Chapter 19
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart looked up from his paper work as his door was knocked on and someone entered.
"Sergeant Benton," Lethbridge-Stewart said looking up.
"Sir. Our monitoring station in Cardiff picked up a signal," he reported.
Lethbridge-Stewart nodded. The Cardiff station picked up a lot of signals, many of which seemed to centre around central Cardiff, but his requests for a further men to cover Wales and specifically the strange occurrences within there seemed to fall on deaf ears. It wasn't as though he was ignorant of that group operating there, even if it did so with whatever blessing. He was here to do a job just as much for his country, but those people seemed to have more of a personal agenda.
"I'm sure other groups can take care of it Benton," he said restraining the distaste that threatened to creep into his words.
"But sir…" He paused. "The signal was on our frequency, with our identification codes. Upper priority high clearance." Benton handed the Brigadier the notation of said codes.
"From within central Cardiff Benton?" He asked looking at the information frowning.
"Above it sir, it's coming from an aircraft," Benton reported.
Lethbridge Stewart thought for a brief moment. "Scramble the air force, tell them to guide the aircraft to our aerodrome."
"Sir!" Benton saluted and made for the door.
"Benton," he turned around at the Brigadier's voice.
"Sir?" Benton snapped back around to face him.
"Is Ms Grant back from leave?" He enquired.
"No sir," Benton answered.
"Then tell the Doctor to meet me down there. This should liven his day up." Benton saluted again and departed the room.
Lethbridge-Stewart looked again at the identification codes. These hadn't yet been issued. They'd been approved of course, but hadn't yet been issued to anyone.
-/
"What is it now Brigadier? I'm very busy," the Doctor bristled as he met the Brigadier on the way to the car park.
"Trying to fix the gubbins in your TARDIS again Doctor?" The Brigadier asked.
"That 'gubbins' Brigadier is the lock out the Time Lords have on my TARDIS," the Doctor answered in an irritated tone.
"You managed to deal with the Axons with that loop of yours," he recalled.
"That's different Brigadier…and…" The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "The Master was of some assistance in that small regard."
The Brigadier smiled. "Something to distract you then Doctor," he handed the Doctor the piece of paper with the codes on it.
"These are the new codes I came up with for you Brigadier," the Doctor said after looking at the piece of paper for less than a second.
"Your special codes that no one could dream up," Lethbridge-Stewart added.
The Doctor nodded. "A simple piece of mental arithmetic Brigadier. Keeps the mind sharp, even if it is such a simple task."
"Benton handed that to me earlier, someone was broadcasting those clearance codes," Alistair explained watching for a response in the Doctor's expression.
"Interesting Brigadier, I suppose this is why Sergeant Benton frog marched me from my lab?" The Doctor queried.
"Yes Doctor, you are UNIT's scientific advisor. You do have a job to do around here," Lethbridge-Stewart stated with a smile.
-/
The Doctor drove up and got out of Bessie at the same moment as the Brigadier did so with his soldiers. The Doctor noted they were all taking up positions to fire on the Cessna, a 172 if he wasn't mistaken.
"What do you think Doctor?" The Brigadier queried.
"It looks Brigadier exactly what your eyes and ears present, a plane," he observed.
"Yes but-" He was cut off as the door of the plane opened. "Positions!" He roared at his men.
"Oh my…" The Doctor was saying as he was walking forward.
Lethbridge-Stewart stared at the Doctor and vowed to talk to him about safe operating procedures and lines of fire.
Then he did something unexpected even for the Doctor, he hugged the man who had stepped out of the plane.
"Harry Potter, how very good to see you old chap," he was saying as the Brigadier walked over.
"Harry this is-"
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. It's an honour to meet you sir," said the man.
"Who the devil is this Doctor?" He demanded.
"This Brigadier, is a very good friend of mine," the Doctor said as he clapped a hand on the man's shoulder. "Harry James Potter, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Now Harry what are you doing here and now?" The Doctor asked with some concern.
"Is Liz Shaw around…or Jo Grant?" He asked after a moment.
"Liz is back in Cambridge, Jo's on leave…but how do you know about…" The Doctor trailed off looking at Harry.
"This is going to get somewhat complicated Doctor, Brigadier sir, if I could secure my aircraft somewhere I think I should explain," He said somewhat guilty tone.
-/
"Doctor, who was that man?" Lethbridge-Stewart demanded of the Doctor as the man 'Harry James Potter' was lead by his men to secure his aircraft in one of UNIT's hangars.
"He Brigadier, he is an old friend," the Doctor said with some pride.
"Like the Master?" Lethbridge-Stewart asked, watching the emotions play across the Doctor's face. He seemed somewhat amused by the idea.
"No, not like the Master Brigadier, I don't think he would be mixed up with Harry. Harry is someone I have had the fortune to meet on several occasions, throughout my lives, it has enriched me and I have found him to be something of an enlightening person, old chap. Though…" The Doctor paused, rubbing his chin in thought as he watched the man pull his plane into one of UNIT's hangers.
"Though?" The Brigadier prompted.
"The last time I met him he was far younger than he is now, which presents several issues," the Doctor mused.
"Issues, Doctor what are you talking about?" Lethbridge-Stewart asked frustratingly.
"Time my dear Brigadier, the time stream and its complexities, far beyond your understanding of course, I think we should bring young Mr Potter back to HQ so he can explain or enlighten us as to what he is doing here," the Doctor started scratching his cheek in thought. "And where and more to the point when he has come from."
-/ - \\-
Harry couldn't help but grin. He was here, he hadn't died and he hadn't been smeared across the centuries. He also hadn't voided his lease by smearing his plane across the multiverse, that would have been very irritating.
And, and he was sitting in the middle of a UNIT convoy, in a bright yellow English roadster called Bessie, next to his friend; the Doctor.
It was brilliant despite the dangers he faced being here…
Earlier, several years in the future in 2003. Though not so long ago for Harry…
"Harry do you have any idea what you're proposing, if this is when Ginny is…" Hermione shook her head. "Here I am talking about 'when' as though it's a casual thing. It's incredibly dangerous what you're thinking of doing."
"You're the one who used a time turner for a year," Harry countered calmly.
"Really? A year?" Ioan asked surprised.
Harry, Judith, Hermione and Ioan were sitting around Harry's sitting room discussing the complexities of his 'jaunt'.
"I do Hermione, I understand the dangers. I understand them far more than Ginny and her little group of vigilantes does," Harry rationalised calmly.
"But this is the 1970s, that's when Voldemort came to power, that's when…" Hermione trailed off.
"And I understand that Hermione," Harry fixed her with a calm cool stare. "It's not as though I'm going to rush up to Hogwarts, slap Sirius on the back and then shake James' hand say 'hey dad I'm your son'. I understand some levels of the Web of Time and its laws, that's why I need to go. To stop Ginny's misguided and insane attempts to pervert it."
"But wouldn't we have seen its affects if she had?" Judith asked curiously. Then added. "Just putting it out there."
"No. Time doesn't work like that, sometimes it does if she went meddling in the causal nexus of large events, but smaller things may be altered…it's…well it's complicated. Even I don't know everything about this." Harry finally admitted.
"So why are you going?" Hermione pressed.
"Because I can do this," Harry said confidently.
Present…
"The Brigadier didn't want UNIT HQ close to the airfield. A safety risk. Sometimes the military mind is capable of intelligent thought. But he keeps his beloved flying mobile HQ with the RAF elsewhere," the Doctor called to him over the wind noise. Obviously he hadn't installed whatever wind noise dampening system he had when he visited him. Or would visit him.
This was going to very quickly get confusing making sure his tenses were correct.
-/
The Doctor was mainly silent for the rest of the trip to UNIT HQ.
For which Harry was grateful for, while he went through what he was going to say (again).
He hadn't been entirely sure when he was going to turn up, despite the photo, which was undated, all it meant was he was/would be/had been here. But he hadn't been completely sure when he was going to turn up, after the Doctor had met him or before. It was looking likely to be the latter, which presented additional complications.
-/
"Well Mr Potter, I think you have some explaining to do," the Brigadier leaned back in his chair looking at the younger man across his desk.
"I just need to ask a few things. Have you met the Master more than once?"
The Brigadier looked over at the Doctor, who nodded slightly.
"So you know who the Master is do you?" Harry smiled broadly at the Brigadier's question.
"I know you know who he is, and you haven't captured him yet?" Harry asked.
"No. But I think this is enough questions, now I want some explanations," Lethbridge-Stewart stated.
"You're trying to establish when you are Harry?" the Doctor asked.
Harry nodded and interceded. "More than that…." The Doctor continued and gave him the date. "Ah." Harry said with a frown.
"Then I think it would be beneficial to the time stream for Miss Grant not to meet me," Harry said calmly as he looked at the Doctor.
"Why the devil would that be a worry?" Lethbridge-Stewart looked between him and the Doctor.
"We've met before Harry, in your past," the Doctor said and then muttered "my future."
"The problems of a time traveller," Harry commented lightly.
"But this won't do at all, you can't be here running about. With what you know Harry," the Doctor grumbled.
"I'm aware of my knowledge and the Web of Time Doctor," Harry countered.
"The web of what?" The Doctor asked baffled.
Harry widened his eyes. "Oops. Never mind. Not important. I'm aware of the multitude of paradoxes that I've got to avoid whilst I'm here."
The Doctor rose from his chair. "I assume you've not met the Brigadier before?"
He shook his head.
"I think to preserve the time stream you should discuss your situation with the Brigadier young man. I'll see you later. Brigadier," the Doctor said, somewhat briskly, then he walked out the door, closing it firmly.
"I've never seen him that…" The Brigadier started.
"Annoyed," Harry provided. "I'm from the future, more to the point I've met the Doctor in his own personal future. Supposedly time travellers, or maybe just he gets a bit snarky when this sort of thing happens," Harry said with a slight chuckle.
Lethbridge-Stewart almost missed Potter's statement in amongst his casual assessment of the Doctor. "The future?"
"I think…I think I should explain and give you a brief summary of my history, then things might make a little more sense," Harry said after a moment's thought.
-/
Alistair leaned back as he listened to this young man, Harry Potter tell his story.
It was a fantastical story, or rather it would have been a few years ago, before he'd met the Doctor.
Though the Doctor's presence in his life had been accidental, both the first and subsequent times. But with Harry he seemed to have deliberately sought him out, for the better it seemed. The Doctor was a hard man…a hard person and personality to get into, Miss Shaw had seen that, as did Miss Grant, though Miss Grant had the wide eyed openness to learn and deal with the Doctor.
Harry Potter though had a different bearing about him as he told of his early life with his adoptive relatives and through his schooling subsequent battles throughout his teenage years, against whom though Potter seemed reticent to say. Someone from his 'magical' world, the idea seemed farcical, yet also too real.
He recognised Potter's bearing and personality as he spoke, he'd seen it in some of his men, he saw it in the mirror sometimes as well. Though in Potter he saw more of it, plus a cool sense of disconnection, it was in part chilling how dispassionately he spoke of some of the things that had happened.
"So you run an organisation like UNIT, where you're from…dealing with this 'magic'?" The Brigadier asked.
"And aliens and whatever other paranormal activity the wizarding government doesn't want to get its grubby little fingers sticky with. They'd, I think just be happy to ignore all of it, but things are going to start getting more and more messy," he said and then added. "and modifying people's memories is not going to fix it."
Lethbridge-Stewart nodded though he only understood most of that. He only had the official secrets act to throw at people. Memory modification would probably be seen as a far more efficient method of information control, though it was a relief most of the encounters thus far had been explained away by some spin merchant in her majesty's government.
After the tea lady had brought in some tea and biscuits Harry continued as to why he was here, here and now.
"Why come to us Mr Potter? If I might be so bold? You seem a capable person, you could I assume track down this young woman and her cohorts without UNIT's assistance."
"Ah, well…" Harry began. "You see Brigadier sir. I do need help. A base of operations for starters and, the Doctor…just not yet."
Earlier, in the future, Harry's past, prior to travelling back in time…
Jack handed him the coordinates of the rift fluctuations for that day, they'd been carefully calculated and plotted.
"Ya know Harry, even if you don't get splattered across the timelines what's to say that you get there," Jack asked.
"I've got a device that should home in on the general temporal location of her."
"Ginny Weasley, the redheaded bombshell. I've always liked explosive personalities," Jack said with a smile as he sipped his second pint. Harry was still on his first.
"Ginny's more a fragmentation grenade and needs to be stopped before she damages the timeline," Harry analogised.
"You sound like the Doctor sometimes when you talk like that," Jack said to him. "It's kinda cute." That made Harry smile. "How do you plan on getting back once you get there? Or do you plan to rely on blind luck to get you back here?"
"I'm going to grab a lift," Harry said simply.
"With the Doctor," Jack said in sudden realisation.
Harry nodded. "I might have to wait around for a little bit, bit it shouldn't be too long, I know what happens to him, even if he won't."
"Big responsibility," he commented.
Harry leaned back in his chair, and looked out the window. "It is and not just because I know about the Doctor…there's my own personal history to avoid."
Present (for Harry), the Brigadier's office, UNIT HQ…
"The Doctor can't go anywhere in his TARDIS Mr Potter, he tried with the Master and that Axons, some retched 'time loop' business the Time Lords marooned him here."
"Exiles don't last forever Brigadier," Harry replied simply.
"And you need a base of operations, why here, if you knew that running into the Doctor and Miss Grant was fraught with complications?" Lethbridge-Stewart took a sip of his tea.
"Because of certain events going on in the wizarding world would prevent me from creating a base for myself there. That is also why, if I might be so bold I will be an asset to you." Harry offered.
"How so Mr Potter?"
"Events in the wizarding world will start to spill out into the normal world quite soon, I can think of no other organisation that is suitably placed to deal with them, and not even the Doctor is as qualified as I am to deal with it." Harry praised.
-/
Lethbridge-Stewart watched the door close, Sergeant Benton would look after Mr Potter whilst he thought about Mr Potter's request. Almost on cue the Doctor burst into the room and flung himself down into Mr Potter's recently vacated chair. "Please Doctor come in, make yourself at home."
"Well Brigadier?" The Doctor asked.
"Well Doctor, he is your friend. Though he hasn't travelled with you like James McCrimmon and Zoe?" Lethbridge-Stewart commented.
The Doctor was silent. "No. But he is still a friend Brigadier. What did he ask for?"
"Assistance in locating a terrorist group from his own time who he believes travelled here," Lethbridge-Stewart explained without revealing any of the details Mr Potter had said.
The Doctor was silent once more before speaking. "And what are you going to do?"
"He offered his assistance Doctor, to help UNIT with certain magical problems." Lethbridge-Stewart had to smile, very slightly at the Doctor's reaction.
"Good grief, he told you about that. You're beginning to keep an open mind Brigadier!" The Doctor seemed very pleased about his word usage.
"I need to keep an open mind, especially with trouble you attract Doctor. Mr Potter also said it would be best for Miss Grant not to know of his presence here."
The Doctor was again silent. "He's met her, something we shouldn't begin to tamper with. It seems Harry has a greater understanding of time travel than I gave him credit for. Or rather he will develop a greater understanding of time travel. From my perspective or course."
"Time travel, time loops, Time Lords. You complicate everything Doctor," Lethbridge-Stewart muttered to himself.
"All part of the marvels of the universe Brigadier," the Doctor smiled at him. "And will you help him?" He pressed, concern present in his voice.
Lethbridge-Stewart looked over at the Doctor who seemed to be hanging waiting for him to answer, it was somewhat strange the Doctor being this concerned about anyone. It might be good for Mr Potter to spend some time with the Doctor to soften him somewhat.
Though Mr Potter had cautioned against too much of this, the 'Web of Time' and his and the Doctor's time streams and personal histories and other techo-gubbins he talked about. Or at least till they worked out some complexities, whatever that meant.
He nodded, and it seemed the Doctor instantly relaxed. "It wouldn't do to ah…crowd Harry though. I think a respectable distance should be kept."
"You might be tempted to ask about your future Doctor?" He enquired.
"An issue of a time traveller, even a grounded one, my dear Brigadier, is that it is always possible to meet someone you have not yet already met. It is the mark of en experienced time traveller not to ask such questions," then the Doctor stood up and left the room.
-/ - \\-
Harry woke up with a start and a slight panic as to where he was, the room was quiet, empty and a little bleak.
Then it all rushed back. He was in UNIT HQ and he'd travelled back in time, to find and stop one Ginny Weasley and to neutralise any of her associates.
That was something he hadn't told Hermione, though he had confided in Judith.
The Ministry hadn't outright told him, but it had been suggested that he could bring back Ginny to stand trial but the others it might be better served to eliminate them.
He and Judith had gone through the information they'd taken from Ginny's room and matched it against the CCTV footage and from their recollection of their previous encounters with Ginny and her group, or the associated groups that she frequented.
There was a limit to how many people could have safely transversed the Cardiff rift, that anyone had made it through without something to home in on was a miracle. But he was here, with the time turner calibrator which meant its pair was also around somewhere.
It was a pity he couldn't use it as a homing device.
He'd deliberately not brought anything like that, lest he contaminate the timeline.
-/
He'd just started to check out the small laboratory that was next to his room when there was a knock on the door; then Sergeant Benton walked in.
"Sir. The Brigadier said I should show you around the place." Harry looked at the Sergeant for a moment, who was standing quite straight.
"Um, at ease?" Harry said curiously. "Sergeant, I don't have a rank, if you want you can think of me as like the Doctor."
"Sir?" Benton replied.
"Though I'm human Sergeant," Harry paused. "the Doctor isn't and I'm rankless." He grabbed a jacket that was sitting on the back of the chair. "Okay let's have a look around this HQ," he said as he closed the door. "You know the people I need to avoid seeing?"
"Yes sir, the Brigadier explained, no contact with Miss Grant," Sergeant Benton said.
"Ah but the why is so much more interesting than that, but for another time I think," Harry said mysteriously.
-/ - \\-
Lethbridge-Stewart walked into the laboratory he'd given over to Harry Potter and couldn't believe it.
In slightly under 3 weeks he'd managed to fill it with at least half as much junk as the Doctor's laboratory.
"Potter! Where are you?" He said in a raised tone looking around.
"Brigadier sir?" Lethbridge-Stewart saw the man stand up, he had some techno-gubbins in his hands.
"Ah Potter. I need you to come with me, time to earn your keep."
-/
"Where are we going?" Harry asked as he slipped on a jacket and turned off the soldering iron. It hadn't been easy constructing equipment to scan for energy signatures, especially as he hadn't wanted to bring the pages of notes that he used to construct his device back in 2003, which had been provided through K9 and then most likely by the Doctor. But he made sure he knew the basics. But even then the technology he was working with was somewhat retro. However it was fortunate the Doctor was in the middle of fixing up his TARDIS; that provided several parts to build a simple time scanner, though that would only help if Ginny had been exposed to high amounts of chronon energy during he trip through the Cardiff rift. His time turner calibrator had been properly prepared to channel its energy for the journey through, in order to home in on its pair during the journey through the rift, but now it was useless as a homing device.
What he wanted to do was go and have a wander around the wizarding world, which would be incredibly dangerous for innumerable reasons. He'd been waiting for Hogwarts to resume to hopefully cut down those innumerable reasons to just vaguely dangerous reasons.
"Nasty business, Potter," Lethbridge-Stewart said once they were in the Land Rover.
Harry nodded. It sounded like it. This was something that he'd never really known a lot about, the early stages of the wizarding war with Voldemort.
Earlier, in the past…actually the future, but the past for Harry…
Judith and Ioan had left them to talk together.
"You're really sure, you won't get tempted to interfere?" Hermione asked, deep concern present in her voice.
Harry smiled softly. "You mean go and find Voldemort and kill him before he has a chance to kill however many people. Including my parents?"
"Something like that Harry," Hermione stated seriously.
He nodded. "It is something I've thought about. But no. I'm not stupid enough to go messing with big events like that."
"And smaller ones?" Hermione asked after a few moments.
"Well…that depends on how I'm involved once I'm there," he commented diplomatically.
"But Harry you-"
He cut her off. "I'm not going to interact with anyone who is connected to me too directly if I can avoid it or to events we know of as history. But Ginny is already changing things by being there. Perverting the course of time."
Present…(in the past)…
It looked like a bomb had gone off in the hamlet. But it was what was in the clouds that gave him chills on top of his chills.
A skull embossed on the clouds with a snake slithering its way out of it.
No wonder UNIT had been called.
They were standing on the edge of the 'bomb site'. He could see bodies in the middle of the town, they appeared to be arranged around a war memorial.
The smell or charred flesh was wafting over towards them.
Harry started down the small incline into the town, it was only when he was walking up towards the pyre that he realised he was alone.
All the UNIT soldiers and who ever else they had brought with them were standing, still, watching.
Jogging back to the Brigadier he addressed him. "Sir? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, Potter I can hear you, but I can't…" He was lost for words, or he lacked the vocabulary to describe whatever spell was in place here.
"You can see it though can't you?" Harry asked in a calm voice.
"Yes," was the Brigadier's soft monotone reply, as though he was struggling.
"Take a step forward," Harry said calmly.
"I…" The Brigadier faltered.
"You're going to listen to me." Harry stepped into the Brigadier's field of vision. "You're going to listen to my voice, you're going to focus," Harry said as he fixed his stare with the Brigadier's. "It is your duty to walk into this town, you are the commanding officer of UNIT. You have to be in charge. You will walk in. You will obey me." Harry said firmly, not breaking his gaze with the Brigadier.
"I will obey. I will obey…" Harry smirked to himself as the Brigadier mumbled to himself, then he started taking steps forward, falteringly though.
He hoped whatever spell had been cast here would be broke by the Brigadier walking in.
This wasn't a notice-me-not charm or anything simple like that, whoever cast the spell wanted this atrocity to be seen, and obviously didn't want anyone to disrupt it.
It was almost like the Brigadier was fighting a reverse Imperius curse, that was making him stay on the edge of the area.
The Brigadier came to a stop. "What the…Potter?" He shouted. Harry walked swiftly over to where he was standing.
"Can you see what's around you Brigadier sir? No desire to escape, run away…?" Harry asked quietly and calmly.
"Why the devil would you think that Potter?" He seemed to stand a little straighter just from Harry's question.
"Because you've walked into an area that paralysed you a moment ago," Harry gestured the Land Rover they'd arrived in.
"How did we get here?" He demanded.
"You walked my dear Brigadier. You walked." Harry said as he looked around scratching his chin. "I wonder if it's just the act of coming in here or you actually need to walk in yourself," he said mostly to himself. "Stay here Brigadier."
Driving in and out of the area seemed to work, as long as it was someone who had had the spell broken for them.
Oddly though only the UNIT personnel managed to stay within the area, the local coroner the Brigadier had brought in ran away screaming himself hoarse.
The Brigadier suggested to him that it was the specialised training that UNIT personnel went through.
Or, Harry thought to himself it was the stresses and unique positions they were exposed to through being part of UNIT.
By the time a coroner from UNIT had arrived the Dark Mark was only just starting to dissipate.
"So this is what history looks like," he muttered to himself as he watched the body bags begin to be unpacked from the coroner's vehicle.
-/
A/N:
Minor edit done March 2021.
Harry meets the Brigadier and UNIT a short time after the events of The Claws of Axos.
UNIT dating is notoriously confusing and contradictory, so I'm going to avoid any mention in story of the date.
Next chapter I'll be making some references directly to the wizarding world to establish a date in relation to events in the wizarding world.
I've wanted to have Harry meet the Brigadier and UNIT when they were in their prime and this story arc is something I've had in mind for a while. Even though how I see Harry and Ginny has changed a little bit from my initial ideas it hasn't changed largely from how I originally had ideas for this arc.
The meeting between this Doctor (the Third Doctor) Jo Grant and Harry happens in Chapter 4, this was Harry's past but the Doctor and Jo's future.
So Jo can't meet Harry until she meets him for the first time in her future.
