Chapter 22

Setting things up here and now wasn't a hippogriff in a potions lab affair.

It was like wizarding chess, the pieces needed to fall in an exacting order to have their required affect on the surrounding environment.

She hadn't planned for this exact era, she knew she needed to come back far enough to influence things.

But where she had found herself; with some influence was a very good place to be.

There also wasn't any possibility of any deviants like Harry Potter getting in the way. Only people from her family and his past, but they had their own problems that would be brewing sometime soon. But none of it would happen for several years yet, she was relatively sure of that. The war was a violent yet subtle affair that was what she'd known of at least.

Also her Patron informed her not to seek out any family, he said the results would be amusing, for observers.

She didn't doubt that it would not be amusing or remotely for her, it was the way Patron smiled when he told her this.

She had vague memories of how she came to be under her Patron's influence.

It had been some time since she had arrived here and now, it had, she thought, something of a miracle of magic to have arrived here and now. A triumph of magic her Patron had called it.

She didn't remember much after she first arrived, the transference through time had been rough and violent. If it wasn't for her Patron's assistance she wouldn't have found the rest of her sect.

She remembered flashes of light and dark, and exhaustion when she arrived here.

And also a sensation of water…or perhaps it was drowning, her Patron said it was the result of the transference, and while he did have reason to lie, he also had means to discover the truth from her.

Flashback…

"I know you're a time traveller, and a magic user Ms Weasley, that much I know, very simple things to discover with the right tools." He was shrouded in almost darkness, she hadn't been moved, at least she was almost sure she hadn't been moved. She had lost count of the days and nights, the blaring lights and the nightmares she had of drowning. Something she put down to half remembered memories of Hogwarts when she woke up shaking on the ground of this light and dark room.

"But I want to know more, more details of why you came here and now."

"I…I can tell you whatever you need to know Mr…" She said hoarsely.

"Sir," he supplied.

"Sir…." She said breathing in deeply. Something was placed over her head and everything went dark and painful.

Awareness slowly ebbed into her psyche followed by consciousness. She was vaguely aware that she was sitting in front of a table. That she was no longer secured to the table and…she had a vague memory of swimming, or possibly drowning, but she couldn't think where the memory had come from.

Present…

Her Patron's offer had been interesting, not that she'd had any option, the alternatives were less than palatable. The memory of her Patron's 'mind analysis machine' still shook her to her soul.

Despite her Patron's hard-line, she appreciated his assistance, it was of benefit to have a base of operations and someone who understood what she was doing here.

A little work she had to perform in addition to her own plans was of little consequence.

Ginny allowed herself to smile slightly, she even enjoyed the havoc she'd been required to cause.

It felt especially satisfying arranging "accidents" for those who violently disagreed with her, however they did cast their aspersions first, she was just defending her honour…

-/ - \\-

They'd hugged one another, shocked and relieved to find one and another alive.

"Friend, we were concerned," said Gideon.

"More like totally worried Gideon," said Fabian.

He'd found them in the Leaky Cauldron, but had suggested they continue their conversation elsewhere.

"Friend Harry, how are you, you were caught in the explosion?" Fabian asked him, worried.

Harry nodded.

"And you didn't die?" Fabian asked, Gideon punched him on the arm.

"I know about the poison, I barely survived," Harry said carefully, he didn't want the brothers to get any ideas about the exact method that allowed him to survive. "And you? I'm sorry I haven't contacted you, but I don't have-" He was cut off.

"No matter friend. You're lucky to survive is what my brother was trying to say," Gideon said.

Fabian just shook his head with a smile.

"Very lucky, and you two also." Harry said to the two brothers.

"Not even close, an impromptu visit to our sister and nephews, have we mentioned her?" Gideon asked Harry as Harry took a long sip from his pint.

Harry fought to keep a neutral though intrigued expression on his face as he swallowed a mouthful of liquid.

"I think you said something about it, married to Weasl, Weezy…?" Harry tried casually.

"Weasley. He makes her happy and that's all that matters," Fabian answered. As Harry and Gideon nodded.

"We've been keeping our ears to the ground listening for the beating footsteps of a dragon stampede." Harry raised an eyebrow at Fabian's comment.

"The concern you raised for what did you call them…" Gideon asked leaning forward slightly and dropping his voice down slightly.

"Cultural terrorists," Harry supplied as he recalled a previous conversation. It was as good as any description of Ginny's gang.

"And they're not part of the recent attacks?" Fabian asked.

Harry shook his head, at least he was relatively sure that they wouldn't do anything quite that noticeable. It wasn't really in line with their twisted ideas, though that said time travelling to alter the philosophical and cultural psyche of the wizarding world while it was going through the shock and awe of Voldemort's impending war wasn't something he would have believed half a dozen years ago.

Gideon shifted and removed a crumpled piece of parchment and unrolled it, using their now empty larger glasses to keep it open.

Peering down at it Harry regarded the addresses and quizzically raised an eyebrow at the brother.

"There are, friend Harry, some bars associates of ours like to attend," Gideon explained casually.

"Revolutionaries, delinquents, liberationists, deviants, believers. All exes of yours Gideon," Fabian deadpanned, Gideon gave him a withering look.

"These are the sorts of people your terrorist is looking for? They're not the people who go about destroying shops in the alley or transfiguring villages."

Harry blinked, he was pretty sure UNIT and the Ministry would have made sure the things he'd seen before Christmas hadn't gotten out into the public knowledge. "How'd you know about the transfiguration business?"

"Or more to the point friend Harry, how do you know about it?" Gideon asked.

"Your mysterious friends?" Fabian asked curiously implying he knew more than what he was asking.

Harry leaned back into his chair with an air of indifference. "What a curious line of inquiry, do you really expect me to answer any of your questions?"

Gideon and Fabian looked to each other and then turned back at him grinning. "Nope. We just thought we'd challenge you to see if the man of mystery would drop down and explain all," Fabian acknowledged.

"We don't get to meet interesting mysterious people too often," Gideon continued.

Harry pulled the parchment up off the table. There were a rather large amount of clubs, pubs and whatever else around London and its outskirts, nothing too far out into the country, but far too many to begin to search.

But once he got his scanning equipment sorted out this would allow him to narrow his field of endeavours.

"And I don't get to meet people such as yourselves too frequently either," Harry said truthfully.

It was beginning to get dark when he left the pub after spending several hours chatting again with the brothers. He really enjoyed chatting with them, which made it all the more hard that in the back of his mind he knew what would ultimately happen to them.

Why he had to befriend these two guys…he sighed silently to himself as he unlocked his Jag.

Harry looked up at the rear-vision mirror looking himself in the eye.

Voldemort was already out there, according to the brothers, "Lord Voldemort" had taken credit for the explosion in the alley.

Though aside from the name and the claim there was yet much known of him according to Gideon.

He wasn't going to try and stop Voldermort, he had history with him, literally. Future history to Riddle and past history for him. Nor would he interfere with history's course with regard to the Prewett brothers.

"That's the cost for travelling into history, you sometimes know the outcomes," Harry said to himself in a tone the Doctor might use. "And those outcomes might not be pleasant," he finished to himself. Shaking his head free of morose thoughts he started the engine.

The sound of the engine and the power of it as he slipped it into gear made him smile, distracting him from his solemn thoughts.

-/ - \\-

"This is excellent Brigadier, most excellent," Harry said as he looked around the practically empty room that still held a few large computer reel machines, or whatever they were. They were beyond retro in Harry's opinion.

"Most the dangerous gubbins left over from that WOTAN debacle were cleared out after the incident, the tower's been used by a few communications companies," the Brigadier paused using his swagger stick to push aside some piece of paper that littered a table. "But government's remained in control of most of these areas."

"Thank you Brigadier, this should help immensely," Harry praised looking around.

Lethbridge-Stewart smiled sharply. "Anything to help Mr Potter and your role in assisting with the population of the village was greatly appreciated."

"Even though everyone involved has signed the official secrets act?" Harry asked.

The Brigadier didn't say anything. "I'll get you sorted out with an access card so you can get up here when you need to Mr Potter." With that the Brigadier left him to the room.

The tower had some immense technology, some of which was too integrated to be easily removed.

Certainly the large transmitting arrays hadn't been removed yet.

The Doctor had only ever talked about what happened with WOTAN and Professor Brett in passing. But the files Harry had looked over when he'd asked the Brigadier about it had been quite detailed, it seemed the Doctor had assisted a Sir Charles Summer of the Royal Scientific Club.

It seemed like a good idea too, they were trying to create the Internet a few years early. It was a pity it wasn't around now, it would've been useful, except for the whole megalomaniac mind controlling artificial intelligence. That was something of a 'user interface obstacle', he thought to himself with a smirk. Plus no mouse and a typewriter interface, but WOTAN could talk and answer almost any question, which probably beat ' ' any time. Though he kept coming back to the mind-control and the War Machines, that's what you get when you end up with a artificial intelligence built in the 60s that goes onto build an army using people under mind control to build them.

"All set Mr Potter?" The Brigadier said as he stepped back into the room, breaking into Harry's pondering thought processes.

-/

As with all good ideas this had some flaws.

Altering the transmitter to transmit and receive and in essence do a primitive scan of London was good in theory.

It was certainly better than his idea of kitting out his car with the equipment he'd so far constructed, while that was an idea for short range detection of magical time travellers, he'd calculated, with the Doctor's assistance that it would take him several months to canvass the whole of London and its surrounds.

If he could get the post office tower systems worked out he'd be able to do a whole scan of central London in a much shorter period of time.

Though why had no one thought to include a wiring diagram for any of this? Harry despaired to himself as he pulled out another handful of cables.

This was what LPI was good at; division of labour, he did admit that he had found it somewhat enjoyable building his energy scanner back in 2003. But all this technology wasn't just retro, it was old, clunky and cumbersome.

-/

"Small mercies," Harry said to himself leaning back carefully so he didn't touch any cables, he'd already been zapped several times today.

At least computers existed, at least he was in a time where the Doctor was around, UNIT was here to provide support.

Ginny and her group hopefully didn't have any of that, but they must have started to garner support and they were being cautious given the ripples hadn't started to crash assure to alert anyone to an interference in the culture here.

Though with the rapidly escalating incidents involving Voldemort it was possible her actions would get caught up in the flow. Though what worried him was how her ideologies might appeal to wizarding society, especially one about to go through turmoil.

What he really missed was being able to talk about all this to his friends, Hermione, Ioan, Judith, even Jack Harkness. People who knew everything (not quite Jack on that front), whom he didn't have to worry about the web of time (or the time stream as the Doctor here and now called it) or worry about revealing something that was relevant to the near future that may not affect the web of time, but may cause ripples that he'd know about.

He'd considered penning a letter to Hermione and pulling a 'Back to the Future' manoeuvre; write his letter and leave it with one of the banks that LPI had some funds with, with directions to give it to her after he'd departed.

He'd almost done it too, but he missed not just talking, but hers, Ioan and Judith's responses, their conversations. A letter would be a poor substitute for that, especially as he knew that there was no way for to respond.

He'd thought about sharing all this with someone in this time. The Brigadier and the Doctor were the two people who knew as much as they could, the Brigadier more so than the Doctor in some things. But not all, he couldn't tell anyone here everything he knew. Or didn't know as the case was with regards to the wizarding world.

Just the broad brush strokes in that regard, with some annoying fine points that were immutable.

Harry pulled himself forward determined to shake these thoughts from himself, then he leant on another live cable, swearing and he grabbed his hand away from it.

"I wish I could just get back to killing the bad guys," he said to himself and then let out a sigh.

-/ - \\-

It had taken close to 3 months to get all the parts for his new and improved scanning system since the last time he'd hooked up his scanning equipment to the systems he'd jerry rigged in the Post Office tower. When he'd switched it on to test it his device had promptly exploded causing a minor fire and a medium sized explosion according to the Doctor when he diagnosed the level of concussion Harry had suffered being blown back by the force of the 'zap'.

Now he'd redesigned and used some higher grade parts, all paid for out of the UNIT's budget thankfully.

He'd chosen this day to do his full search for Ginny's group (and the minute traces of temporal energy left by their arrival) tonight because of what was happening and where and who would be there.

In a few minutes, if everything was running to schedule Professor Horner would be opening the Devil's Hump. The Doctor and Jo would be there and Azal, last of the Dæmons would be released.

It would have been fascinating to be there Harry admitted to himself as he checked the oscilloscopes that were hooked to his equipment, checking and rechecking the time scanner was attuned to the correct frequencies. If he got it wrong, with this higher grade equipment there was a higher chance of an explosion, or an EMP that could wipe out most of London.

Though there was a very low chance of that happening.

Probably.

There would also be another person at Devil's End whom he would like to meet.

But he could wait until UNIT captured him, he didn't want the Brigadier to start accusing him of working with said person.

He'd tell the Brigadier once they'd captured said individual.

Probably.

He'd certainly tell the Brigadier something so he could go and have a chat with said individual.

Then he'd tell the Brigadier, though only if he the Brigadier got curious.

Magister's future history with him was somewhat less complicated than the Doctor's. Though, he still had an unpleasant future to look forward to Harry thought to himself with a slight frown.

The large computer and data recorders were making some noise as the large reels of tape moved around, the Doctor had assured him it was perfectly normal.

It was still somewhat disconcerting that he needed a couple of cabinets of computers to process all this information.

Just in case the storage systems had some sort of failure there were some large printers also hooked up that would spit out all the information as it was processed.

Hopefully was the operational word of all this.

"Well, now or never," Harry said to himself, he'd given up thinking it was weird to talk to himself.

Then he activated the system.

It was rather anti-climactic, mainly because it took a few seconds to build the power.

There was a vague smell of ozone in the air, then the computers started making a lot of noise, signifying he hoped that the scan was in progress, or he'd just thrown London backwards with a high powered EMP blast.

Which would have massive effects on the timeline and probably negate, or drastically alter his future, thus preventing him coming back in time and therefore create a paradox, which prevented it from happening.

Probably.

-/ - \\-

The Doctor looked across the village at the ruins of the church, Jo was still dancing around the maypole, but he'd taken his leave to join the Brigadier at the pub for a pint.

The Master was under constant guard and would be taken somewhere secure under maximum security.

"Do you think Mr Potter knew about this whole business Doctor?" Lethbridge-Stewart asked.

"Harry did seem to conveniently take his leave of HQ Brigadier, I think with his knowledge of yours and my futures that he would know of certain events that might affect the time stream were he to participate in significant moments," the Doctor said casually.

The Brigadier drank some of his pint and tried to ignore the sight of the church, or the rubble that made up the church.

He wished that was the only thing that was going to cause headaches for him and UNIT, but there were far worse things happening around the country. Things like those that Mr Potter had assisted with.

There had been more than one hamlet that had mysteriously burned to the ground, a mass suicide in farming community and other suspicious, though not overtly "esoteric" occurring around the country.

No further events had forced him to call on Mr Potter's expertise, however, despite their success in capturing the Master today Lethbridge-Stewart was still doubtful that the esoteric events would cease it was more likely likely, that, like war it would only increase in veracity.

-/

A/N:

Minor update March 2021.

I will start by saying Ginny's Patron is not the Master (or the Doctor).

The capture of the Master takes place during The Dæmons.