Chapter 17
He'd been here for as good as he could reckon it about 5 days, give or take.
Concussion and being blown up by a dragon-based nuclear-sized weapon tended to do that to your immediate memory following said events.
He pushed himself up in the bed and winced, no matter how many times he broke his ribs, it never got any more comfortable. He'd had a look early yesterday morning, the first time he'd been able to go to the toilet without being in total and complete agony.
The bruising was…significant, and that was only the parts he could see that wasn't covered by bandages.
Even pissing hurt.
"You're awake Mr Potter."
No shit. Harry thought to himself. "And lucid, doctor," he said to the army doctor whom he had completely and totally failed to establish a rapport with. It may have had something to do with the first time he awoke, his second day here and his subsequent successful hypnotising of the doctor to let him leave…and then his rather unfortunate realisation that his injuries were rather more severe than he'd realised when he'd collapsed not far down the corridor.
"You have a visitor Mr Potter."
"Just one? All for myself?" He couldn't stop himself from being sarcastic, it helped with the pain.
In walked in a military man. High ranking he surmised though he couldn't place the rank. Air force ranks wasn't something he'd taken a large amount of time out to study.
"Mr Potter. I trust you're well," said the man, his voice sounded relatively familiar.
"You were the voice on the radio," Harry murmured. The man smiled.
"The doctors tell me you're curious as to how you came to be here, and what happened," he commented
That was one way of putting it Harry thought to himself. The doctors didn't have said information, nor did they know where his clothing, wand and everything else he'd had with him.
Harry didn't say any of this, he merely inclined his head. He was 'very fortunate' that he had no spinal injuries.
"Or is it that you failed to extract any information from our medical staff?" The man asked him, he had turned away from him, looking at the wall that Harry thought should have contained a window.
"Yes," Harry said shortly.
"Her Majesty's Government would like to thank you for your efforts in dealing with the threat," he continued turning back to look at him.
"Just doing my jo,." Harry said meeting his gaze. "Can I know where I am and what happened?" He asked.
"You don't remember?" He asked curiously.
"Fighting the…target, yes. The final moments are somewhat blurry," he said, shifting in the bed again.
"Your…levitation device cushioned you from much of the explosion, but it blew you backwards and fell onto one of our Harriers." Harry raised both eyebrows at this. "Gave our boys a shock. You were brought here for treatment."
Harry nodded to himself. Looking again to the drip that was in his arm, a minor pain killer and saline drip.
He'd considered over the past few days apparating out of here. Today was the first day that he'd felt like he might be able to.
Which probably meant he shouldn't.
After some silence Harry spoke once more. "Was there any…wreckage?"
"From the target?" The Royal Air Force man asked. Harry nodded.
"There has been an operation in progress for the last few days. A member of your organisation Ioan Hrycek is facilitating our efforts."
"And beating back…other efforts from other…" Harry sighed. "Listen…Group Captain what do you know so we can stop beating around the bush?"
The Group Captain smiled at him. "The remains of the dragon are being cleared up as we speak. Torchwood, UNIT and another political group have expressed their interest in recovering the remains."
"Would this political group be of the stick waving variety?" Harry asked.
"Perhaps. Though I couldn't say officially. All groups have been informed the British Armed Forces is quite qualified to deal with this issue," he answered diplomatically.
Harry nodded once more. "So does my organisation know of my predicament?"
"Mr Hrycek has been informed." Was the simple answer.
"How long until I will be released?" Harry asked.
"I was under the impression that you could leave at any time," the Group Captain answered obliquely.
Harry smiled. "How long until I can walk out of here and are my personal affects around?"
"I can have your affects brought to you, those that weren't damaged, soiled or otherwise in the explosion." Then he nodded to Harry and left the room.
Knowing that his wand was safe made him relax, although he waited until the Group Captain's footfalls were down the corridor before allowing himself to relax fully.
Although he still ached, he wasn't tempted much to try and heal himself. He didn't want to attempt even some rudimentary spells, not the way he was currently feeling.
Looking over his chart that was located within reach (just) at the foot of the bed it was amazing how well he'd fared, considering he'd landed on top of a Harrier jump jet.
He was fairly sure he still had some 'Sisterhood Salve' that the Doctor had left him lurking somewhere at his house, that would be able to sort out the lingering injuries.
He was infinitesimally thankful that he hadn't plummeted to his death.
Pity his broom hadn't been so lucky. However, the surgeons had done a good job removing the bits of wood from his hands and thighs; where it had shattered at some point during the explosion. He was also amazingly thankful said wood hadn't punctured any of his reproductive organs, the surgeons had commented that he'd been very lucky on that account.
-/ - \\-
Now though, 10 days since he'd been admitted the doctors had grudgingly said he could leave.
Not that he was going to apparate, not just yet.
They also weren't telling him where he was, not that it really mattered, they all occupied secret areas of the government and what not, they had their secrets he had his.
-/
"Judith," Harry upwardly inflected by way of greeting.
"Harry, I won't go all sentimental and say you're alive." Harry shook his head, gently. The pain killers he'd been given this morning were still lingering though. "You make me drive all the way out to Dorset and not even a thank you."
"That would be too sentimental. Especially with all these British Army people around," Harry gestured vaguely, most were looking at his Defender, which until recently had looked new. "Do you think I can claim this as regular wear and tear?"
"Being shot at by your ex-girlfriend and her fellow mad luddites you mean?" She asked as he got in.
"Yes, that. Though 'insane man'-" He was cut off.
"You never meet normal people with names do you?" She asked as she started the engine.
"I met you," he challenged.
She laughed. "You were saying?"
"Insane man seemed to suggest she didn't know about the…" he paused. "Slicing open and testing of the dragons."
"He did," she conceded "but then he was insane Harry."
"Probably. Maybe I'm just trying to come up with reasons not to need to kill her," he said leaning back into the seat closing his eyes.
"Is that what you think you'll need to do?" She asked calmly, very calmly.
"Depends," Harry paused. "All those flyers we found suggested her group's more political and ideologically based. Though I think they're capable of going to the next level."
"You've been thinking about this then?" She said as she turned off the dirt road.
"Not much in the way of literature to read whilst in a secret military hospital. But insane man did seem to suggest he'd been using her and her group for his own means."
"Like minions." Harry smiled at her comment.
"Yes," he affirmed.
"They're still dangerous, especially now that they know that you and I killed him," Judith said casually.
"Yes…about that." Harry opened his eyes to look over at her. "It wouldn't be good for there to be evidence lying around."
She looked at him and smiled coolly. "After I recovered I went back, all the alien tech's in one of your barns. His house was unexpectedly destroyed in a gas bottle explosion," she said as though they were talking about the weather.
Harry closed his eyes once more, listening to the wind whistling through the shattered and badly patched up windows and damaged doors and roof. "Good. Thank you."
"Part of the job." Without even opening his eyes he could tell she'd just shrugged.
"Any wand waving bastards come looking for me while I've been…" he trailed off.
"Living it up in a secret military facility? Co-educational showers, giant bugs…"
"That's Starship Troopers," Harry muttered opening his eyes to stare at the roof of the Defender, it had bite marks in it, and what looked like the remains of a bat indented with the shape of the end of a shot gun.
"I think I'll just keep this for getting around my property," he said mainly to himself.
"No one. Except your friend Hermione, she stopped by while I was cleaning up after destroying insane man's house," she said casually.
"What'd you tell her?" He asked curiously.
"The truth," she said simply.
"And?" Harry queried.
"She swore, said it was typical of you. Asked me to tell you to call her, or she'd start annoying the government."
Harry smiled.
-/ - \\-
Harry leaned back into his study chair.
He was still on strictly 'light duties', that was what the doctors at the military hospital had said for him to do anyways.
Swivelling on his chair he pulled out the newspaper article out from under the scanner and slipped in the next photo from a cardboard box he had dug out of his 'things to do later'. Said cardboard box contained research he'd started when he'd been at Hogwarts, in the local Little Whining library and something he'd continued to look into. Various random things about UNIT and then also Torchwood.
It was mainly something of a curiosity, but was all the more intriguing as he got further involved and curious.
Though he'd collected a lot of information prior to forming the League of Paranormal Investigations, he'd put a lot of the information into boxes and on hold as each crisis had presented itself.
But it was calming, interesting work, that didn't involve being blasted at, shot at, thrown backwards by explosions, getting concussion, having ribs broken or any other fun injury that he'd incurred.
-/
Exactly on time someone knocked on the door.
"Hey Hermione," he greeted as he opened the door.
"You're an insane idiot Harry Potter," she said as she threw her arms around him.
"Hello to you too. Come in. We don't want any spies seeing us," he muttered.
"You really think that she's still spying on you?" Hermione turned around.
"After I shot her and her associates you mean?" Harry asked casually as they walked through to his kitchen where he started to fill the kettle with water.
Hermione was oddly silent. Harry turned around to look at her.
"What?" He asked as she pulled out a newspaper.
"I picked this up at the university WW club." She handed him the paper, it was folded over to a certain page.
Harry Potter in murderous alien fuelled dragon massacre!
By Rita Skeeter
"Isn't she dead yet?" Harry said as he leaned against the sink.
Hermione screwed up her face. "No."
"Oh…it's an 'exclusive interview with the harpy Ginny Weasley!' So spare me reading the sensationalist pig vomit, anything interesting?"
"How do you know I've read it?" Hermione asked. Harry raised an eyebrow at her.
"Oh fine. But first tell me what happened with you and how you got injured and everything."
"I…" Harry started, Hermione cut him off firmly.
"You promised, you said leave me for a couple of days to recover, then you can come down and visit me," Hermione quoted giving him a firm look.
"I said that?" Harry asked mock-skeptically.
"Yes," she said walking over to his cupboards withdrawing a teapot and two mugs. She and him practically never had tea cups, well Harry never drank from teacups. She'd just ended up following his example after his teasing about her about wanting to be 'dainty', she'd punched him for that one.
-/
"I can't tell you everything," Harry started.
"Confidentiality, I know the drill Harry," said Hermione slightly impatiently.
"Very well. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin." He told her a very condensed version of events, missing out almost completely on the torture, subsequent death of said insane. He was relatively sure Hermione would understand, but he knew that her killing of the Death Eaters in Hogwarts had affected her a lot.
He didn't want to burden her with the idea of death of insane man. Or more to the point that he had been directly involved in his torture and eventual death.
-/
Hermione leaned back, fingers wrapped around the mug of tea, she was happy that she had a mug, rather than a cup of tea, it felt so much more comforting to warm her hands on the mug of tea than a cup of tea.
"The article is full of Skeeter's usual vitriol," she said.
Harry nodded. "That's a given, probably Ginny's as well."
"Saying her name again?" She asked, a teasing tone in her voice.
"No point in being pissed off with a name," Harry said with half a shrug. "I'm sure there are some not totally barking mad people out in the world called Ginny."
"Very likely. It's basically her having a good rant about you and the 'muggle woman'." Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'm sure Judith would find the title amusing," Harry observed.
Hermione made a 'hmm' noise and continued. "Then Ginny rants a bit more about how she tried to help you, that you refused to be helped, that you've got a disease that's befalling many in the wizarding world…" She trailed off to take a sip of her tea.
"Yeah, that I'm a deviant, a mad man, that aliens are all the invention of the much more powerful wizards. That there couldn't possibly be anyone more powerful than the might wizard empire!"
"Harry." Hermione looked at him.
"Too much?" He asked smiling.
"Only if you're aiming to be serious," she replied.
"Well that's alright then, you can't be serious all the time. Anything else I should know about Miss Weasley's ramblings?" He asked as he poured another mug of tea out of the tea pot.
"The article did at least, well it looks like it went through some editing. There's an editor's note at the end of the article, hang on-" she grabbed the newspaper and opened it up "'a statement was sought from dragon preserves missing dragons. The Romanian Dragon Preserve and the Cymru Centre for the Preservation of Native Dragons, they denied the claims in this report. They are currently evaluating their security procedures following the unknown attacks.'" she said as she finished reading aloud.
"You mean the Prophet is finally getting serious?"
Hermione snorted. "I doubt it. But they're probably trying to be a little bit more professional. Or they're worried about calling the dragon sanctuary's security into question."
"So it's okay to call the saviour of the wizarding world a mad deviant that needs to have an 'intervention' performed on him. But not to say the dragon sanctuary was broken into?" Harry shook his head.
"I thought you didn't like the title 'saviour of the wizarding world'?" Hermione asked semi-seriously.
Harry shrugged. "Not sure. I've been trying to decide whether it's going to be enough to carry me through the storm."
"I somehow don't think so." Hermione's tone was pessimistic.
"Great big ball of optimism you are Hermione," he muttered.
Hermione smiled. "Well look on past experience how quickly opinion turned. Don't worry, I'm sure favour will swing back in your favour and you'll be idolised soon enough."
"Where did you learn such biting sarcasm from?" Harry asked mildly.
"From hanging out with you so much," she countered quickly.
"Ah." Harry smiled. "More tea?"
-/ - \\-
It had been a fairly uneventful 2002 so far Harry reflected, Christmas and the New Year's celebrations of 2001 had been relatively uneventful and throughout this year had been quiet enough. Some clear ups here and there but nothing terribly huge.
He'd been able to take some time after his injury to continue his flight lessons and other study.
There'd been the occasional incursion that fell within the League of Paranormal Investigations, but nothing gigantic.
He even hadn't heard much of Ginny, she'd seemingly stopped spying on him and everything.
Of course the wizarding world didn't forget about things it liked to hate easily, as he'd found out a few times he'd ventured into Diagon Alley. Just the side along glances, it almost reminded him of Hogwarts when he was the one making up the return of Voldemort…what fun Hogwarts was…
Now of course things were coming to a crescendo, and not even in Britain.
-/
Hermione leaned across her desk, fumbling around under the research notes for her annoyingly ringing mobile phone, not bothering to look at the display.
"Hello?"
"Hi Hermione," said the voice on the other end.
"Harry?" She asked surprised.
"Hey Hermione, is it alright if I come up?"
"Where are you?" She asked skeptically. Harry's idea of 'come up' could mean anything from 'can I drive up', 'can I apparate in' or on one occasion 'do you think the university would mind if I parachuted onto the green?' At least Ron has learnt form Harry's example to call first, or at the very least knock on the door rather than apparating in suddenly. If he did that one more time and disrupted her perfectly organised notes she'd threatened to do something both painful and surprising.
Just that threat had scared her boyfriend enough to modify his behaviour. She was a little worried that if he did do it again she'd actually have to dream up something painful and surprising.
"Outside. I've got an offer for you."
She toyed with the idea of telling him to spack off. But something in Harry's voice sounded both excited and agitated. "Fine, come up."
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door, which meant Harry had run to her room, rather than apparate, and it meant he'd genuinely been outside, probably in the car park.
"Hey Hermione," he said as she opened the door.
"What is it Harry?"
"I've got an offer for you." He repeated, this time in person.
"An offer?" She looked at him skeptically. He was smiling. That had to be a bad sign.
"A trip of a lifetime," he said still smiling. She waved him over to her electric kettle.
"Explain." She demanded.
-/
"San Francisco is hardly a trip of a lifetime."
"It's on Concorde!" He exclaimed in defence.
Hermione crossed her arms and looked at him. "What about Judith and your friend Ioan? Isn't this the point of having members of your organisation? Of which I might remind you I am not a member."
Harry's expression dropped, almost comically making Hermione wince. "Harry," she said shaking her head in annoyance.
"Fine," he said. "There's another reason I'm asking you."
"Another reason, aside from the one you won't tell me about."
"I'm getting to that," he replied calmly. "According to my contacts."
Hermione interrupted him. "You have contacts?" Harry looked up at her. "Sorry Harry, honestly if you're going to be indirect about everything you'll have to expect that I'll ask questions."
"I've been making contacts around, both with the help of my associates and on my own to keep an eye out for certain things. According to a contact in San Francisco the Doctor is there."
Hermione looked over to him from where she was making them both tea. "The Doctor?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah, and since you're the only person who's met him and knows somewhat of how things react around him, I thought you might be helpful on…for why I have to go to the USA."
Hermione carried over the mugs of tea putting them down a little hard on her small table and looked at Harry. "Explain."
Harry smiled and withdrew a folded letter from within his jacket. "Sign this."
"What is it?"
"You're not a member of LPI, but if you sign this it says I'm bringing you on as a freelance consultant, for this particular" he paused and grinned at Hermione. "Adventure." She stared back at him. "Fine, this particular problem."
Hermione snatched the letter out of his hand and read over it, Harry leaned back into the chair.
A few minutes later Hermione placed the letter back on the table. "That isn't much of a letter Harry, it's neither binding, nor exclusive, in fact it mostly states how much you're going to pay me for my…troubles." She paused.
"And that you won't go blabbing to anyone," Harry added.
"As if I would," Hermione snorted.
"Well? You are at the end of your classes aren't you?" Harry asked. "And it's the Doctor, who else would I take with me, really?"
Hermione studied her friend for a moment. "This is something to do with the Ministry isn't it?"
Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "The point of letters like that is you sign it before I start telling you state secrets."
Hermione reached forward and signed the piece of paper.
"Thanks. You know it's just a formality. So I can wave it at the Minister if he gives me any problems," he said as he pocked the letter.
"Talking to me now are you Harry?"
"Please Hermione," Harry said impatiently. "Time is somewhat of the essence."
"I'm listening," she said calmly.
"Strange things have been happening in San Francisco." Harry extracted printout from his pocket and passing it to Hermione. It was a from the Interesting Times about a variety of creatures seen in Golden Gate Park, unicorns, griffins, chimera dragons, and other 'crytpozoological creatures'.
"Are you serious Harry 'crytpozoological creatures'?" She asked with a smile looking over at him, he wasn't smiling.
He nodded solemnly. "Golden Gate Park is becoming something of a hideout for these creatures. None of them conform to what is in the Wizarding guidebooks."
"Oh," Hermione said in a dull tone.
"Obviously the Ministry couldn't stand that and sent their own investigation team. The Minister wouldn't tell me if he sent them directly or if it was some department within the Ministry. But they saw it as a possible threat."
"What about the American-" Hermione stopped mid-sentence thinking. "Whatever governance the United States has for wizards."
Harry shrugged. "Not sure. But from what I gather this team that was sent probably wasn't sent with the blessings or approval of the American wizarding authorities."
"Oh dear. I assume there's a reason they haven't come back?" She said looking down at the newspaper cutting.
"Whatever is happening over there is blanketing out the whole area. There's some sort of field that is inhibiting portkeys, apparition and several other forms of magical transportation. They could go to the American wizarding authorities, but that would mean they snuck into the country before all this rushed to a crescendo." Harry explained.
"Which would cause some sort of diplomatic issue," Hermione chuckled. "It's good to know the Ministry is just as capable of spying and subterfuge as other governments around the world. It's comforting somewhat," she reflected to herself.
Harry smiled. "How understanding of you Hermione," he deadpanned. "The Ministry has given me resources to go over, and then send them back, via muggle transport. There'll be no magical record of them having been there."
"Diplomacy stays intact and we all live happily ever after," Hermione paused. "How dangerous is it over there?"
"Less dangerous than our last year or two at Hogwarts," he replied.
"Very comforting." Hermione looked at him.
"But not by much. It'll probably be dangerous. But it's also exciting and we're uniquely placed, knowing one of the more random elements there." He grinned at her.
"I hope you mean the Doctor and not the Ministry officials Harry," she asked.
"Or the unicorns, which aren't what they appear either," he added.
"Fine Harry. Give me half an hour," She said after a moment.
-/ - \\-
Hermione stretched and looked around her as they walked out of the terminal building. Harry was next to her smiling, she could tell he was smiling, even without looking at him.
She could tell that with Ron also, though through slightly different means. "What's in the black mysterious weatherproof box?"
"Care package." He said but didn't explain further.
"Don't we need to stop and hire a car or something Harry?" She asked, she doubted Harry would be catching taxis anywhere. Considering his love of flying his broom he'd become very…enamoured with the use of a car.
He turned to her but they didn't stop walking. "Already got the car and the keys." He said, showing her the keys in his hand.
Hermione paused and watched as Harry continued walking, they hadn't separated since they'd left the aircraft, yet he'd somehow got keys for a car.
"Isn't the hire area that way?" She asked as she caught up to him.
"We're parked away from everyone else," he said as they continued walking.
"How did you have the keys before we arrived here Harry?"
"Ordered it before I came to see you. Special delivery to me." He stopped, Hermione tripped slightly and looked around. "Isn't she a beauty?"
Hermione looked around and wondered if Harry was marvelling at the aircraft again, honestly he has some odd tastes, maybe that was why she liked him so much.
"What?" She looked around Harry to the car Harry was looking at. It wasn't a new car, which was a little odd. "What is it?"
"This Hermione is a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro," he said waving at it.
Hermione studied it for a brief moment, it was black with a white strip across the bonnet.
"Hardly sedate Harry," she commented. "I thought you liked sports cars."
"Hermione, this is" he just shook his head and walked around to the back opening the boot. "This isn't just a sports car, it's a classic."
Hermione watched Harry as he took her bag before opening the door for her and then walking around and getting into the driver's seat himself. He looked, he looked like Ron the last time he was showing her a new broom he'd bought.
That made her smile. It could hold both of them, if they were careful what they did on it.
"Ready to go?" Harry was grinning at her.
Hermione sighed, but there was also a sense of excitement both in Harry's voice and that she was feeling. She didn't say anything but met his grin and nodded as he started the engine.
The engine wasn't all that subtle either.
-/ - \\-
Fitz looked up as the car pulled into a parking spot near his hotel and exhaled a lungful of cigarette smoke.
He'd been trying to quit, that's what he'd been telling himself, that's what he told the Doctor whenever he gave him one of his 'slightly disapproving glances' on the rare occasion he lit up inside the Doctor's Volkswagen Beetle.
This guy knew how to travel in America, it was a classic car. It actually looked a bit retro as the people around here would probably say. Classic future, his time, maybe a little past his era, but close enough.
The bird he was with was a bit of alright too.
-/
Hermione wrinkled her nose as they walked into the hotel past a man smoking near the front.
She couldn't understand why people did that to themselves, especially considering all the information available concerning the dangers and health risks. "Why here Harry?"
"All will become apparent." He said mysteriously all the while looking carefully around them.
"Are the Ministry people here?" She muttered as he checked them both in. Separate but linked rooms she noted.
She looked out the window at the cable car turntable, then knocked on the door into Harry's room before walking in.
He was on a mobile phone and was jotting down something into a notebook.
"Yep, right. Fitzwilliam Fort, sounds a bit dodgy, right, sure. Okay." He paused and looked over at her. "Alone? Can't I…no, yes I understand the terms of our arrangement. Yes. Okay."
"Going somewhere?" She asked innocently as he ended the phone call. At least he had the decency to look guilty.
"Yes. Just some preliminary research about the Doctor, his companions and the nature of the scene at the moment. Seems this Fitz guy is already looking around, might know something. Have to meet a contact." He leaned over a grabbed what looked like an envelope of photos from his backpack and flipped through them, Hermione craned over.
"Here. Look for yourself." He passed her the photos. They were of odd little white silver things, followed by some older photos of some things in metal silver suits, the people around them looked like they were from the 60s.
"Should I ask?"
"Genuine UNIT certified prints from photos taken during the Cyberman invasion in the involving International Electromatics and some other photos," Harry replied, but it didn't seem to mean much to Hermione
"Alien fetishist?" Hermione tried as she looked at the tight fitting suits.
"Perhaps." His tone suggested he didn't know. "My contact likes to be in the know of certain things."
"How did you get to know this one Harry?" She asked curiously.
Harry looked a little sheepish. "He's a friend of Judith's." He didn't add that he'd tried to assassinate her, but supposedly they'd worked out their differences, at least that was what she told him when she'd put them in contact with one another.
"What do you want me to do?" She asked.
"Hang out in the bar." Harry said as he stood up.
"Looking dainty?" She asked sarcastically.
Harry turned around to face her. "Gathering information. Hermione my contact is a little…well he's touchy." He didn't add what else he was.
"So you're keeping me out of the way, Harry if I knew you were going to do this I would have stayed at home," she sighed.
"I also want you as my backup. This is the address." He ripped a page out of his notebook and pressed it into her hand.
"Fine. Backup it is, do you want a rescue that's gun's blazing or soft and subtle?" She asked.
"Surprise me," he said with a grin.
-/
Rum and Coke, Shirley Temple, Blackberry Merlot, Grapefruit juice, Sidecar, Lemon Lime and Bitters, Dandelion wine, Vesper martini, Mojito, Black Cat.
Hermione put down the menu in something of a daze, it had to be one of the most haphazard drinks menus that she'd ever read.
She was contemplating working her way through each of the menu items when the man who was smoking at the front of the hotel room sat down opposite her.
"Hello there," he said tipping his fedora at her.
"Hello," She replied cautiously. Surreptitiously making sure she still had her wand with her. Despite what Harry had said about magical transportation his best answer for using spells was 'not sure'.
"Can I buy you a drink?" He asked and winked at her.
She resisted the urge to say something unfriendly and with a mental sigh decided she had to start investigating somewhere.
"Alright." She took another glance at the menu and back to the guy. "Lemon Lime and Bitters." Bitters generally had a very minor alcoholic content, but it should give her the impression of being easy to talk to if she had a drink even with a negligible amount of alcohol in it.
"Be back in a second," he said with another wink.
Hermione could hear him order the drinks his was 'Martini, shaken not stirred'. She resisted to shake her head and instead smiled when he returned with the drinks.
"I don't even know your name," he said passing her drink to her.
"Hermione," she said, making the appearance of taking a drink, but just wetting her lips and tried to smile daintily at him.
"Fitzwilliam Fort," he said, it sounded like a practiced name. Hermione smiled upon hearing the name, perhaps she would learn more than Harry would wherever he was off at.
-/
Harry stepped back into the hotel, carefully looking around the foyer and walked into the bar area.
Hermione was sitting alone cradling something in a martini glass.
He caught her eye, she grinned dazed at the martini glass for a moment and made a show of standing unsteadily and walked over to him, taking his arm and leading him towards the stairs.
"Hermione are you pissed?" He asked amused.
"Shut up," she hissed quietly. "Let's get up to our rooms."
"How would Ron feel about this?" Harry asked quietly.
He didn't catch what she said but his shins felt it when she kicked him.
-/
Once they were back in their rooms she straightened up and seemed to have no ill effects.
"You took your time," she said going over to the window to look out of it.
"Have a good time in the bar?" He asked smiling.
Hermione turned around to look at him. "Harry do you really think I would spend my time getting drunk?"
Harry thought about it for a brief second. "No. So…?"
"So how did you go with your contact?" She asked leaning against the window sill. Harry watched her and the shadow she was casting as the sun shone through the window.
"I got some information, some leads to follow up."
"And Fitzwilliam Fort?" Hermione said with a smile.
Harry looked at her for a moment.
"You've met him?" He asked slightly surprised.
"Shared a lot of drinks with him," she sighed. "His language construction is all over the place Harry. I could write a thesis just on the way that he constructs sentences, his inflection, his fields of reference everything is so….so weird it was…" She trailed off.
Harry smiled. "Interesting, you know then he's a time traveller with the Doctor."
Hermione gave him a look that said 'of course I do Harry'. "It didn't take him long to spill that, he seemed to think ordering martinis would mark him out as someone I'd want to sleep with. Or at the very least gave him something of an edge, the bartender just seemed to glaze over whenever he ordered drinks," she paused. "He's not here, the Doctor I mean."
"Yes, wouldn't happen to know where he's gone?" Harry asked.
"No. But according to Fitz," she paused. "You know Fort isn't his last name?" She asked distractedly.
"Yes. It's Kreiner," Harry provided.
"Very good Harry." She mock clapped.
"You don't hand over…what I handed over without getting good information."
"More than photos I assume, I also guess I shouldn't ask." She fixed him with a stare. Harry nodded slowly.
"Fine Harry. As long as I don't get shot at this time."
"No guarantees. Supposedly a guy was mauled to death by a dragon last night," he said optimistically.
"Marvellous. So shouldn't we get going and find these wizards before they get mauled?" She asked.
Harry was shaking his head. "I think we should go out for dinner?"
"Dinner?" She repeated.
-/ - \\-
It had been a nice meal, albeit from a corner table with a nice view of all the exits.
"Why Harry did we rush over here if we're going to sit around in bars and have dinner casually like this?" Hermione asked impatiently as they exited the restaurant, they had played their conversation very casual while they'd been there.
"To gauge the ley of the land, literally in some cases I've been told," Harry explained softly.
"What?" She said after a moment.
"Did I mention this might be dangerous Hermione?" Harry asked as they walked down the street..
"Your agreement did Harry." She deadpanned. "I know things like this are dangerous."
"That's why we're gauging the ley of the land. We don't want what happened to the Ministry to happen to us." Hermione looked at him as his features darkened for a moment as he looked at and past her. Then the moment was gone as a cool wind blew around them.
Hermione shook her head for a moment and watched Harry rub the back of his neck in thought.
"Tomorrow the real work begins, tonight was about looking around and making sure no one is trying to kill us," he said casually.
"Not on our first night," Hermione scoffed with a smile.
"No," Harry chuckled. "That was rather indecent of everyone."
-/ - \\-
Morning, Hermione reflected was a nice time no matter where you were. She looked out the window and saw a flock of grey odd looking birds fly past her window.
She and Ron would sometimes wake before the sun rose, just to watch it rise. Actually that had happened once, after a night of drinking at some wizard pub that they'd visited. But the memory of being with him was still there in her mind.
Even if he was a git a lot of the time. He was her git.
Viktor could also be a bit of a git, more of a gruff, personable, deep, intellectual, thoughtful…she shook her head as she thought back to the time she'd spent over there. Watching the sun rise up, seeing the frost glisten in the early morning sunshine.
Her reminiscing was cut short as Harry knocked on the interconnected door.
"Ready?" He asked, not stepping into the room.
"I'm changed if that's what you mean Harry," she called.
"Well…" He trailed off.
"And ready to go." She finished.
-/
As Hermione got out of the car, and nearly stood on a toad, the reality, or unreality of things was starting to sink in.
The fact that the toad had said "Watch it!" before hopping away was probably the trigger.
"You saw that didn't you Harry?"
"Heard, not saw. Was it important?" He asked locking the Camaro, slinging a bag onto his back.
Hermione thought about the question seriously for a moment. "Probably not."
The entrance of Golden Gate Park was somewhat ominous, Hermione thought to herself.
What did it partly was despite the rather sunny day that had captured most of San Francisco, at the moment over the area of Golden Gate Park it was deeply overcast.
"Ominous, dark and a feeling of danger." She said to herself.
"Welcome to the wonderful world of the League of Paranormal Investigations," Harry said brightly.
"I'm freelancing Harry, for you, for a favour." She added looked forward into the park, then she turned around and looked across the streets, everyone seemed to just be ignoring the weird things that were going on. Though no one seemed to be heading into the park. Just to punctuate this a roar ripped out through the early morning commuters.
Hermione started to think about what it sounded like, but found that she couldn't associate it with anything remotely similar in her experience.
The thing that it sounded primeval like when Harry fought the dragon during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but older, crueler, more fanatic.
"You alright Hermione?" Harry's voice broke into her thoughts.
"I think so." Hermione looked up at the moody looking sky for a moment and back to Harry.
"Probably the best considering the experiences, shall we take a walk into one of the most 'charged' places in San Francisco?" He asked.
"'Charged'?" She asked skeptically.
Harry grimaced slightly. "Not my words. Wands out I think."
"In daylight Harry with…" He stared at her and raised an eyebrow. "Oh fine. Do we even know where to start? I noticed the Ministry's information was almost obtuse in its vagueness."
"No," Harry said in an annoyed tone. "My contact couldn't really be precise either, but here is a good place to start, we're not likely to be attacked by any griffin. Not immediately anyways."
"Marvellous." There was a noise that sounded like thunder, but it was a continuous noise, then it abruptly stopped. "Bloody marvellous," she repeated to herself.
-/
After a few hours of wandering around they found something, typically it wasn't the pleasant sort of something.
"Oh…Merlin, what is that?" Hermione said putting a sleeve up to her nose and mouth as she gagged.
It was in the shape of a foot print, a bloody mass.
"Oh dear." Was all Harry said as he started to gesture with a torch at the mass. "Oh no…"
"How can you do that Harry?" Hermione asked as she took ragged breath and saw several bits of clothing, bone and tissue floating off the ground, Harry had replaced his wand in a pocket and was pushing through the remains with a stick.
"I need to be thorough because…" He trailed off. "I think we'll need to keep an extra look out, around us and above."
"Oh what is it?" Hermione lost her patience and walked around Harry, who had been trying to frame himself so she couldn't see, or maybe she was just staying still so she didn't have to see what he was doing to the…to the corpse.
"That's disgusting, that's…oh." She stopped as she saw what Harry was focusing on with the torch light. It was actually two things, shattered though still relatively recognisable, both things they'd seen and used. A wand and a sneakascope.
"Oh Merlin Harry that's…" She trailed off.
"Yes, I'm rather afraid it is." He handed her the torch and pulled his backpack half off his back to rummage around in it. Removing a digital camera and started to take photos.
"What are you doing Harry?" She hissed.
"Evidence. I ensured the Minister I'd find his missing wizards." He replied as he zoomed in on the wand and sneakascope. "They can then arrange whatever they need to." He replaced the camera in his bag and withdrew a second device and looked at it, before writing something in a notebook.
"Coordinates?" Hermione asked as she tried to avoid looking at the human remains.
Harry nodded. "Yes," he said as he replaced the device in his bag and extracted a bag, it had a space for writing on it.
Hermione watched with some disgust and curiosity as Harry bent down and gingerly plucked the wand from the…the remains. "Hopefully the wand'll help the Ministry identify…this," Harry explained as he returned the now bagged wand to his bag.
Taking the torch she was holding he turned away from the remains. "Hopefully we're close to where they pitched up." He shook his head. "I wish they gave off a measurable energy signature, at least then we could find them."
Hermione frowned for a moment in thought. "You have something that can detect energy signatures?"
"I run an organisation that investigates paranormal activity Hermione, you should see what's in my barns on my property," he commented.
"Sports cars I always assumed," Hermione commented idly.
"That and a barely running Land Rover Defender. Almost new too…if it wasn't for the spell damage," he sighed.
"You've mentioned it Harry." Hermione resisted the urge to stuff her hands in her pockets, it wasn't cold per se, but it was just the darkness imposed by the overcast day. Instead she just turned her back on the remains to look around them.
"Can't you…I don't know calibrate it to detect magical signatures?" Harry shook his head, "magic isn't, well it doesn't come up like that. Plus look where we are Hermione."
"Fine I get your point." She paced a short distance around them pointing the torch to penetrate the seemingly encroaching darkness, despite it being barely midday. She looked back to Harry. He'd got out another torch, most likely from his amazingly big bag, that wasn't big.
"They must be camped somewhere around here mustn't they?" She said to herself.
"Yeah, that was my assumption, camping in the thick of it, away from muggles." He swept the torch around.
"So he" she gestured in vague area of the body "Was on his way somewhere, maybe for water."
"Water?" Harry asked puzzled.
"Don't you remember Harry? When we went to the Quidditch World Cup we had to fetch water to use," she asked.
"I was a little busy," he recalled. "but yes, I remember."
"So don't you see?" Hermione said with a smile. Harry blinked and then met her smile.
Harry nodded at her. "They'd need to be camped near water, or within walking distance, so if we can find a water source around here we can work outwards from there."
"Precisely Harry," she smiled.
"Have I told you you're brilliant Hermione?"
"Not nearly enough Harry." She smiled sweetly at him.
"You're brilliant Hermione," Harry said with vigour.
"Keep saying it Harry, it does my ego some good to hear the great Harry Potter, saviour of all that's great and good-" she was cut off.
"Of fluffy bunnies, cute kittens and things that go roar in the night," he commented idly.
"To praise the humble talents of one such as myself," she finished with a smirk.
"You're just too depreciative of your talents Hermione." Harry grinned.
"I know Harry…I'm glad I've got you around to take some of the burden from me," she teased.
Just as they seemed to be making progress along a path that seemed to have had some traffic in the last few days they were attacked.
Harry whipped his wand around at Hermione's shout as something tall and wraith like grabbed Hermione.
"Stupefy," he said levelly and he realised just after he had said the spell that something was quite wrong.
As the spell launched itself out of his wand as a crackling, energy filled spell he felt something he never thought he'd feel from his wand; recoil.
The spell did its job at freeing Hermione who was pulling herself up levelling her wand around her.
"Harry…what?" Hermione shouted.
"Brace yourself when you cast," he shouted as more of the wraith, succubi-like creatures swarmed in.
"Ow!" Hermione said and then swore as she too fired off a spell.
Following a minute or two of spell fire they were left alone with the smell of ozone in the air and sore shoulders.
"What in Merlin's name was that?" Hermione asked massaging her shoulder as she picked up her torch.
"The weird things that attacked us or what happened with the spells?" He asked as he shone the torch around them, there were no bodies and no sign of anything that attacked them.
"Both, preferably. I suppose you've got a theory?" She asked.
"You haven't?" He asked curiously.
"Some sort of over-power…something?" Hermione tried.
Harry nodded and affirmative. "I guess that is the result of a 'charged' environment. Your shoulder okay?"
"Not dislocated or anything Harry," she said wincing.
"I think bracing ourselves and being prepared will have to do. Though I never thought I'd need to do that for casting a wand," Harry said as he rubbed his shoulder ruefully.
"Only guns you mean?" She asked levelly.
"Yes," he said simply. "Now that we've been attacked do you think we're going in the right direction?"
Hermione shook her head. "Who knows. I take it as part and parcel hanging out with you Harry Potter."
"And you still love me for it don't you Hermione Granger?" Harry smiled at her, she just shook her head.
"Let's keep going, I don't want another attempt on my life, not in the next 5 minutes at least."
"I'll try Hermione," he said as he pushed past another overgrown tree. "This certainly wasn't in the guidebooks," he muttered mostly to himself.
"If there'd been a guide book to the wizarding world I think our lives would have been a lot easier," Hermione said from behind him as she cast her torch around them searching for a clues, or other things to attack them.
"Really, do you think someone published 'the idiot's guide to your own personal psychopathic enemy'?" Harry joked.
"Not specifically, maybe you could detail your life in a series of handy books," Hermione suggested jokingly.
"The last thing I want is someone reading about the adventures of Harry Potter and his wild adventures at Hogwarts."
"Yes. Publicity isn't your thing is it?" She commented, her tone slightly mocking.
"It's bad enough having a band named after me, though Malfoy's in the same boat," He added vaguely, stopping, looking up at the canopy of leaves.
"What?" Hermione asked. She looked at Harry who was sniffing the air. "What is it?"
"Can you smell something?" Harry asked.
"Other than undergrowth, a fading adrenaline rush and someone who didn't put on enough deodorant this morning?" She commented.
Harry didn't seem to be listening though. He was sniffing the air.
"You remember, Mundungus used to smoke that ratshit smelling pipe?" He said as he finished sniffing the air.
"Yes," She said slowly. "You can smell that?" She added curiously as she inhaled deeply.
"Maybe," He said thinking as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked around. "That way I think," he said pointing at a piece of shrubbery.
-/
It was somewhat of an anti-climax when they found it, the tent was sitting in a small clearing, the flaps of tent open, but they couldn't see into it.
Hermione started to walk forward, but Harry put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
"Hello?" Harry called.
"Go away! You don't exist," came a slightly slurred voice and of course some spells fired out of the tent. They crackled and hissed through the air, but failed completely to hit either of them.
"I'm from the Ministry," Harry called again edging closer towards the tent.
"Wh…?" Harry smelt another whiff of the smoke come out of the tent. He looked across to see that Hermione had gone around the back of the tent to the other side and was mimicking his approach.
"It's Harry Potter," he called.
"The mad one," the voice scoffed. "You don't exist either." The voice sounded tired.
Harry motioned to Hermione with an open palm and mouthed 'Five seconds'. She nodded back to him.
"I'm here to help," Harry began calmly. "help you get back to England."
"No escape from here," the voice replied mournfully. "We've been abandoned."
Harry looked over to Hermione and nodded and they both burst through the tent Hermione's wand raised, she barely had time to register that Harry had already started a stunner.
"-fy." The chair the man was slouching in shattered as the spell hit him and forced him to the ground.
"Harry!"
"Oops," he said with a grin as he pocketed his wand.
"I thought we were going for a calm and simple approach?" Hermione asked, slightly annoyed.
"What gave you that idea?" He asked as he grabbed the pipe out of the man's hands.
"Your calm conversation?" She tried.
"Best to neutralise the danger."
"Shoot first interrogate the remains later," Hermione commented as she looked around.
Harry opened his mouth but shut it again, instead bending over and opened one of the man's eyes, it was bloodshot.
"High do you think?" He wondered.
"Or lack of sleep," Hermione called over from the kitchen area of the larger within than without tent, she was waving some of the small cups under her nose.
"There's; Pepper up, calming draught, draught of peace, boil-cure potion and urgh."
"What?" Harry called.
"Smells like something's gone off in a polyjuice potion." She put the cup down wrinkling her nose. "So now what?"
"Explain to him what's happening and get on with this I think," he said levelling his wand at the unconscious man.
-/
"This is important, don't whatever you do…" Harry paused and slapped the man (mildly) on the face. "Are you listening?"
"Yes Potter, I'm listening," he said looking up at the skies around the airport. "So fascinating these muggle 'aeroplanes'," he said, mostly to himself. Harry ignored the sigh from Hermione. He still looked like he'd been up most of the night, but didn't quite have the appearance of a man who was high.
"Whatever you do don't apparate from the plane," Harry told him again.
"Why not? The sooner I'm away from these muggles and their" He looked at him. "Deviant madness the better."
"Aside from the complications it would cause the Ministry, both here and in England. The velocities you will be travelling there will be a greater chance of a rather catastrophic splinching," Harry explained.
"Splinching? I never…" Harry cut him off.
"At the speeds you'll be flying there won't be much left except most likely a fine mist. Good for the plants, not so good for your health."
That suitably shocked him. Harry ignored again Hermione's tutting.
"I'll accompany you through security," Harry said taking a hold of the man's arm and led him away from Hermione.
-/ - \\-
Someone had parked an old Volkswagen Beetle in the parking space he'd been using near their hotel so they'd needed to park a few blocks away.
"One down, three more to go," Harry mused.
"Are you counting the one who was…" Hermione trailed off.
"Two more to find," Harry corrected with a wince.
"Mysteriously taken," Hermione recounted. "Not much to go on Harry."
"No." He paused looking around. "Did you hear something?" Then there was a sound of an explosion.
"Yes." Hermione replied with a smile.
Harry sighed. Then two people rounded a corner and walking at a pace between them.
Notable were the large back packs they were wearing and of course that they had wands drawn and were firing backwards towards himself and Hermione.
It was only after they'd let off a few spells that Harry realised they weren't shooting at them. He said as much to Hermione as they stood up.
"Makes a change," she said as two more spells roared between them.
"I felt that one." He looked up and down the street, which was quite empty, but those who were around didn't seem to be paying attention the spells that were flying up and down the street at them.
"You, please…" A man in official looking robes…and a large chest wound. "Please help they've stolen the treasures."
Harry considered saying several things. Like 'what treasure', 'who are you' , 'who were they' and several others.
But Hermione spoke first. "Of course. Come on Harry," she said taking off on at a brisk jog.
"I thought you were just saying before whenever we hang out-" Harry began.
"Shut up," Hermione said quickly.
He nodded and looked ahead as they ran, the pair were still jogging as fast as their booty could carry, they were also randomly firing spells off at a pretty wide pattern.
"Take the other side of the street, if we run we can catch them and deal with them," Harry said.
"And remember to brace. Good thing I wore my running shoes," she said as she increased her speed.
Harry started firing spells as soon as he was remotely in range.
The spell fizzed and crackled along the street making, the kickback making him cringe as his wand fought against his forward momentum of his running.
A spell cut across the street and he heard Hermione swear rather loudly in response and the rate of her spells increased dramatically.
As much as he would have liked to start firing off multiple Avada Kadavras at the assailants who were throwing all manner of spells at him he restrained himself to stunners.
Though they felt like they packed a punch.
They were getting close to the hotel now, and closing the distance to an ideal distance to fire and be shot at by spells.
Harry stared for a moment as he ran and then grinned, he knew the man who was standing beside the Volkswagen Beetle, seemingly enjoying the fresh air, oblivious to the spell firefight that was going on around him.
"Doctor! Get down!" He roared as he focused on the closest of the looters.
The spell ripped free of his wand, he could almost feel the energy roaring the short distance between him and his target, the way it fizzed and rippled through their air molecules and plunged into its target its momentum carrying him some distance before he slammed into the footpath.
A moment later a second body joined his fellow. He and Hermione ran up at practically the same time.
"Nice timing," he praised.
"You know Harry, I almost enjoyed that," she said after taking a breath and then glared at him grinning at her.
Then a slightly improbable thing happened, a dark blue truck pulled up with a similar hiss that the Knight Bus made, except this Harry thought to himself looked anything but friendly. More people like the official looking guy jumped out and grabbed the two stunned individuals.
"What about the guy who…" Harry began.
"Thank you for your assistance." He waved from the back of the truck as the official people hauled the bodies into the back. Then without another word the truck sped off.
"Harry Potter, Harry, Harry, Harry. What a surprise it is to see you here!" Harry was enveloped in a hug. "And Hermione Granger!" The man exclaimed letting go of him. "Hermione, It's been so long, you've grown…or have I shrunk?"
"Oof," Was all Hermione could say before she was enveloped in a similar hug as she'd seen the man give Harry. The man from what she could tell was wearing a velvet coat.
"Who…?" She started to say as the stranger let go of her grinning.
"Hermione this is the Doctor." Harry said with a matching grin.
"Doctor?" Hermione said her eyes widening. It was one thing for Harry to say that the Doctor changed his appearance, it was another to see the man in front of him, grinning and chatting away to Harry.
"Magic in the streets Harry? It's brilliant, amazing. If only Houdini could have seen this." The Doctor paused. "Or would Harry have questioned it all, he was like that."
"That's not the only amazing thing, though from what your friend Fitz has been investigating that's not likely to be a surprise," Harry commented with a smile. As though to emphasise his point a flock of dodos waddled past them.
"You've met Fitz?" The Doctor said as he stared at the dodos walking down the street.
"After a fashion," Hermione commented. "Were those dodos?"
"Yes! Yes. Isn't it fantastic? And all here in San Francisco." Then suddenly the bouncy life filled person evaporated briefly and Hermione fancied she caught sight of the Doctor she had met previously. "It also represents a much greater problem."
"Shall we go inside have a drink? I don't want to run into any more dodos today," Hermione suggested.
"Of course, of course!" The Doctor suddenly brightened.
"A beetle Doctor, what about Bessie?" Harry teased as they walked up the stairs.
"Alistair has been looking after her for me after that business with the Ice Warriors."
Harry thought for a moment. "1996? Somehow I managed to miss an alien invasion?"
The Doctor nodded smiling. "Benny asked about you, the last time I met her anyway Hermione."
"Oh?" Hermione looked up.
"Oh," the Doctor said as they walked in and didn't find Fitz waiting for them.
"Probably off consulting his contacts." Harry murmured to them.
"So Harry, how are you here? What have you been up to?" The Doctor asked throwing himself into a chair in the corner of the bar.
"I'll get some drinks," Hermione offered.
"Ginger beer for me," the Doctor said absently as he patted his pockets for money. "Oh," he said staring at a crawling robot. "Very valuable piece of coin."
"Just not here," Harry said with a smile as he wondered to himself how much he could say. It was brilliant to see his old friend again. Seeing the Doctor just made him grin.
"Precisely Harry. Very perceptive!" He grinned at him.
"Ace said you tried to pay with something like that before," Harry observed.
"Oh Ace…." He smiled.
"Is she well?" Harry asked curiously.
"Of course, of course, safe in the past," then he mumbled "'Time's Vigilante'. So Harry, what brings you here and now?"
"Word reached me that you were here," Harry replied, trying to remember what the Doctor knew when he met him at the Quidditch World Cup and when he rescued him following his encounter with Voldemort in the graveyard.
Knowing a time traveller, especially one you shared a past with, which was also said time traveller's future was difficult. At least with Jack he could keep everything relatively worked out. Though Jack's past was also his past, he only knew of events that were Jack's future, everyone's future come to think of it.
Harry looked back at the Doctor who smiled a knowing smile as he tried to work out what to say.
"Things have been attracted to this area. I'm looking for some wizards who came here."
"You're working for that Ministry then? Ah…marvellous thank you Hermione!" He said brightening. Taking a long sip of the straw. Harry stared thoughtfully at his old friend, he certainly didn't look over 1000 years old.
"I finished school, obviously you know that," he said after a moment of contemplative silence.
"We finished school." Hermione put in.
"Good, good," the Doctor continued to grin. "And now you're here; attracted."
"Like flutterwings to dew," Harry said with a grin that was only matched by the Doctor's.
"So what have you been up to?" The Doctor leaned towards him, eager, ready, enthusiastic.
"This and that, saving people, adventuring," Harry paused to take a sip of the mineral water Hermione had bought him. "I like to think you inspired me."
"Me?" The Doctor shook his head. "You inspire yourself Harry, I merely…make things better."
"Just as a Doctor should," Harry said with a grin.
"Ah Fitz there you are!" The Doctor leapt from his chair rocking the table and rushing over to the door to the bar.
"So that's the Doctor?" Hermione looked between Harry and the Doctor. Harry nodded. "He's…" She trailed off.
"Energetic?" Hermione nodded. "He can be many things," Harry replied somewhat wistfully.
"But he's so different to…to the other one." Hermione frowned, even studying linguistics you didn't come across the language to deal with knowing a multi-faceted time traveller too often.
Harry grinned. "You have no idea." He said looking over to where the Doctor was talking, waving his arms around and making grand and worried gestures.
Then he walked back over, Fitz following him.
"You Potter?"
"Yes. And you'd be, Fitzwilliam Fort" Harry paused and raised his eyebrows at the Doctor "or is that Fitz Fortune, or perhaps Fitz Kreiner, you're some way from 1963."
"What…?" Fitz started and shook his head. "Got a message from a friend. He says talk to the unicorns."
Harry smiled. "Thanks Fitz." He rose and shook Fitz's hand. "It's Harry by the way. Potter is what my mortal enemies call me and professors called me." Harry looked up at the clock on the wall. "Best to see the unicorns at night I think. Time for a spot of dinner."
"Of course the only way to round off being attacked, shot at and running for our lives." Hermione commented idly as she sipped something alcohol based.
"You know the Doctor then?" Fitz asked regarding Hermione in a new light.
"In passing, but that's just what hanging out with Harry does."
"Doctor, dinner?" Harry asked. "My treat, considering I've wandered into one of your adventures."
"Rather than me appearing in yours Harry? I haven't been present for all of your schooling life," the Doctor said casually regarding him.
Harry raised an eyebrow at the Doctor's casual curiosity. "Wasn't it you who went on and on about the Web of Time?"
"Me?" He looked over to Fitz, he had a wounded puppy look in his eyes.
"Kyra said we can drop in whenever." Fitz mumbled.
"Good, good. Dinner it is then!" Harry rubbed his hands together.
-/
Hermione regarded Fitz and he in turn didn't try to flirt with her, they both looked over to where Harry and the Doctor were chatting amiably, every so often the Doctor would make a grand gesture with his hands as he animatedly talked.
"So what was that yesterday, just looking for information?" He asked.
Hermione shrugged. "Harry had his contacts to see and I wanted to find out the ley of land."
Fitz snorted at what seemed like a private joke that he didn't elaborate. "You two together?"
"Me and Harry?" Hermione asked incredulously picked through her salad. "Are you and the Doctor together?"
Fitz just shook his head.
-/
"And now you're investigating paranormal activity, the wonder and brilliance of humans, Harry! It astounds me sometimes." The Doctor paused to take a bite out of whatever it was that he'd ordered, the Doctor had rattled off his order in perfect Italian, which had seemed to only bamboozle the waitress given that they were in a French restaurant and the waitress was at studying physics at the Advanced Research Project at Berkeley.
"Well there's a gap, UNIT and Tor…" The Doctor fixed him with a curious stare as he paused and tried to remember if the Doctor now knew about Torchwood.
"And other entities," Harry paused to finish his meal. "Knowing you is difficult Doctor."
"Oh? Knowing me is fun, brilliant, different. I'm a time traveller, the guy with two hearts."
"I also know the future," Harry broke in.
"The future?" The Doctor paused in the middle of his speech.
"Web of Time and all that. What happens if I tell you something you didn't know when you meet me next," Harry asked.
"Me meet you next? Shouldn't that be you meet me next?" He asked.
"No." Harry met gazes with the Doctor for a few moments. He seemed older for a few moments. Then he broke the stare.
-/
"The thing about the Doctor is, he's got the ability to look you in the eye and lie like a dog. I've always admired that," Fitz said jabbing a finger backwards to where Harry and the Doctor were chatting as they walked along back to their hotel, where supposedly they'd each be going their separate ways.
Fitz wasn't so much of a misogynistic 60s throwback she'd initially guessed at, actually a rather fascinating person, who still threw on the flirting charm when he thought she was tipsy (she wasn't). Hermione knew how to hold her alcohol, living on campus taught you few things other than the essentials of study.
"He does like to know things, from what I've seen of him, hide them until the moment they're needed," Hermione started diplomatically. "But if he's a time traveller shouldn't he know what's going to happen?"
"You'd think he would, sometimes he walks in not knowing anything. Other times he just gets us to do the dirty work, then there was what happened to…" he trailed off. He'd done that a few times Hermione noted, say 'us' rather them 'me', but he hadn't started to say who the other person was, or what had happened to he or she. From the way Fitz had talked it sounded like a she, possibly.
-/
"I've always wanted to fly a dragon, can I come with you tonight?" The Doctor asked as he practically bounced along.
He seemed so full of energy, far more than the last time he'd met this Doctor, but Harry also knew that the Doctor was in the middle of something here in San Francisco, something that he was obviously trying to distract himself from by getting involved in Harry's…'adventure'. He chanced a look back at Hermione and Fitz. They seemed to be chatting alright, letting himself and that Doctor chat about all manner of things.
Though the Doctor was still challenging him on the future, or to be more accurate his past but the Doctor's future.
He should know better than to ask things like that, it was taking some degree of concentration to not reveal anything to the Doctor, or only pertinent things, maybe the Doctor forgot what he said between this body and his next. When he'd met the Doctor at the Quidditch World Cup he'd been somewhat reticent to talk about the events of his regeneration, even if he did later talk about the Time War, Last and Great that it was.
How the Doctor knew it was something odd, considering according to the Doctor and Jack and Romana and the Magister there were plenty of time active species in the universe.
"I thought you said you'd be the 'upstanding Time Lord' and sit on the sidelines with popcorn?" Harry wondered.
The Doctor stopped walking and stared at him, grasping his lapels, Harry smiled and wondered if the Doctor would appreciate it if he told him that he looked like one of his predecessors.
He decided not and just smiled to himself. "I might have embellished a little. Though you seem to be in the middle of your own crisis here." Harry motioned around.
"This, this, this wonderful glorious confluence of events and people?"
Harry made a noise of agreement.
The Doctor stuffed his hands into his pockets once again, Harry half expected him to pull them out again and offer him a jelly baby, but that was another Doctor some while ago.
"Maybe, but Harry, this, this is wondrous, even by" he grinned at him. "Our standards."
Harry met his grin. "Fine Doctor you can come." Harry looked over to their hotel where a woman with dark hair was smoking outside the hotel. She was looking in their direction. "But it seems you have some things to deal with here." He added.
The Doctor, who had been walking backwards watching, waiting for him to answer spun around quickly, his jacket seemingly not quite matching his velocity, or maybe it was just the weird way his shadow was falling on the ground during that in between dusk and night, maybe.
"What?" The Doctor said. "Oh Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam…." The Doctor said rushing off.
"Looks like that's our cue to depart." Fitz tipped his hat to Hermione. "Nice chatting with you." He nodded to Harry. "Potter."
"Mr Kreiner. I hope to see you and the Doctor before we depart," Harry said as he looked towards the Doctor. "He looks like he's got his hands full."
Fitz's look indicated that despite chatting for most of the night the Doctor had neatly avoided why he was here and what was going on in relation to him.
"Yeah."
-/
"Come on, we've got an appointment with some unicorns," Harry said taking Hermione's arm.
"Don't you want get the Doctor?" Hermione asked looking over at the Doctor, Fitz and the dark haired woman.
Harry shook his head. "Trouble follows the Doctor."
"Harry, trouble follows you, more often than not you're being shot, chased, tortured or insulted," Hermione listed.
"Insults are fine, it's when they're really camp about it. I hate being taunted by someone camp," Harry said leading her away from their hotel.
"How many camp megalomaniacs have you fought lately?" Hermione asked with a quirk of a smile.
"Not a lot," he admitted.
"So?" She tried again, nodding her head backward to the where the Doctor was.
Harry dug his hands into his pockets. "The Doctor's like a force of nature, sweeping in, like a winter chill freezing water mid-flow in a fountain or bushfire sweeping across the countryside. Powerful both in image and realisation," he paused, looking up and down the street as they crossed it.
"But?" Hermione asked, looking around, it was quite empty around here. No weird things occurring. That worried her somewhat.
"But I think he's trying to distract himself from larger issues, trying to juggle cats to distract himself from the dragon beating at the door."
"So? He seemed capable of plenty of machinations the last time we met him." She said as they reached the Camaro. And plenty more she added mentally to herself according to Bernice Summerfield.
Harry sighed. "I get the feeling what's happening here is far beyond simple kitten juggling. We've still got a job to do, getting involved with the Doctor's adventures might lead to unforeseen occurrences."
The Camaro roared with life puncturing the bubble of silence that enveloped him. But the conversational silence continued.
"He seems," he paused as he indicated and then turned the wheel. "when I last met him as he is now he was far more…bouncy, breathless." Though, Harry thought to himself he was even less energetic when I met him at the Quidditch World Cup. "He's the same person, though more, I don't know. It's hard to put into words."
Hermione nodded, looking out the window as they drove past the buildings that surrounded Golden Gate Park. "I understand Harry. You have after all known him a lot longer than I have. According the Bernice he liked to play people like pieces in a game."
Harry made an affirmative noise. "I'm just not sure what game we're playing at the moment."
"As long as we don't have to recreate a chess board and play a game out Harry. Once in my life was enough for me," Hermione shook her head, recalling their first year.
Harry looked at her quickly. "What and miss the chance to look gallant?"
"Ron likes to impress upon me the scars he got during that incident," Hermione said.
"Little bit of an over-share there Hermione," Harry idly commented.
Hermione grinned at him. "I think he's still trying to compete with you."
"For scars?" Harry queried incredulously. "Ron doesn't, couldn't understand how much pain and suffering I've been through to end up with them."
Hermione rested a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, it was just meant to be…you know how he is."
He nodded and added. "The way he used to look at me when we were changing I occasionally teased him that he might want to…you know, get intimate."
Hermione whacked him on his shoulder with the back of her hand. "Harry!"
"That's what he said when I suggested it. Though far less mature, more of a squeak."
Then the darkness seemed to close in around them, Harry turned off the engine and they sat for a moment looking out into the park, the headlights of the car barely biting through the enveloping darkness. "Here we are."
"Another dangerous, dark place with Harry Potter adventure holidays," Hermione muttered to herself.
"Nothing like them, fun, adventure-" Harry was cut off by Hermione.
"Being shot at, being questioned, quizzed and generally trying avoid a diplomatic incident."
"For a government that thinks I'm insane. Don't you love the life?" He grinned at her.
Hermione wouldn't admit it to Harry, not at the moment in any case. But yes, yes it was enjoyable, fun even, though perhaps some of that enjoyment came from knowing that at the end of this she could return to her relatively normal life.
Maybe Harry would want her for more 'freelance work', maybe she might agree…maybe.
"Ready?" Harry's voice broke into her thoughts, he had slung his backpack onto his back and was offering her a torch. Looking up into the inky black sky she smiled and tried to ignore the cool wind that whipped around them, then a moment later it was gone.
"Absolutely," she said with what she hoped sounded like confidence, but what came out as mild sarcasm. She blamed spending too much time with Harry for her sarcastic streak that had slowly made itself known.
-/
"Harry how do you know that these unicorns will be able to help us? If they're unicorns, how are we going to talk to them?" Hermione asked as they pushed their way through another low growing tree. She'd read about the Golden Gate Park, though she'd never been, and it wasn't an overgrown jungle, not the last time she'd read up on the subject. How long would it remain like this, how long until things inevitably returned to normal? Or
perhaps it wouldn't 'The 21st century is when everything changes' Harry had quoted to her a while ago. Maybe this was just one of the many things that was changing.
"These aren't regular unicorns," Harry called back to her.
"Of course they aren't."
"They're supposedly from another dimension," Harry continued.
"Of course they are," Hermione said again and wondered if life would throw any other unexpected things in her direction.
"But they shouldn't be dangerous," Harry added vaguely as he looked up at the sky again, he had been doing that since they'd started into the park, though whenever she tried looking up all she saw was black.
Then she felt it, a sharp jab in the middle of her back, she stopped walking immediately. Less than a moment later Harry turned around.
"Worried?" He asked a smile on his face unaware of the whatever it was that was jabbing into her back.
"A little bit," she said nervously.
"Why?" Harry asked suddenly worried by her grim expression.
"There's something jabbing into my back," Hermione applauded herself for saying the sentence such a nonchalant manner.
Harry didn't say anything but did lean to his right to see what was behind her. Then he waved. "Hello there!"
Hermione's eyes widened as she saw more of the being behind Harry, they were tall as a horse, white, with a golden horn in their forehead and managed to look nothing like the unicorns in the wizarding world though looking exactly like ones that she could imagine existing.
"Harry!" She hissed gesturing with her head, not wanting to move too far from her captor.
"Oh goody," he said and turned around to look at Hermione, a manic grin forming. "I've always wanted to say this," he said in a mock whisper to her he continued to grin. "We come in peace. Take me to your leader."
He turned around as Hermione groaned.
"Hermione?" He asked curiously as he offered out his arm, cautiously she walked forward.
"Just don't go sleeping with any green skinned aliens," she muttered as she took his arm.
"No promises," he smiled broadly.
-/
"Ah there you are Potter, I had wondered how long it would take you to rescue me!" Greeted the man who was sitting at what looked like a bar from a 1950s soap that had been plonked in the middle of the park. He looked to be playing a game of wizarding chess against one of the unicorns. Something about both...beings' body language suggested that the unicorn was the leader, that and they had been lead to them.
"Professor Marksdown Eversdale Eftosian-Thelos."
"Ah so you've heard of me then old chap?" He asked taking a sip from a china cup.
"Only in passing. I've come to rescue you," Harry said amicably.
"Well, top show." He brightened toasting them with a tea cup.
Hermione couldn't help thinking it was going remarkably easily.
"And this is your mudblood you've brought with you to smooth things along with the rabble is it?" He asked with the casual racism of a wizard.
Of course, Hermione thought to herself. "The mudblood has a name and can speak for herself thank you very much," she bristled.
"No offence meant, can't have you thinking I was one of Voldemort's lot." He smiled at Harry. Hermione chanced a look at Harry who was staring back at him with a cold expression.
"One of your colleagues has already died Professor. I could very easily kill you and say that you died along with them. It would be pathetically simple. So I would ask you to hold your tongue, lest I cut it out for you," he said with a professional level of coolness that gave Hermione gooseflesh that felt like to travelled all the way to the bone, and then some. Aside form the chills that his comment induced she couldn't discern what he was thinking, but there seemed to be something bubbling beyond what was immediately visible on the surface of Harry's features.
"Yes. I think you would," Professor Eftosian-Thelos said after a moment regarding Harry, he gave her a casual look of disdain, bordering on disgust.
"If I could have a word," Harry's tone changed as he addressed the lead unicorn.
"Stun him if you need to Hermione, kill him if it's necessary," he said with casual abandon.
-/
"I understand you're stuck here." Harry said.
"Yes, you know of us?" Said the unicorn, it seemed like he/it/she, Harry wasn't sure what gender it was, but it seemed like it was speaking in English to him, though a part of him suggested to the conscious side of his mind that it may not be, whatever it was he tried not to think about it.
"Not really, in passing," Harry slipped off his bag and removed an unfeasibly large rolled map from it, unrolling it and pinning it between two convenient trees. "I'm relatively sure this situation will sort itself out," he said as casually as he could. At least the Doctor never mentioned San Francisco being the epicentre of anything weird, no weirder than usual, though that still wasn't really saying anything given the lives they both lived. "But if it doesn't there's a space time rift here" he pointed to Cardiff. "If you got here through some dimensional rift, I was thinking there could be a chance that you could use whatever it was that got you here to get back through the rift there."
"We were not aware of any rifts here."
Harry was silent for a moment. "Well, no. But I thought you had better know about it, just in case things don't resolve themselves."
"You believe they might?" Asked the unicorn.
Harry stood in silent contemplation for a moment, just so he didn't say immediately 'yes'. But the answer would be yes. The Doctor was on the case, so hopefully he would fix…all of this or at least smooth over the bumps, turn the mountains into molehills. "I believe so."
"But you give us an alternative," the unicorn queried.
"Just in case, things don't always go to plan." He added. Harry looked at the unicorn who seemed to be in thought, the end of the conversation seemed to just end here, but he wasn't really sure how to fully end it. He decided just to back away until he was out of sight of the unicorn.
-/
He returned to where Hermione was waiting, the other unicorns seemed to have disappeared.
"Harry the unicorns they…" But Harry cut her off.
"Later," he said in a low voice, looking around carefully and then up at the sky again, there still wasn't any sign of stars or anything remotely normal. Not that Hermione really expected there to be.
"Yes good show old boy, keeping the natives in check, can't let them discover anything too complex." Hermione jabbed her wand hard into the man's side.
"Shut up, we're leaving," Harry said grabbing the man's shoulder and pushing them towards the direction they'd come from, after they were a few steps away from where the unicorns had been he asked the Professor a question. "What about your colleague, know where he's gone?"
"Smoking his brains to sludge, no sense of duty or honour," Professor Eftosian-Thelos called back to them with some disdain.
"I've found him," Harry interjected. "he said you departed taking Junior Researcher Bartholomew Colmo with you."
"Yet you found me in this maelstrom of aberrant persons," Eftosian-Thelos said calmly was they walked into a small clearing.
"That's what the Ministry paying me for," Harry said looking around, something was beginning to feel not right. Then he had a realisation what it was.
"What did you say?" Harry asked, though the Professor was mid-speech.
"Colmo was far too much of a conformist, his mind was addled. He needed to be dealt with. You though Potter will see proceedings for your actions." Then he laughed as figures rushed out from the undergrowth, grabbing Hermione and forming a circle, their wands pointing at him.
Hermione swore. "Marvellous, thanks Harry."
"So which nutters are you part of Professor?" Harry asked casually as he looked around him. There were at least ten wizards or witches, their wands drawn pointing at him. It almost made him feel nostalgic for the days at Hogwarts and the people threatening him. People who were mad nutters at that.
Harry tuned back in to the mad Professor, he'd tuned out his ranting for a moment during his nostalgia trip. "…These things just prove how warped and depraved your thoughts have become Potter. These are not aliens merely derivations of the mighty wizard kind!"
"Oh you're one of those." Was all Harry had to say, he couldn't see through the gloom that was encroaching but he was sure Hermione was rolling her eyes, either that or she was silently cursing him, he hoped for the former.
"You will return to England and face retribution for your immorality!"
Harry slowly turned around looking at the encroaching group.
"Ah now, you see" he said as he looked around. "What you've done is you've started to corner me, in a circle, that's pretty brilliant. In the stupid sense I mean. Good thinking on the circle. But one problem."
"What's that?" Hermione deadpanned sarcastically.
"They forgot to take my wand. Though in this magically charged environment it makes using spells all the more complicated and dangerous wouldn't you say?" Harry said talking quickly as he withdrew his wand. "The one thing you don't want to do in such a highly charged magical environment is start letting off bright spells" Harry turned around making sure everyone was focusing on him. "Especially since you will have dark adapted with all your lurking about." Harry took a breath and hoped Hermione had got his hints, then he pointed his wand in the last direction the goons approaching him thought he would, the sky. "LUMOS!" Harry roared.
Light rushed up from his wand sizzling and hissing through the air, lighting up Golden Gate Park, it impacted something high in the air whiting out everything directly below it. Even as Harry let go of the spell the light, blaring and blinding it remained.
Harry grinned to himself as he dropped down onto his stomach and whispered a Stupefy at one of the blinded wizards.
"Avada Kedavra!" His target yelled across the circle, the spell shot across Harry's back, he fancied he could feel the sizzling green death of the spell as it spat across the circumference of the circle.
They didn't need much encouragement. Harry thought to himself as another equally deadly spell shot across him again as he shuffled around searching, squinting against the on-going white out from his spell.
Squinting he saw someone crawling towards him. He angled his wand backwards and fired another Stupefy and was rewarded by far more cries of deadly and not so deadly spells.
"Harry!" Hissed someone who sounded remarkably like Hermione somewhere in front of him.
"Hey Hermione," he said as casually as possible, as though they weren't both flat on their stomachs as mad wizards shot randomly at each other.
Hermione didn't seem to have anything to say.
He fired another spell in a random direction.
"Must you add fuel to the fire Harry?" Hermione said in a weary manner.
"I couldn't have fought my way out, not in this environment with these zealots," he quickly said.
Harry gestured with his head as he tried to blink away the blinding spots in his eyes. Both the cries of spells from their attackers and the blinding spell light were dying down.
Then the light suddenly cut out and only the afterglow flare in their vision and the sound of some groans around them was left.
Harry looked over at Hermione, who looked back at him.
"I think we should get up off the ground," he said completely needlessly, then he added as they stood. "Sorry I keep getting you into danger Hermione."
Hermione shook her head. "I get myself into danger, hanging out with you," she smiled at him and took a deep breath of the night air as she blinked several times. "But thanks anyway. But as you said at the start of this 'adventure' this is a job and I chose to come and get mixed up in this crazy life."
"But still I worry should anything happen to you," Harry said as he looked around.
Hermione gave him a look. "I can look after myself Harry."
"I know," Harry said, then Hermione gasped.
"Are they all dead?" She asked looking around, having got her sight back.
"Caught in the crossfire, I'll check them. Cover me," Harry called to her as she scooped up her wand where she'd been forced to drop it.
More than half of their attackers were dead.
"Is he...?" Hermione trailed off looking at Professor Marksdown Eversdale Eftosian-Thelos.
"Dead as a can of Spam," Harry said without much preamble and slight humour.
"Harry, please." Hermione said somewhat disgusted at his comment.
Harry bent down and retrieved Professor Eftosian-Thelos' wand, slipping it into one of his many pockets.
"What are you going to do?" Hermione asked quietly, trying not to look directly at the dead body of the man they'd come looking for, or at the men whom Harry had identified as deceased.
Harry slipped off his back pack and removed a dark black body sized shaped bag and proceeded to slip it over the Professor's body and then sealed it up. It didn't seem like a regular body bag, not that she'd seen many, mostly on crime dramas that were on late at night, she like to have the TV on sometimes while writing essays.
Harry finished what he was doing by pushing an odd looking stake into the ground and tying some loose ends of the body bag to it.
"This was something I got from the Ministry, just in case. Though they didn't like the idea of me needing it." He explained as he stood up and retrieved the same device he'd consulted at their previous encounter with the bodily remains and wrote a similar set of coordinates into his notebook.
"What about these people?" Hermione asked, gesturing those still alive.
"You okay with banishing them away, I just don't want them around here." He motioned the body bag.
Hermione looked around them and chewed her lip. Harry frowned. "How about you deal with the breathing ones, a slightly more delicate touch I trust."
"Than your bull in a china-shop approach you mean Harry?" She teased, despite the situation.
Hermione tried not to watch what Harry was doing to…to the people who started firing the killing curse at them without much provocation. Instead she focused on controlling the crackling of her banishing charm so as to not do her targets any further injury, beyond that which they'd done to one another.
"What about this Bartholomew Colmo?" Hermione asked as the carefully walked back to where they'd left the car.
Harry shrugged. "From what Professor Eftosian-Thelos said I don't hold out hope. But I'll inform the Ministry and they can take it from there," he said simply.
-/ - \\-
Hermione walked down the stairs of their hotel, feeling well rested, the previous night's events a fresh yet distant memory.
Walking into the bar where a buffet breakfast was set up she could hear Harry and the Doctor talking or arguing in the corner. She noticed as she looked over the suspicious black case was by Harry's feet.
"Harry, Harry, Harry. Why didn't you wait for me? All of this could have been avoided," the Doctor enthused.
"All of what Doctor?" Harry asked stirring his tea and attempted to keep a calm expression on his face.
The Doctor though did not. "Fitz told me about the bodies Harry," he said his expression shifting somewhere between disappointment and anger.
"They were trying to kill me Doctor," Harry replied evenly.
"There should have been," the Doctor started.
But Harry cut him off. "Another way?"
"No, another solution, there isn't just one or the other there are a multitude of directions your confrontation, whatever it was could have gone, if, if only you and I could have gone along together Harry!"
Harry exhaled. "You seem to have your hands full here Doctor, Fitz isn't the only one with contacts in the city."
The Doctor bristled slightly. "I don't know everything. I'm not sure I want to." The Doctor fixed him with a hard stare, Harry looked into his eyes and met the stare.
"You really are too good at that," tthe Doctor said with an air of resignation.
"He taught me plenty of things," Harry commented sadly thinking of the last time he'd met the Magister and the state that he'd been in.
"Why don't you want to me know Harry? I thought you'd…unless you already know…?" The Doctor asked, picking up his previous statement as he buttered a piece of toast.
Harry shook his head. "I didn't know you were here in San Francisco, the web of time is safe as far as all that's concerned," Harry lied lightly as he watched the Doctor smear a large amount of raspberry jam onto his toast. "I don't want to know what's going on here with you because" Harry paused to sigh and the Doctor cause his look. "Because if I did I would want to stay here and finish this, whatever you're up to."
He paused, though the Doctor stepped in. "Fighting side by side Harry?"
Harry nodded. "You might tempt me to come away with you, adventuring and all."
"But you know my future?" The Doctor tried.
"And I know your past, but more than that I know the person I want to be and what I want to do. I've had my" he stopped himself from saying 'trip in the TARDIS' that was still the Doctor's future, despite being his past. "You've given me your time and you've known when not to follow me and let me face my own dangers. I know what I'm doing, even if I make mistakes along the way."
The Doctor was grinning at him now. "That's good Harry, wonderful." The Doctor beamed at him.
-/
Hermione followed Harry and the Doctor outside to the Doctor's car where Harry lifted the black case he'd been carrying around onto the back of the car and undid the case.
"Something of a care package for you Doctor." Harry said by way of explanation.
"How did you know I…?" The Doctor trailed off as he looked within the case.
"An Acturan probe crashed into a wizarding village a few months ago, we salvaged this from what was left. There's an energy catalyser. Force field systems integrator and that's a"
The Doctor finished the sentence for him. "A Dalek energy pack."
"Less than a fifth full from what we've been able to tell," Harry added.
"Thank you, thank you, Harry, these will be immensely useful." Harry was enveloped in another hug by the Doctor who was practically jumping up and down, then he started to shove the various components into his pockets. "Very, very useful." The Doctor repeated mostly to himself.
There was several moments of silence.
"You'll be leaving soon then?" The Doctor looked between them smiling.
Harry nodded.
"Well it's been lovely seeing and meeting you again Doctor," Hermione said stepping forward to the Doctor who beamed at her and wrapped her in another hug, she was prepared for it this time though and hugged him back.
"And you Hermione, and you, very, very good to meet you again, especially after so long."
"Hopefully we'll meet again at some point," Hermione said.
The Doctor looked to Harry who shook his head. "You're the one who went on and on about the Web of Time, time tracks and the Blinovitch Limitation whatever it was."
"Old Blinovitch, never appreciated in his time," the Doctor said wistfully to himself before wrapping Harry in another hug, this time lifting him off the ground. "Harry Potter, it has been a lovely, amazing, wonderful to meet you again!"
"And many times more I hope Doctor." Harry patted the Doctor on the back as the Doctor dropped him back on his feet.
"Yes, yes, yes…now what am I forgetting." The Doctor looked up the sky. "Fitz and Sam…oh dear I was meant to meet them…" But he trailed off and grinned at them. "You sure Harry?" He gestured the Beetle.
"My car's nice and you have your own adventures to have, as do I," Harry laughed.
"As you do," the Doctor nodded sagely, then added. "There's nothing wrong with this car." He patted it affectionately before getting in and starting the engine.
He gave them a final wave before pulling out into the not quite busy street.
"So that's it?" Hermione asked as they watched the Beetle get lost amongst the cars, horses and other weird things that were still on the streets.
"That's it," Harry said simply.
"You really don't know what happens?" Hermione looked at Harry.
He shook his head. "In the short run, no." Harry turned away from the traffic.
"Time to go?" Hermione asked as they turned back to their hotel.
"Unless there's something you want to see while we're here?" Harry asked.
She thought for a moment, but with all the weird things going on here she doubted she would be able to find or concentrate on the things she wanted to investigate.
"Not at the moment," she finally said.
Harry nodded. "Well then pack your bags and we can head back to England, I'm sure we've both got work to do."
"What about the Ministry Harry?" Hermione asked as they climbed the stairs.
"The Ministry will get my report, both in person and a written one of everything that happened here," he paused to look out the window. It didn't have a nice view, given that it was an alley way with rubbish bins, or Harry supposed as he was in America trash cans and other detritus. But it allowed him to think. "Everything that was relevant to what happened here."
Hermione followed his gaze out the window and saw some dodos nesting in a gutter below, just as a dragon flew overhead. She just shook her head and smiled to herself.
A/N:
I know Concorde never flew into San Francisco International Airport, so I'm just saying in the Doctor Who/Harry Potter-verse they did run flights all the way across the US. I could have just said they took a regular flight from London, or switched planes when they landed in the US…but it's just one of those ideas that got stuck in my head and there's something a little bit special about the Concorde.
So either it takes off at San Francisco and then along the way it has a bigger fuel tank/is more efficient in the DW/HP universe.
The drinks menu that Hermione reads was sourced in part from feedback from a question asked a few chapters back (when I originally posted these chapters).
A lot of the setting of this story comes from a novel called Unnatural History that happens to be set in San Francisco. Much like 2000 and 2001 not a lot happens involving the Doctor on Earth during these years. The setting and Doctor I chose for this outing is the most accessible as it involves thematically similar stuff.
The Doctor comes into this chapter quite late I realise, but this isn't about the Doctor turning up into Harry's 'story' it's about Harry dropping into a time and place where the Doctor is and getting involved in everything.
I've been plotting out future chapters recently, and I've been thinking about Ginny. Originally I had thought to challenge myself to try and keep Harry and Ginny together. That's now changed, I've been quite enjoying taking Ginny in a different direction. So it's unlikely that Harry and Ginny will end up together.
Thanks for reading.
