when people came in and started to talk about Fred, or memories of the two of them, or…

He closed his eyes for a moment. Decisive action was what was called for. That was what they used to say.

"Get out Ginny," he said standing up suddenly. Ginny opened her mouth to argue. "I'm not going to help in an intervention, I don't care what he believes, he's his own man." As am I, he thought silently to himself rubbing his fingers on the back of his long 'store man's coat' he'd bought to mark himself out from the other traders on the alley. "People thought Harry was mad for believing Voldemort was back."

"But that's different! You know how sick you have to be to think aliens exist, George?" She pleaded as he opened the door out of the office.

"Leave Ginny, please," George said calmly.

"I'm telling mum and dad, they'll tell you!"

George smiled, suddenly feeling tired and energised at the same time. "Then I'll have to stay here, outcast again, first Hogwarts now the Burrow, maybe it'll be another 'creative awakening' as the Prophet once said, maybe we can name something after Harry, Harry the alien?"

"You…you…" Ginny let off a set of words that sounded like shouts of anger, or quite possibly swear words, the door shut as she backed out of the shop.

George let out a breath of air he hadn't realised he was holding, Ron was beside him holding a handkerchief, George took it silently. Ron seemed always have a set (clean) handkerchiefs on him, always ready for him. Ready to help.

"Thanks Ron," George said quietly.

"No problems. I'm heading out back to grab some more trick wands." Ron jabbed his thumb towards the rear of the shop, George nodded looking out the windows at the front of the shop, but Ginny had already apparated away.

-/ - \\-

Present (December 2000)

Harry carefully got out of his car, technically he could have apparated to the site, that would've been easier. But, he thought looking at the muddy area he'd parked in he really should start looking for another car, or something, something with better ground clearance at the very least.

He smiled to himself. Christmas was on the way, and he hadn't claimed a work vehicle yet.

Plus, despite the cold wind whipping around him he felt like some exercise. The workouts he'd been taking himself through after 'the cave' incident had been helping. He was now fairly sure he could walk around with oxygen tanks on his back, in a protective suit in a rubbish infested cave, while standing on top of a radioactive alien device, without getting too out of breath.

Probably.

Unfolding a small map he gauged the site Ioan had told him to aim for was probably a little under an hour away.

-/ - \\-

Flashback, about 8 months ago…

Ginny barely resisted the urge to scream as she hurled the ball of parchment at the wall, it hit with a dull thud, a testament to how hard she threw it. It joined on the floor and in the bin an increasing pile of letters.

She'd tried sending letters out to her friends at Hogwarts, people she'd associated with. An intervention was called for; Harry Potter had to be purged of the delusions that had infected his mind and thinking, lest it become an addiction that required more severe actions.

She'd sent carefully worded letters to everyone she'd been even mildly associated with, even many of the half-bloods, she was sure they'd understand the danger.

Ginny stared at the pile of parchment as she fired off random spells in the waste paper bin's direction.

Some had called her 'eccentric' for suggesting what she'd mentioned and that she needed assistance for what she had planned.

Two even said she was 'obsessed' with Harry Potter and now that he'd 'left her' that she was being an 'obsessive fan girl'. Ginny shot two spells at those two letters that immediately turned to ash.

Harry Potter was the obsessed man, sick and obsessed, delusional and a deviant that if this compulsion wasn't rectified it would wreak havoc on his life.

-/ - \\-

Present…

How these people, these travellers had managed to get their old horse drawn caravans down here Harry didn't know. It was a plateau at the bottom of a hill, in the dwindling light he could make out a river a short distance off.

They also weren't new caravans, they were old, not quite American covered wagons, but all horse drawn caravans, some almost unfeasibly large tram-like arrangements. It was odd and anachronistic, yet fitting, but there was something, Harry couldn't place, it wasn't wizard-like, it was something other, even at this distance.

The location was also relatively sheltered, although there was still a definite bite to the air.

"What are you doing here Harry?" He said to himself stuffing the pair of binoculars back into his pocket, looking down on the caravans unassisted. He felt, an odd sense of foreboding, which couldn't be good.

Harry shrugged to himself, it was probably the wind and approaching shadows biting away at him.

Looking down along the 'path' of long grass it already had already been crushed down, with some distinct footprints indented in it.

Footsteps were good, it meant at least that something human sized had walked the path before.

At least that meant if there was going to be something that was going to try and kill him that it was human sized.

Or it meant that it hovered.

Thankfully there was only a really long list of things that could hover.

Not that all aliens were bad, he'd met a few (other than the Doctor and the Magister) who he'd been able to help who hadn't wanted to suckle out his brains with the fine steel straw.

Though he had heard they were out there, suckling brains.

Maybe he'd ask Jack about it the next time they met, he had suggested he was good at a bit of suckling.

Or maybe that was a suggestion he'd made to Harry…Harry stopped walking for a moment trying to recall. The last time he'd been out with Jack they'd gone drinking, well Harry had suggested they go drinking, Jack still wouldn't tell him where Torchwood's secret base was.

Harry could have found out in a variety of ways, but it was far more fun to try and get Jack to reveal it to him.

Willingly.

-/ - \\-

Flashback about 6 months ago

Ginny smiled to herself as she walked through the Ministry unquestioned.

Of all the people she had talked to, dad had been the most understanding. He had after all worked to protect muggles from wizards, he knew what could 'befall' wizards working so closely to protect wizards and muggles from the wizarding world and the muggle world.

Although he also had said he couldn't help with the purging of Harry's alleged sickness.

He hadn't said alleged but that was what Malfoy had called it.

In a very last ditch effort she'd owled Malfoy, claiming familial connections requesting his assistance.

Even just in writing his tone had been mocking and put downing, he'd even suggested that she should visit St Mungo's. Though he never did in his letter suggest that he believed Harry, though he didn't say he believed her either.

It had been easy enough convincing her father to let her come with him to work, he hadn't asked her why, but there was an understanding that he wouldn't ask about anything concerning Harry's sickness and she wouldn't do anything to arouse suspicion.

-/

Ginny stood in an alcove opposite the entrance to the Department of International Magical Cooperation, waiting.

Within the department was a corridor which lead to another dealing with businesses that operated within the United Kingdom but also dealt with international magical communities.

It was this department she was waiting on to go to lunch. The whole department went to lunch at vaguely the same time.

She wanted to get in there, into their files because they had lists of all the mail forwarding businesses.

Harry was using one, she knew that well enough after she'd followed Pig with one of her letters to him and Pig had disappeared somewhere within London that she couldn't follow, not with the muggles and their cameras that worked like photos all the time, watching.

After casually asking around the Ministry (everyone was very happy to help her) she'd found out she needed a Ministry identification confirmation number to get the company to reveal the person's real address. Usually they'd need something from the Wizengamot. But with all the international trade opening up, something to do with the muggles again with the European community she had a chance that wouldn't normally be available to her.

As the last wizard shuffled out Ginny caught the door, slipping her fingers carefully around it before it shut and automatically locked and would be immune from spells from the outside.

The files were neat and organised and she had just about found what she was looking for…

"Hey! What are you doing you can't –" He was cut off as Ginny spun around dropping the file she was holding and stunned him.

Ginny stood still for a moment, holding her wand firm, breathing only slightly heavily as the wizard crumbled to the ground. She carefully picked up the file and began noting down the information. Ignoring the slight wheezing noise the wizard was making, crumpled on the floor.

Ginny readied her wand at the wizard's head, but paused her a moment to snip some hair from his head. Then she re-levelled her wand and muttered Oblivate.

She wasn't anywhere near as good as Hermione, but she was relatively sure that she hadn't scrambled the wizard's brains when she'd oblivated him.

At the very least he would never remember that she'd been in his office, at the most he'd never remember anything ever again.

Ginny quietly let herself out of the office, smiling.

-/ - \\-

Present…

"You must be Ioan's friend." Harry didn't jump, but his hand did go to his wand, given the voice behind him had come up to him without making a noise.

He hoped that there was a body attached to the (female) voice as he turned around slowly, keeping one hand on the pocket that held his wand.

The voice did indeed belong to a body.

A body who was only half clothed.

"Aren't you cold?" Harry asked her after a moment of odd though, oddly not awkward silence, especially considering she, (whoever she was) was topless and wearing a sarong in what was not exactly sarong-wearing weather.

She laughed. "Not the first thing some would have said Harry Potter."

He didn't even bother asking how she knew his name, maybe Ioan told the weird half naked lady, maybe she knew him from another plain of existence.

All that really mattered was whether she was going to try and kill him.

Or torture him in some new and fascinating way.

He could as he inhaled, smell smoke.

He really hoped pokers weren't involved. Especially not hot pokers, cold pokers would hurt a lot less, though they would be far less intimidating.

Harry turned to follow the half naked woman. "I really hope it isn't pokers," he muttered to himself, wondering if it wasn't too late to escape. He trusted Ioan enough that he hadn't lead him into a dangerous situation, but as far as friends betraying him and stabbing him in the back, he didn't have a brilliant track record. Though he couldn't keep picking bad apples.

-/ - \\-

Flashback 3 months ago…

So this was what Harry was up to.

Ginny sat watching Harry with some muggles emptying something into a magical site. The Omnioculars were at their maximum and even at this distance away from the magical site they were playing up, but she could just about make out Harry and the muggles. He was wearing some sort of muggle outfit.

She really should inform the Ministry Ginny thought to herself, his deviancy and the delusions seemed to be taking a detrimental effect on his mental capacities. Ginny felt for her wand.

In his state she could stun the muggles, they shouldn't put up any resistance.

Then she could stun or perhaps even wound Harry and take him for an intervention, or perhaps more drastic measures would be necessary. Harry was clearly breaking the statute of secrecy, reason enough for her to use any measure necessary she thought to herself.

However, Ginny sat, watching as the muggle machines, bigger than cars continued to do whatever muggle thing they were doing.

Then she saw Harry talking to a muggle woman, Ginny sneered, that muggle wasn't good enough for him.

Ginny then panicked slightly as she saw Harry turn towards he and stare for a few moments, smiling before turning away following the muggle woman up towards a tree that was somewhat obscured behind two of the large muggle machines that were like big cars her father once liked.

Ginny thought about asking her father about it later, but he'd been a little distant from her lately, she wondered if it was something at the Ministry.

Ginny put one hand on the broom turning slightly to look at the cave, but in the decreasing light even with the Omnioculars she couldn't make out much.

She dare not get closer, on her broom she'd tried earlier and literally fallen out of the air into a horrible smelling marsh. Ginny spared one last look at the muggle machines before turning the broom away, flying as fast as she could to a safe enough distance away from the site.

-/ - \\-

Present…

It was something like the cross between a circus and a festival.

If everyone was half naked and there was a bonfire, or what would be a bonfire if someone lit it in the centre of the roughly arranged caravans.

"I could have stayed at home, trying to work out…" He was cut off in his conversation with himself when someone patted him on the back.

"Harry, you made it." Harry spun around at the voice, only realising it was Ioan and his wife when he'd already drawn his wand.

Harry noted several things suddenly when he turned around, both Akilina and Ioan were naked from the waist upwards. Harry kept his eyes fixed on their shoulders up, he noted that Ioan had his hair out of a his pony tail.

And they were both naked from the top up.

It still wasn't all that balmy either.

"What the fu– " Harry started to say when Ioan cut him off.

"I suppose you have questions," Ioan said casually.

"Someone who I thought was a friend invites me to meet some 'travellers' and everyone is suddenly naked," Harry said replacing his wand inside his jacket.

"Only half," Akilina said with a smile. Harry didn't dare look downwards, he had no idea what the correct manners were in this situation, but he didn't want to look at the breasts of his friend's wife. That was just a little too odd.

Jack would know, he'd know how to behave when faced with a situation like this.

Or not, knowing Jack and his stories, the man seemingly had been to more orgies than Harry had been shot at.

Focus on the now, he decided, if he was going to be shot he could focus on that later, just before it happened, and shortly after obviously. During, he'd obviously need to shoot back.

"We thought you might find it interesting," Ioan continued as they started walking forcing Harry to walk with them. Harry flirted with the idea of walking backwards so he could keep an eye on them, but there were far more people around.

None of them he wanted to keep a too close eye on.

"One question, why topless?" Harry asked after a moment of not awkward silence.

"It's a ritual," Ioan said raising his eyebrows at him.

Akilina sighed. "It's a cold night. They would usually have us naked in a Dionysians movement of embrace. But…"

"Cold night." Harry blinked for a moment. He'd been side tracked for a moment watching someone eat a long flaming stick. "Ritual," he repeated, the word was not something that conjured the best of memories.

"To contact the temporal plane, to let us walk paths of the lords," said a new voice, Harry turned, slowly around.

Harry recoiled, although he couldn't actually fathom why. The woman in front of him was of middle age, with pale somethings maybe tattoos maybe something else, some thing maybe inscribed along her arms, something he couldn't make out in the. There was certainly something off with her.

"Contact the temporal plane," Harry prompted. Ignoring for a moment the odd look the odd woman was giving him.

"And walk the paths trodden by those claiming it as their dominion," the weird woman replied, there was something of a dangerous vibe coming off her.

"I'll leave you to it then," Harry tried to say, but they all seemed to merge as a group came over to them like a wave of somewhat nude bodies.

-/

Something about these people made him feel…off, so Harry turned away from the morass of the group and insidead turned to stare into the bonfire which had been recently lit.

"You're curious," the woman had come back to stand beside him, she now had a blanket draped over her arms. There was still a really weird air around her, it was intriguing.

Despite her creepiness the suggestion had made him curious.

"Temporal plane," he repeated from their introduction. "How?" He enquired curiously.

"We," she paused to smile dangerous. "They," she looked around them "have gathered a mass of people, those sensitive to time and its flow," she gave him a look as though to enquire if he wanted more clarification."

"People sensitive to temporal anomalies, sensitive the its ebb, and whatever else," he began

"Yes, how very astute of you," she praised lightly and didn't seem at all surprised that he knew what she was talking about.

"So?" Harry wondered, looking from her to the bonfire as a piece of wood within cracked loudly. He had a not exactly bad, but certainly off feeling about all this, counteracted by the curiosity for people exploring time.

"They all have their own way to interact with time, discovered together and alone; speaking, muttering numbers and calculations, building the blocks of the universe in their speech and their minds. Allowing them for a short period to walk where only those who claim lordship of the plane," she explained in a vague tone.

"'Building blocks of the universe'," Harry repeated, looking back at the bonfire, then slowly turning around. "Block Transfer Computations?" He wondered as he faced the woman. Ignoring the weird feeling he got when he was that close to her.

"Yes, aren't you clever," she smiled at him.

"Who are you?" Harry asked, watching her.

The woman continued to smile dangerously at him, as though he'd caught something coming up the stairs and couldn't escape through a door at the top.

-/

Harry didn't know why he was sitting here, listening to the chanting in a circle around the bonfire, which despite it having been lit for some time didn't seem to be taking light of all the material around it.

"This sounds a bit Buddhist to me," he said to no one in particular. He wasn't sure why he'd agreed to help the weird woman. She'd promised that he nor any of the others with her would be hurt.

She hadn't explained why she wanted him to help, but he got the vague impression from her that if he tried to leave before whatever had happened, had happened he'd probably find himself in a four dimensional maze conjured by one of her fellows.

It was because of that vague threat that he'd agreed to help, there was something intriguingly tantalising about it.

He listened, though didn't so much join in as mouth some of the words, feeling them in his mouth and turning them over in his mind.

"As long as I don't end up on Metebelis Three with a spider on my back," he muttered in between the chants to himself.

"Metebelis Three?" Ioan asked as he sat down beside him, watching him curiously.

"Famous for its blue crystals and giant spiders," Harry explained off handedly looking down at the piece of paper he was meant to be chanting the words to. Everyone else it seemed had practiced the words many times and some had achieved this 'walking on the plane of the lords'.

As the chanting began again he made more of an effort to chant the words as everyone else did around him.

It wasn't hard to work out that the temporal plane the lords walked on was the time vortex. The Lords were the Time Lords, probably.

The last time he'd really seriously spoken about the 'Web of Time' with the Doctor when he'd met Charley he'd mentioned other temporal powers, but none of them would be so egotistical to call themselves 'lords'.

Now he was helping a creepy mysterious woman because he was curious, and that the threat had come in a vague, tantalising way, in a way that promised he could learn something new, about time travel. And that was something which he'd seen through his two friends of Gallifrey for a lot of his life, yet it still intrigued him.

The chanting was getting louder and louder as though everyone was really beginning to chant in sync.

It was like he could feel waves as everyone was chanting, almost like they were all breathing at the same time.

Then something within the bonfire exploded; not a log within, this made the whole bonfire ignite and explode with fire and light, spirals of energy and…he wasn't sure he could process it for a moment. The fire and flames were spiralling around in the fire and…there was something within, something with white wings was flapping within the bonfire as he gazed at it, like something stretching out towards him, the flapping creature, he wasn't sure what it was and then…everything went white.

-/

Harry looked around, he was in a white nothingness. Which he supposed was better than black unconsciousness.

"I really hope I'm not dead," he said to himself as he looked around. "Again," he added with a frown. "Shouldn't have been curious, just should have stayed at home, worked out who it is that's been stalking me," he continued to .

Then there was a noise, from somewhere. Harry turned a full 360 degrees around. But couldn't see anything, he wondered if there was any use in running in any given direction.

He doubted it.

"Umm…Hello?" He said looking up. The sky, ceiling or whatever it was that was above him was also white. "This isn't the time vortex," he tried in as confident a tone as he could.

"Really?" Asked a female voice it sounded familiar, Harry spun around searching, looking, something moved, but it was white against the white nothingness of the background.

"Yeah, it's all swirling colours…or something." The Doctor had been somewhat vague on what the vortex looked like. Jo had said it was all swirling colours kinda psychedelic, Zoe had mentioned the scanner was just blank when they were in flight, the Doctor never really was specific.

"Or something," the female voice sounded amused by his vagueness.

"Now that I've helped you, what are you?" Harry asked.

"I am…what I am," The female voice paused.

Harry kicked at the floor, or whatever was under his feet, hoping something would give, or reveal something…or something or other.

"The so called Lords of Time know us as Chronovores. You have met them before."

The word Chronovore rang a bell with him but he just inclined his head and nodded.

There was a sound of flapping, not a bird, it sounded bigger. "You are dripping in their temporal scent," the voice seemed to pause, humming for a moment. "it was necessary to break the bond with this planet," the voice paused again.

Harry looked around trying to focus on the sound of flapping, was it feathers? Fabric? He wasn't sure. It felt like it was all around him, but he was sure there was some sort of distortion field in front of him.

"I was told you were pretty powerful," Harry began, he wasn't sure if was Magister or the Doctor who'd told him about Chronovores, but it felt like there was a story in the back of his mind about them, and their great power. Continuing to look around he was definitely sure there was something before him, something being distorted at least.

"Your Lord of Time imposed a temporal orbit whilst I was feeding on the energy of his transcendence," the voice's tone had changed now, Harry could feel the anger in it.

"Recently?" He wondered as he looked around, trying to focus on the distortion, if it was there wasn't getting him anywhere.

"Time, as you understand it is a meaningless concept," the voice responded in a flat tone.

"You exist in the vortex, how can it be meaningless?" Harry queried, trying to assemble all the pieces that he was being presented with.

"Time is to us, as oxygen is to you," it replied.

'This is going to get needlessly philosophical.' Harry thought to himself.

He really should have stayed at home, watched some TV, maybe read a book and waited with his rifle for whoever it was who'd been stalking him.

That reminded him, he needed to get the satellite images to go through. When he got out of this.

"So you've escaped now, from Earth," Harry prompted after a period of silence, or it could have been a moment, he wasn't sure how long had passed while he'd had a brief moment if introspection and reminding to himself.

The voice seemed to affirm his statement without answering it. "You are touched by the imprisoner and the wanderer."

Harry just mouthed to himself 'imprisoner and wanderer'.

"Oh you mean…oh…" He said after a moment.

"Goodbye Harry Potter," the voice said with an air of amusement.

Then the world went white once more, more white, a different sort of white Harry mused as unconsciousness took him.

-/

He awoke to the scent of horses and a smoldering fire.

"Wasn't that amazing Harry,? Harry?" Ioan was kneeling over him.

"Being suckled for temporal energy, yeah. Helping Chronovores, sure amazing is one word for it," Harry grumbled as he pushed himself up from the ground. "And people knowing who I am before I introduce myself." Harry shook his head trying to awaken himself.

"Harry, you didn't see the amazing, brilliance of…" Ioan was looking at him oddly.

"No," he said in a short tone. "I need a drink," he said after a moment.

-/

A/N:

Minor edit of chapter, plus rewrite of Chronovore section done March 2021.

I've used the 'Present' / 'Flashback' layout as I wanted to keep the main story moving forward, but I also wanted to tell something of what Ginny's been doing without devoting a chapter solely to her. Also her action is important, but needs to be intercut with something to keep everything tight and flowing narratively.

Edit 2016: I've been doing a little bit of minor edits to this story (mostly stuff I didn't catch the first time around). This chapter is one I considered re-writing entirely as while the ideas filtered down through the story I don't think I ever got Ioan and Akilina topless again and in the story's context it seems a little odd.

Edit 2021: I've rewritten the Chronovore and all the bonfire stuff again, and given how I developed Ioan and Akilina I'm still not sure I'd write it the way I've done it in this chapter. It's better than it was, but I've mostly just tidied it up, edited out a lot of the 'he said/she said' to be a bit more descriptive.