Chapter 18

The fallout from his 'adventures' in San Francisco had been somewhat significant Harry reflected.

The Ministry had been less than happy that they'd sent him with 'significant resources' and out of the four personnel that he'd been sent to retrieve he'd sent one back.

He could hardly be to blame for the one who had been crushed or stepped on or whatever had happened to him. Not that they did really try to blame him for that.

He did get a relatively glowing review for the rescue that he successfully carried out, despite stunning, insulting, shocking and generally scaring said person who he'd come to the rescue of.

The Ministry had been less accepting of Professor Marksdown Eversdale Eftosian-Thelos' death, despite Eftosian-Thelos being the one who had ambushed him intent on doing dastardly things to him and whatnot.

It seemed that some information from San Francisco had filtered back to England, possibly through Eftosian-Thelos' contacts, maybe into the hands of his former girlfriend, current pain in the proverbial.

Said information hadn't exactly bolstered his view that 'you know aliens, they exist', instead it had increased the wizard's 'head shoved squarely up their arses' view of the world.

Though there was also the flip side to this as with all things, with some of that very knowledge that had filtered down also increased the wizarding world (or more specifically those within power) that there were things out there that didn't fit into their prescribed view of the world.

As a result of all this he had agreed to assist the Minister with drawing out Eftosian-Thelos' chums.

-/ - \\-

He really would have preferred to arrive on something with more than 1 horsepower Harry thought to himself looking up at the large manor house. This was the tenth he'd been to in the past 2 weeks.

Officially he'd been going to all these soirees, dinner parties, fancy dress balls and afternoon teas to 'defend his honour' after Ginny's tell all article in the Prophet and her group's attempts to mark him out as a psychopathic killer and murderer of what they laughably called 'the truth'. He had at one point felt like writing into the Prophet and making an X-Files joke when the Prophet ran an article not by Skeeter but still heavily quoting Ginny with the headline 'The Truth is Out There' which had for the most part been a recruitment drive by the enterprising young Weasley. 'The truth' wasn't really out there, it was whichever hovel Ginny was using to meet with other nutters and whackos.

Harry dismounted from his horse and tied him off at the waiting rail. Driving to any of these 'events' just wasn't an option, well it was in theory if you drove something with no electrics in theory you could get close to a low level magic area, though theory and practise were two entirely different things.

He shifted as he walked up the stairs, the first few of these events he'd dressed himself nicely, nice enough for what he was doing here on the face of it and why he was really present. But a 'muggle' suit hadn't gone down with the locals very well, though it had marked him out as odd, but not someone to talk to or mingle.

So he'd taken a trip down to Cardiff a week an a half ago, if there was anyone who knew where to get an interestingly cut outfit it was the man who'd been around block more than a few times.

"Jack are you sure about this?" Harry asked as he looked in the mirror in the outfit. It hugged his figure in a lot of places, it wasn't something he'd generally usually wear.

"You're looking fine Harry, real fine," Jack said grinning at him.

Harry was beginning to question asking advice of someone who thought a blue shirt, braces, army boots and coat was fashionable all year round.

"See Harry, the jacket hangs down past your waist so you can wear a holster just here," Jack slid a finger down Harry's left hand side all the way down to his thigh where he stopped.

"I do believe Mr Harkness, your hand is on my thigh," Harry said in a mock-posh English accent.

Jack just grinned at him. Harry shook his head.

"You're sure I'll be able to ride a horse and dismount from this, without ripping anything?" He asked the tailor who had dreamt this concoction up.

"Yes sir, that's some of my finest work."

"Don't suppose you could add more Kevlar to the back?"

"Harry there's only so much you can add, besides you'll ruin the cut of it," Jack said walking around him judging him from every angle.

"I still think it's a little too figure hugging." Harry looked at himself in the mirror.

"You've got a figure that deserves" Jack grinned at him in the mirror. "hugging and then some."

He just smiled sweetly at the image of Jack in the mirror. There was even a place for his wand. Placed not on his wrist but worked into the design of his waistcoat to be unobtrusive yet easy to grab.

"Maybe I do need something," Harry said mostly to himself.

His outfit still felt like it was still accentuating various parts of him, even though he'd worn it a few times. He longed to get back to his house and change into something more comfortable…and less "hugging".

However, he needed to be here, to meet and greet and more importantly be a target.

All these houses seemed to have been designed by the same people, furnished by the same designer and lit by the same spells. At least they seemed to have different house elves cooking at these things Harry thought to himself as he looked around and popped something that resembled food into his mouth, he'd been offered it by a floating tray, though he hadn't wanted to ask anyone around him or the tray for that matter what it was. Everyone else seemed to be eating them and not keeling over so it seemed it wasn't poisonous.

It was tasty, though somewhat hard to identify what it was.

"This is what, your fourth engagement after a few years out of the wizarding world Potter? Was it really the skank Weasley that sent you rushing back here?" Asked a woman who had managed to sidle up beside him while he was looking around the room for anyone who was interested in him for reasons other than the way his trousers captured 'some of his qualities' as Jack had put it.

Harry looked beside him at the woman who had spoken with some familiarity. He experienced a momentary flash of recognition clouded by slight moment of vagueness.

"Ms Greengrass," he replied smoothly.

"Mr Potter, how do you do?" She put on an accent that seemed to veer slightly into a French accent for a moment, something many of the women here seemed to do. Perhaps it was the fashion?

"Very well Ms Greengrass. It's been some time. How have you been?" Harry asked curiously as he looked around the room, no one was really paying them any extra attention.

"You're such a gentleman to ask me Mr Potter," she said with more than a hint of playful sarcasm present in her tone.

"I know aren't I? So how are you really Ms Greengrass?" Harry asked looking at her and holding her gaze for a moment.

"Good Mr Potter," she continued to appraise him. "You appear to be holding yourself in good shape."

"So the appreciative looks from all the other pure blood harpies who've been looking at me like vampires seem to tell me," he answered smoothly.

"But to kill or saviour you Mr Potter that is the question," she said oddly seriously.

"And what would you do I wonder?" Harry asked as he watched a suspicious man across the room reach into his pocket.

"Throw you too them and while they're hacking you to pieces make my escape," she said casually as she took a glass of champagne from a passing tray.

"That's…" Harry paused for a moment as he processed what she'd said while he'd been concentrating on people trying to potentially kill him.

That, however was the point of his attending these things, unofficially of course, to draw out the nutters to try and kill him the Ministry would get some leads, a lead in fact. The well (they had told him at least) was somewhat dry or they could just be trying to kill him. But the Minister seemed to think there was somewhere up with these toffs that would try and kill him.

Though no one in all his previous engagements.

"That's…" He repeated again. "Good to know."

"Really?" She seemed genuinely curious. "I thought you Gryffindors would want us all to fight the good fight?"

"We're a long way from Hogwarts Daphne," he said pointedly as she stared at him as he used her name. "and I'm far beyond those little caricatures of personality that we get lumbered with there. The universe is far more complicated than that."

He noticed that she didn't seemed irritated by him talking about the universe is such casual terms, some of the other wizards and witches he'd chatted to so far had disliked him using those terms. The solar system was about as far as they liked to think. Perhaps that was as far as they wanted to see.

A gaggle of witches walked past him looking at him, he couldn't tell if they were sneering or judging him, probably both.

Harry sighed. "Yetis in the Underground, the Shoreditch Incident, Cybermen in the sewers, even if an attack squad of Daleks trundled through here, I wonder if anyone would look up from their canapés?" He mused to himself looking around the crowd.

"I'm sorry Potter?" Harry glanced to his side and realised that Daphne wasn't just still standing next to him but she was listening with a guarded expression.

"Just musing to myself Daphne."

She gave him a tight nod and looked around attempting to follow his gaze. "So what is it you're doing here Potter? You still haven't given a good answer to me."

"Should I?" He mused curiously as he plucked something that looked vaguely like a quiche from a passing platter.

"Perhaps you shouldn't." She looked around the room. "Then I shall bid you good night Mr Potter." She raised her flute of champagne in a toast to him and then mingled back into the crowd leaving him at his vantage point in the room.

-/

It was of course just as they were calling for the main course to begin that someone tried to stab him.

The main course had sounded very nice too, fabulous game birds, venison from the property the house sat on and some freshly caught (by wizards no less!) salmon.

"Die you deviant scum!" Hissed a voice his ear as the person behind him dragged a knife up his back, ripping the intricate and finely sewed stitching.

Harry twisted around and grabbed the pistol strapped to his leg.

And then shot his attacker in the knee caps…or somewhere close to the knee caps. Reading up on such things had been on his to do list for some time, he was just pleased that he hadn't just shot the carpet.

As he made his way over to his would be attacker, placing the man's wrists in ties he suddenly realised much of the room was staring at him.

He looked up and realised he wasn't going to get to taste the venison, nor the salmon, nor any other tasty thing on the menu. "Ah…well…he stabbed me first."

"Where's the blood?" Someone shouted out from the back of the room.

"Kevlar," he replied before realising that no one was likely to know what it was, many people started muttering around the room. He didn't get to explain further, or even grab another glass of something alcoholic when the Aurors arrived, grabbed him and his would be attacker and forced him into a side-along apparition.

"I played bait for you Minister, I didn't expect to be locked up for my troubles. We did have an agreement," Harry said calmly.

"You used a muggle firearm." The Minister stated. "Potter I know we had an agreement, but you need to temper your actions. Especially within the company that you were with last night."

"It's morning?" Harry asked. The cell he was in had no windows, just one door and a bucket to relieve himself in, exactly why the Ministry couldn't stretch to better facilities he didn't know, though he suspected it was a form of psychological manipulation, he had to give it to them if it was that. But it was just as likely to be an oversight, which was far more likely.

"Your wand and discharge notice." He handed both to Harry.

"I hope all these parties I've attended was worth it. It hasn't been the most enjoyable time." Harry looked at him.

The Minister's expression of general sourness (something he had a lot of the time when he called on Harry and the League of Paranormal Investigations) lifted to a wiry smile. "Now you have some idea of what I go through Potter."

"Plenty of backs to be slapped and even more people to stab in said area?" He asked as he stood, stretching his legs.

"Your insight has been enlightening as always Potter." Harry recognised that tone as the 'leave now Potter' tone.

"I'll be off then, probably a few dozen aliens have popped up, making crop circles, drumming up people to interrogate and generally messing around..." Harry said in a teasing tone as he walked out the door. "Good day Minister, it hasn't been pleasant."

-/ - \\-

Harry looked out around the fields that surrounded his house, only the very outer fields he leased to his neighbours farm as they wished, these inner ones he'd been meaning to do something with for some time.

"It'll be a big job," Ioan said as he noted some things down in a notebook.

"That's why I'm coming to you Ioan, during the clear up of whatever that mildly radioactive sludge was you said you could organise it."

"Damn mutated spiders," Ioan muttered to himself, Harry chuckled.

"At least they didn't talk, have advanced mental powers or had a particular desire for blue crystals."

"What?" Ioan gave him one of his many odd looks.

"Nothing, just something the Doctor told me about once," Harry commented.

Ioan nodded, he'd become used to Harry's 'the Doctor told me once' responses. "So are these dishes going to be a business expense?" He asked as they trudged back up towards his house.

"Of course, and of course you and Judith will be able to use them. I don't want to have to rely on UNIT, Torchwood or my newly acquired hacking abilities to use their facilities should the need arise," Harry said.

"Though we'll still need to hack some of their satellites to reach further out," Ioan looked up at the sky as he said this.

"Well I'll see what the British government says." Harry said after a moment.

"The armed forces did give me the impression they could do anything UNIT could do," Ioan commented.

"Not to mention Torchwood," Harry said looking around carefully. There hadn't been much word from Ginny's group in the last few weeks, not since a month or two ago when the Ministry had announced the results of their "on-going investigation" following his attendance of a party where he may have shot someone. Not that anyone was coming to ask him about it, as far as the wizarding world was concerned he'd 'gone muggle', was likely mad, deviant and 'wallowing as a degenerate with the muggles' as one reader of the Prophet wrote. He wasn't really sure what they meant by that. But it was certainly a different type of insult, at least they were developing and evolving their abuse. It showed the wizarding world was capable of evolving.

"…and your neighbours if we can get a few on their properties it would improve our range a little more." Harry looked at Ioan who was looking at him.

"Sorry caught in thought. Yes, I get on with them, I can probably ask them if we can stick a dish or two on their barns. Or somewhere." Harry opened to door to his house motioning Ioan inside. "So you think you can sort it all out."

"If not me who would you get?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm sure you know people or something like that. You're the one I go to for this sort of thing Ioan. Plus backup, there's only so many people who wield a wand and don't want me dead."

"Or even just have an extreme dislike to you. If I knew your ex was so vicious I wouldn't have agreed to scouting out around her meeting places with you."

Harry held up his hands in deference. "Not my fault she's paranoid."

"And don't forget vicious," Ioan leaned against the wall of Harry's kitchen, unconsciously rubbing his leg where he'd had a swarm of bats attack him. Fortunately there'd been no lasting damage.

"How's Judith doing? I haven't had the benefit of her company recently," Ioan asked.

"Has she been picking your brain about the fact we're all penis waving, bastardising Latin, dress wearing secularised people?" Harry asked and then paused. "Or was that just me and Hermione she subjected that opinion to?"

Ioan chuckled. "She's not the only one, I did once try and bring in some of that, in with the ideas of aliens to our fellow wizarding brethren."

"I bet that went down like a blimp made of bricks." Harry quipped.

"And then some. So…?" Ioan began.

"She's still dealing with that Drahvan issue, the one we couldn't deal with," Harry explained with a raise of his eyebrows.

Ioan nodded and then shook his head. "Why they have to land in the middle of a wizarding village, why couldn't they land some where quiet in the middle of nowhere, we could just go in, tell them space is that way and then finish the day with a pint."

"Because life and the universe are not that friendly. As well we well know." Harry handed him a mug of tea.

"Are you still worried about how quiet your ex has been?" Ioan asked after a few moments silence watching Harry.

Harry looked out the window, thinking. "Yes. It's been a while since her rants in the paper or any other things around. Maybe she's settled down and done something constructive with her life."

"Like trying to kidnap you?" Ioan had found Ginny and her group's attempt to kidnap him by sneaking up him on brooms and flying carpets hilarious. It had been though just after Harry'd received delivery of a new car, a TVR Tuscan and had taken Ioan out for a ride in it.

"At least they didn't scratch it." Harry said.

"Not with how you floored it Harry!" Ioan laughed.

Harry had to smile too. "As long as I don't have to bugger up another Land Rover."

"I've noticed you still haven't got another one, despite your growing range of sports cars." Ioan pointed out.

"Two isn't growing, that's just, well just two. The Land Rover is on order, I'm making sure it's completely military grade this time not just one they had lying around at a military price. I don't want to have to write off a vehicle every time I drive into combat."

Ioan shook his head. "If I thought I couple of years ago I could casually discuss all this over tea…" He shook his head trailing off.

"At least we're not boring," Harry offered.

"We wouldn't want to be that. Now would we?" Ioan deadpanned.

-/ - \\-

Harry sorely wished the Ministry had CCTV even though he knew the impracticalities of this, he still wished they had it. Or some wizarding equivalent of it.

He turned the badge over in his hands again and wondered how the Ministry could be so stupid.

But then they were politicians, that was an answer in itself.

How had they managed not to notice, and now only when he'd come in were they really starting to shed light on this.

Shacklebolt was meant to be clearing out everything, not…he was more lost for words as Shacklebolt explained what she'd stolen.

Earlier in the week…

The letter hadn't said much.

It had been from George asking to meet, urgently.

George looked worried, very much so. "She's missing."

"Who?" Harry asked wrapping his hands around the mug George had provided. He was just taking a sip of the liquid contained within when George answered his question.

"Ginny…" George met his sour look with a neutral one of his own. "I know what you think. I know what I think, but mum and dad have been on me to look into it. She sent Ron this weird howler that told him something like 'she was going to eradicate the collective consciousness and clear out the disease of the mindless barbarian horde.'"

"Poetic," Harry commented.

George sighed. "But she's been missing, along with some other people from her 'group'. Supposedly she brought them round to the Burrow a few times," George paused and looked around the store room and to the door out to the shop out to the shop where Angelina was minding the shop while they talked. Ron was out with Hermione, supposedly he'd been excited about something. "Mum was really happy that she'd gotten out of her 'Harry hole'" Harry blinked and stared at George an amused expression touching the corners of his mouth, though George didn't seem to notice. "Dad…" George paused and sighed.

Harry hoped that he wouldn't start scratching the area around his ear again. Between himself and Angelina they'd been trying to help him with that.

"I think dad got on with her groupies too well sometimes. Maybe it was all of his time in the muggle artefacts office…" George shook his head. "Maybe he was just supporting her." George look over to him. "I was just glad not to be in the house sometimes Harry. The memories, the feelings of…of time's past. I just needed to be away from there. But…" He trailed off again.

"She's still family?" Harry ventured after a while of silence. George nodded, though Harry continued.

"Not to be blunt though. Why should I worry? I've lost count of the verbal and written abuses that Ginny's hurled at me. Then there's the attempted kidnapping on my person," he paused and then added. "plus a rather unfortunate attempted murder of a group of associates that were in my company at the time." Unfortunate because of what Judith had done to the person acting on Ginny's orders. Supposedly it was to make a statement about the non-existence of aliens that the League of Paranormal Investigations had been carefully helping to extract them, and their ship from a small hamlet at the time.

George frowned deeply in thought and then looked at him deep concern in his eyes. "I know Harry, I know…but she's still my…my little sister, even if she is…" George's voice cracked a little bit.

The phrase 'absolutely barking mad with a side of insane and bat-shit crazy' came to mind which made him inappropriately smirk slightly, he chastised himself as he rushed across the room and grabbed a hold of George's outstretched hand that was ready to probably scratch his face off.

Harry drew him into a hug for a moment, it was strange how he'd become such a close friend to George even as his friendship with Ron changed and developed, a little part of him wondered if he and Ron were drifting apart. But whenever they hung out together they were back to being best friends, hanging out enjoying a game of Quidditch or whatever they chose to do, Hermione had pressed him to take Ron out in one of his cars to show him how fast muggle engineering could take him. Supposedly Ron's idea of fast was still based on the Ford Anglia, which was something that would need correcting.

George pulled away from him and leaned back into his chair, Harry returned to where he had been sitting, they remained silent for a few moments.

"Please Harry, I…I'm not sure if I'd handle it if…" George shook his head. "If she's got herself killed being an idiot or something."

Harry didn't let himself think about the times that he'd considered eliminating Ginevra Weasley.

"As a favour to you George I'll see what I can find out," he said after some time. George's whole body seemed to instantly relax as though he'd been holding himself tightly strung.

Present, The Ministry…

The badge read: Ginny Weasley, attending to the liberating of thinking wizarding society and the destruction and removal of delusional subversive elements.

The text seemed both big enough to read and small enough to fit onto the badge.

He tried to ignore the mixed emotions he kept feeling within this room, within the Department of Mysteries and instead focused on the task at hand.

The objects were near the time turners.

There were only a few of these. They were intricately constructed of fine metals within the workings he could see small dials of clocks; time, astrological and also hourglasses, all spinning and turning through their own imposed motion. They were slightly larger than a carriage clock, all had a tray that looked to fold out from the side.

These objects fascinated him, though he wasn't sure why.

"What are they?" He asked after he realised he'd been staring at them for some time, though if pressed he wasn't sure if he knew how long.

"These Potter are used to construct and calibrate time turners," said an Unspeakable who was standing behind the Minister, masked in shadows.

"They're chronon sources," Harry said to no one but himself, in something of a whisper.

"They're used in pairs as to check time turners and one another, apart they can be…dangerous." Said the Unspeakable once more.

"Time is a dangerous thing, especially in the hands of a ma-" Harry stopped himself from saying 'mad woman' "as someone with Ms Weasley's ideas."

"Potter I want Ms Weasley and her 'group' found," Minister Shacklebolt addressed him.

Harry couldn't help but ask. "Why not get the Department of Magical Law Enforcement on this? It was within the Ministry, a theft of wizarding equipment."

"I want this resolved with the same level of detail you pay to other things Potter-" The Minister was cut off as a paper plane flew in. Shacklebolt grabbed it, swore and stalked out.

"The Minister is under some fire for allowing Ms Weasley and her group access," explained the mysterious Unspeakable, who was managing to stay obscured in shadow despite the lighting in the room. It was some feat of mysteriousness Harry had to admit.

"And the Aurors?" He asked the Unspeakable as he studied the time turner creating and calibrating devices.

"Maybe he doesn't trust them with a case such as this, maybe they're being inefficiently run," the Unspeakable said in a curious tone. "You could have been head of the Aurors Harry Potter, maybe you are, in another world."

Chills ran down his spine. "Multi-universe theory, well not so much of a theory, I know a guy who's been there, done that and probably got a novelty eye-patch and airship mug for his troubles," Harry replied casually. Then he turned around slowly to face the shrouded Unspeakable who standing impassively behind him. "Now, how dangerous are these?"

"Not extremely dangerous, there are more dangerous things Ms Weasley could have taken. But they have many properties and can affect the an individual through their interactions with the world," they replied.

"Very vague." Harry commented.

"It is what is known, what is written and what has been."

-/

While the Ministry didn't have CCTV, the streets outside the Ministry did and it seemed that Ginny and her band of mad groupies didn't immediately apparate, and only some of them had invisibility cloaks, who seemed to be keeping an eye on her group as they had moved through the streets of London.

He'd lost them when they'd walked out into a football field and from the grainy images of the CCTV near the field it appeared they'd got on brooms and flown away.

For now he was waiting for the satellite images to be correlated together with several airport's air incident control and other data to be collected and sent his way, it was something of a long shot, but there had been evidence that some pilots had seen wizards on brooms, though it was often passed off as bird swarms or other things.

But, now he was at the door of The Burrow, with Judith and Ioan, to search their property, he also had a piece of parchment counter-signed by the Minister and the Department of Mysteries authorising him to do so.

He wasn't sure if he was going to find something, but it was worth a try.

"I'm not sure I ever wanted to meet your ex's parents Harry," Ioan said as he looked around.

"I'm prepared just in case the mad bitch is here though," Judith patted the holster that contained a knife that Harry could attest was both dangerous and deadly.

"We're here to search, not destroy," Harry muttered patiently as he knocked on the door. He hadn't really been round to the Burrow all that often since Hogwarts. Whenever he met Ron it was practically always away from the Burrow. Neither he nor Hermione were quite as welcome as they used to be.

"Hello…oh Harry dear…what are you doing here?" Mrs Weasley blinked taking in the three of them,

"Hello Mrs Weasley," he greeted pleasantly with a smile and handed her the piece of parchment.

"What's this Harry?" She asked as she unrolled it. "Oh…Arthur!" She shouted into the house.

-/

Harry waited patiently as they read the parchment.

"How serious is this?" Arthur asked him squarely.

"How serious do you think it is to be signed by the Minister and the Department of Mysteries?" Harry countered.

Arthur shook his head and showed them up to Ginny's room.

The three of them spent some time making sure they weren't going to be killed when they got into her locked room though. Ginny's countermeasures were rather interesting, Harry assumed she must have set something in place to stop her parents from being decapitated when they opened the door.

"Your really know how to pick them don't you Harry?" Judith said once they were in. "This is what you get for following your dick when you're in the throws of puberty and a life or death situation."

"Yes, I know" Harry said. "I should have just grabbed a copy of Playwizard and 'read the articles'."

"There's Playwizard?" Ioan looked over at him raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know," Harry answered. "It wasn't something I really went looking for, I had other things on my mind."

"Yeah-" Judith started.

"And by that I mean Voldemort wanting me dead," Harry got in before Judith could say anything.

"Excuses, excuses Harry. She's quite the activist, though we knew most of this already," she commented as she she motioned the flyers that were littered around the room with some thin publications extolling the value in early 'interventions'.

"Uh oh," Ioan said from across the room.

Both Judith and Harry looked up. "I don't like uh oh," Judith said not moving.

"Is this an 'uh oh I've just trodden on a landmine' or 'uh oh I think the shit has hit the fan'?" Harry asked, also not moving, but drawing his wand carefully.

"The latter I think," Ioan said stepping away from the blind he'd pulled down that had a map stuck to it, with what seemed to be weather charts over it.

"It's a map." Judith said somewhat disappointed.

"Stating the obvious, yes Jude it's a map." Harry received a punch on his arm. Judith hated being called 'Jude'.

"Of Cardiff," Ioan added.

"It looks like a weather map," Harry said as he crossed the short distance across the room.

"But it isn't," Ioan stated flatly.

"Oh dear," Harry said staring at the map and what it centred around. The Cardiff rift. "Oh shit," Harry said after a moment or two.

"She's not that mad?" Ioan asked, mostly to himself.

"I think she's probably more than that Ioan," Judith commented. "After all she's Harry's ex," she teased.

Harry sighed.

-/

The CCTV footage over Cardiff was less than detailed, though Ginny and her group had definitely approached there on brooms, with the time turner calibrator and creator and he'd swept through all the CCTV around the where she'd flown. It was possible that she'd apparated out, with her broom. But it was unlikely considering what she the device she had with her.

Now he needed confirmation of a theory a theory he, Judith and Ioan had fleshed out after going through all the information Ginny had left in her room.

Harry wondered if Jack knew that he could see him despite what bit of technology prevented others from seeing the stone lift out of the ground.

Harry kept staring into the middle distance, not really looking around anywhere.

"Harry Potter. Need another suit?" Jack asked walking over to him.

"I did get stabbed in one of them, but no, and you were right they did…turn heads," Harry said with a smile, Jack matched his with a grin.

"That's not the only thing that would have turned," Jack grinned at him.

"This isn't a social call however," Harry said as he removed a piece of paper from his jacket pocket and handed it to Jack.

"Times and dates," he said looking at the data.

"I need to know if there was any rift activity during those times," Harry said without preamble.

"Should I ask why or how you know we monitor the rift?" He asked.

"You're Torchwood Jack, sitting on top of the Cardiff rift, what else would you be doing in your secret base aside from monitoring the it. After all it's when everything changes. As you like to say," Harry quoted.

Jack stared at him for a moment. "Okay. As long as you tell me at some point what's going on."

"At some point." Harry acquiesced. "Should I wait around?"

"This won't take long," Jack said and stood on his magic step as Harry pretended not to see it disappear into the ground. He also stopped himself from peering down into the hole, that investigation could wait for another day.

-/ - \\-

The Cessna 172 sat on the runway just outside Cardiff.

He'd chosen it carefully from a restorer, it was a genuine plane of the era, restored in America, totally airworthy, and it had never been to the UK.

It was important to get these things right, considering what he was going to do.

He checked the time turner calibrator, it was safely packed into a case next to his seat on the plane, the rear of the plane's cargo capacity was given over to other storage containers with things he thought he might need.

"Harry are you really sure about this?" Hermione asked as he watched him go through the procedures of checking it.

"He's not just sure, he's determined Ms Granger," Hermione turned Harry looked up, Jack was standing just behind Hermione.

Earlier…

"You're mad Harry."

"Not the comment I was hoping for Hermione. But I'm relatively sure that's where she is."

"But if she had changed something wouldn't we notice it by now?" Hermione asked, falling into her chair.

"Time doesn't work like that, but I know that I do this," he removed a photo from a folder, he'd scanned it a year or so ago when he was scanning various documents onto his computer from a variety of research projects tangentially related to LPI. "This is from a Christmas party back then, now" he paused and removed an enlarged image.

Hermione looked at the people in the photo, there were a lot of people in uniforms, she was pretty sure there was a Captain and a Sergeant in the photo. "So?"

"Take a look at this, it's an enlargement of the mirror in at the back there, now look who is hiding behind the tree."

Hermione stared at the photo, and then looked back up to Harry. "And when was this photo taken?"

Harry answered. "Or there abouts. They couldn't publish this, it was buried under the Official Secrets Act."

"And you think now is the time you're going to do this?" She looked at him.

"Yes. That's why for the time being I'm making you executor of LPI and why I've been telling you all this," he finished explaining.

Present…

"I'm determined not to let her muck around with history. I'm determined to bring her and any of her groupies back. The Ministry has approved this," Harry said to his two friends watching him. When the Ministry had found out they had authorised him to do whatever necessary to get her back, lest she contaminate the timeline, that was the Unspeakables and himself chatting though.

"You could end up anywhere or anywhen. The rift isn't a time machine Harry, I know that, more than you think," Jack empathically stated.

"Jack. I know. And I also think this is going to work," Harry countered brightly.

"You think," both Hermione and Jack said together.

That made Harry smile. "I know."

"Because of a photo?" Hermione asked.

"Call it temporal intuition," Harry said.

-/

All the pre-flight checks checked out, everything was ready.

He bade one final goodbye to Jack, Hermione Judith and Ioan who all were waiting to see the 'mad man' off. As Judith had put it.

"You shouldn't have too much trouble while I'm away, if I'm away at all." Harry said casually to them as he made his way to depart.

Time travelling via the rift wasn't a science, nor was it an art, it was more… intuition, you felt your way around it…or something like that, Harry thought to himself as he aimed the nose of the Cessna 172 at the coordinates he'd gathered earlier from Jack.

…then…nothing…but something…It greatly reminded him washing his clothes in a washing machine. Only if someone had turned up the contrast and everything washed out into white and lens flare.

Then he was somewhere else…yet not. He twisted the radio controls looking for the frequency Hermione had open and transmitting, he tried it, and all he got was static.

It wasn't proof, but he changed the frequency and started broadcasting on a frequency he hoped someone would be listening on, together with the identification codes he hoped would be valid.

-/ - \\-

He landed the plane easily on the runway and opened the door as he saw a group of cars and trucks drive up, men jumping out of the truck were taking up firing positions.

One man got out of the truck and was clearly the leader, he knew that not just from the photo but from the description of him.

Another of the cars was very distinct, as was the man. Both stood out against the dark green of the special military forces, the former by way of its colour and the man…well he wasn't a man in the conventional sense. He wasn't human for starters.

-/

A/N:

Minor edit done March 2021.

I've ended this chapter here with enough clues as to when this is set and what's happening.

Next chapter will be more revealing and much of the intro will be the flipside to these last few paragraphs. (Which is deliberately sparse to avoid spoilers)

Here begins one of the story arcs within this story.