Chapter 27
"Ah Professor Thascalos, there's a man waiting for you in your office."
"Dr Percival? A man, who?" Professor Thascalos eyed the director of the institute, who had been one of the first he'd brought under his will upon arriving here.
"I…I…I…didn't ask, he said he was came to thank you. I…I left him in your office," the man bumbled.
"Idiot!" Professor Thascalos shook his head, dealing with these humans, how the Doctor could bother with them, if he didn't need their equipment…and their measly intellect, while small was useful for the most tedious of experiments, after that they could be disposed of. Restraining himself from snapping the man before him's neck he composed himself and dismissed Percival to whatever other duties the man filled his boring little life with.
Removing his weapon from a pocket he carefully opened the door, which he noted had been locked when he departed. Not that he would leave anything that these small minded humans would find even the least amount interesting.
As he walked in he came face to face with another man, holding a weapon pointing at him. Though this weapon was unlike any weapon any humans here were likely to wield. Though the man seemed more weary than when he had last seen him.
"Hello Magister."
-/
"Now," Magister paused leaning into back into his chair and regarding him. "Your quest is almost over?"
Harry closed his eyes as he held the brandy glass in his hands to warm. "Yes, finally. Just one more," he replied with some relief.
"Ms Weasley. You have dealt with her other devoted followers then? As you discussed with me? The last time you 'dropped in'," Magister asked in a calming tone.
Harry fancied there should have been a warm fire in the grate beside them, but it wasn't really the right season for it.
Harry nodded. His hands were steeped literally and metaphorically in blood, and yet, he didn't feel anything, nothing that concerned him. Maybe even a sense of contentedness, of satisfaction that there was just one more person to deal with.
"Yes. I've dealt with them all. They've got no meaningful existence here to the timeline. Not even…" Harry shook his head to himself.
"Not even?" Magister prompted.
"Not even a half decent resurrection potion could do it," he admitted in a darkly amused tone.
"Your experiences with such things of course," Magister said as he swirled the brandy in his glass.
"Of course," Harry repeated. "This might be the last time I get a chance to drop in on you," Harry said meeting Magister's gaze with a smile.
"Oh? The Doctor regains his time travel abilities," It was more of a statement than a question. "the Time Lords finally get sick of him meddling in the affairs of this paltry little planet?"
"Something like that," Harry decided not to point out that it was pot calling the kettle a meddler. "But I just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed surprising you." Magister raised an eyebrow. "And reaffirming our acquaintance."
"Likewise Mr Potter," he said "there are so few individuals in the universe worthy of the time to form a friendship such as ours."
Harry finished his brandy; placing it on the side table beside him.
"Good luck with whatever it is you're up to," Harry said rising from his seat.
"You don't know Harry?" Magister asked amused.
"That would be telling." Harry stated cryptically.
"Should I ask you Mr Potter?" Magister asked as he walked over to his desk where a newspaper was waiting on the desk, Harry was sure it hadn't been there when he'd first come into the room; The Tally Ho.
"Who is No 6?" Harry mumbled to himself.
"The more important question would be Mr Potter, who is number 1." Magister said equally cryptically.
Harry drew his gaze away from the paper. "If you're ever in the early 21st century, come and visit me," Harry said as he offered his hand to Magister, who took it, grasping and shaking it warmly. Harry held his gaze. "You, I mean Magister…not…"
"Not?" He challenged.
"Not your future incarnations," said Harry in a deep tone meeting and matching Magister's gaze.
Magister raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, considering the intonation of Harry's voice.
"Be seeing you Mr Potter," Magister said as Harry opened the door, Harry nodded to him as he departed.
-/ - \\-
He felt, almost invigorated, enlivened even, as he worked, preparing things for a potion, for the spells, the encounters that would follow. His task, his quest was reaching a conclusion.
"Just what sort though hmmm?" He asked himself as he leant back onto the bench stool.
"An adequate potion Mr Potter, adequate for someone of such a low attention span."
"You're approaching the final end now Harry, and what will my beloved sister do when she finds you've 'dispatched' all her wonderful followers?"
"A very creative potion my dear boy, especially considering where you are. The muggles can be such a delight, so fascinating."
"I always thought my transformations were painful, but what of the pain you have suffered through and caused to others Harry?"
"Wotcher Harry, now you're coming up to face the former-love of your life, they're always the harshest critics! Wish I could help!"
Then Harry swore as the stool slid away from him and he fell onto the hard laboratory floor.
"No more huffing potion fumes for me." He muttered to himself.
-/
UNIT HQ was somewhat more empty than usual. Captain Yates had taken off with the Doctor's TARDIS several hours ago, which meant that he wasn't going to walk into the Doctor or Jo as he walked through HQ, and it meant that the Doctor, Jo, the Brigadier, Benton and Magister were all either at the Newton Institute or the Doctor, Jo and Magister were up to their necks in trouble. Or Chronovores or people with groovy hairstyles, or time flow analogues. Or something, maybe even V2 bombers.
He had a rather different thing to address.
"The last remains of Ginny Weasley, or not," Harry exhaled into the antiseptic-scented environment of UNIT's morgue. Various doors with various biohazard symbols that he was sure people in Geneva dreamt up to describe the variety of aliens and other things that these draws and cool rooms contained. But he was here for a smaller drawer, for a smaller box containing what they'd picked up and scraped up following Ginny's ill-chosen disapparition.
The bone was simple enough to remove and grind up for distribution throughout the potion.
He only had enough ingredients to prepare the potion once, so he'd made sure he had several batches of the final product. So he could use the potion several times, if he messed up the implementation.
The war; Voldemort's war, the First Wizarding War, the Dark Rebellion or whatever it was they were calling it here and now…likely none of those yet, but is was spinning up to full speed, and going out to places like Diagon Alley, while probably still safe wasn't worth the chance.
"Yet I can run around killing whomever I like, but I don't want to take a chance running out for some potions ingredients," Harry mused aloud, snorting to himself, and then frowned. "I must stop talking to myself," he said shaking his head.
The congealed blood and dried blood likewise was simple enough to reconstitute and to add for the final portion of the potion. Then he could apply it to the maps he had laid out.
They weren't magical maps, the one he'd used previously had been ruined beyond use so he'd got the UNIT stores to bring up several maps of the United Kingdom, he also had more detailed maps of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, he'd also requested maps of the European Union...except that didn't exist yet. They'd offered him maps of Europe and its surrounding countries.
Even though he'd been here for however many months the differences were still jarring.
A journey into time wasn't as fun as you'd think, not when you were stuck in one time and place, unable to go home, with a war looming over the top of you. One that you were integral to ending, well not you specifically but your temporally removed self who'd yet to be born.
But he had managed to come to this time and not be tempted to go to Hogwarts and see his parents.
Harry shook his head as he stirred anti-clockwise once more, that wasn't true, despite everything he'd said back in the 21st century when he'd left, there was a tiny part of him that did think about going to Hogwarts to see his parents. Probably the same part of him that looked into the Mirror of Erised, except even that part of him had changed and matured. He knew it was something he couldn't, shouldn't and wouldn't do. They hadn't even met one another yet most likely and his mother and Severus Snape were likely still friends, or maybe Sirius and his father were already bullying Snape which would...
"Ghosts of the past...and future," Harry muttered to himself to clear his head, he'd decided that talking to himself really wasn't all bad. It was better than getting into narrative conversations in his head about the future, past and present, whichever one he was in at the moment.
The potion gurgled and then 5 puffs of smoke shot out of the beaker spreading across the ceiling; further staining it. The UNIT cleaners would likely have a time cleaning all of that off whenever he departed this time and place.
The puffs of smoke indicated the final portion of the potion and he removed stirring stick he'd been using and checked the instructions once more and then pulled out his wand, holding it just below the skin that was settling on the top of the potion and began to intone the final parts of the potion's mantra.
Given that he'd used a variation of the location potion he'd made the first time, this one needed a longer settling time, so, after locking the potion away everything he went out to the pub to await the inevitable return of UNIT's finest from their most recent encounter with 'the Master', their last for the foreseeable future as far as he knew.
-/ - \\-
"Brigadier," Harry greeted the military man as he joined him in the corridor.
"Mr Potter. Benton informs me you're very close to pin pointing the location of Ms Weasley, if she's still alive," said the Brigadier.
Harry nodded, he'd talked to Benton the previous night, who had looked like he'd needed a drink, de-aging probably did that to you.
"Yes...if she's still alive. I have my doubts that she'd dead Brigadier if I'm honest," Harry said pushing open the double doors that lead towards the corridor his lab was in.
"Hmm. How so?"
Harry shrugged. "Just that...she's a fighter. Mad, psychotic and downright deranged. But..."
"Those are the worst Mr Potter, those that are convinced of their missions that they're going to benefit the world from carrying their plans out," the Brigadier paused. "Straight forward invasions are much simpler," he finished.
"Except the part where the public find out about alien presences and invasions?"
"And how many lay people know in your time Mr Potter?" The Brigadier challenged with a slight smirk.
Harry chuckled and shook his head. "A point to you Brigadier."
-/
"So this gloop is going to pin point where Ms Weasley is located correct?" The Brigadier eyes a small beaker that was full of a deep red thin liquid.
"That's right Brigadier, if I've got the potion right," Harry said, making sure the wooden frame and boarders he'd nailed together to place the may on so the potion didn't drip over the floor were in place. The potion had turned out to have a thinner consistency than he'd thought it was going to have. He was vaguely sure it was due to the consistency of the blood he'd used, he might now have got the reconstitution absolutely perfect. So while his alive, yet dead potions master may have taken issue with it, according to the book he was using 'some imperfections, deficiencies and inadequacies can be absorbed by this potion'. Which managed to be critical of him, despite being written in a however many years old book, which was something of a feat considering it was likely written to be helpful, though he imagined only grudgingly.
"Do I need any special protection, gas mask, blast shield?" Harry didn't dignify the latter with a response.
"No Brigadier, you just stand there. There shouldn't be any noxious fumes, this is a different potion to the other one," Harry explained calmly.
"Potions, magic..." Harry smiled at the Brigadier shaking his head.
"Was your life so simple before I came along Brigadier? Aliens, a mysterious man with a police box and another man with a propensity to hypnotise people who got in the way?" Harry asked casually as he tucked his wand into an outer pocket.
This potion while not looking remotely like his previous one did function similarly, with his wand being placed on the liquid 'some cleaning of the wand will be required following the use of this potion and spell' said the book helpfully.
"Are you going to get on with it Mr Potter," was the Brigadier's only response to his comment.
"Yes Sir, Brigadier, Sir," was his sarcasm laden reply. Harry glanced over at the book that was on a neighbouring table, just to check the incantations a however many-th time, it wasn't his third, fourth or fifth read through them, he couldn't really remember how many times he'd read through the instructions. Some days it reading it, it did remind him of his departed potions professor, and a part of him felt saddened that he was departed, along with the many, many other people.
Harry drew himself back into the present, sometimes in the times he was working alone he found himself dipping into wistful melancholy.
-/
Lethbridge Stewart stood back as Mr Potter drew himself up, taking a breath and began to mutter either to himself or to the disturbing red 'potion' in a large beaker he was holding with a pair of large pair of wooden tongs. He blinked and stared as the 'potion' began to bubble as Mr Potter's mutterings became louder, it seemed to be elements of a foreign language, with bits of Latin and Welsh mixed in with it. Or maybe it was just gibberish.
Then Potter poured the liquid out onto the map he'd prepared, not a map that showed any magical sites, merely one he had obtained from UNIT's stores.
-/
"Now...if I've done this right, this should reveal where Ginevra is residing." Harry said to himself as he placed his wand gently onto the potion, it hissed slightly as it took the weight of his wand and he watched as his wand sailed along the map before stopping, pointing at a location. Then the potion shifted moving away from where it was pointing and then solidified into a jelly-wax like structure.
"Map makers must make a lot of money, whenever you do these spells it wrecks your map," Harry muttered to himself looking over to the map, and grabbed a hold of a lamp on an extendable arm and turned it on; illuminating the map better than the overhead lighting.
"Hmmm," Harry said to himself, it didn't look like a wizarding location, at least not one that he was aware of. "What'd you think Brigadier?" Harry watched the Brigadier as he leaned over and tensioned slightly.
-/
Lethbridge Stewart stepped over to look where Potter's 'wand' was pointing on the map he'd covered in the sludge of his, and he recognised the location. It was on several briefings, meetings and other such things from the intelligence agencies in London and from UNIT abroad, as well as some other intelligence agencies whom he kept in contact with for 'just in case' purposes.
"You know something," Potter said looking at him.
"Yes Mr Potter. I do." He looked around the room, wondering if they might be listening.
"Please Brigadier, I sweep this room daily, I got rid of your bugs a while ago," Potter said casually as he plucked his wand from the sludge with another pair of tongs and took it over to the sink to wash and scrub off. Then he added. "Or any of the other bugs that weren't yours."
Harry turned on the taps to hot water and waited for the water to come from which ever hot water boiler, wherever it was in the UNIT building. Just by the way the Brigadier had looked at the map he knew that the military man knew something, something interesting no doubt.
Harry felt he should be elated, now that he knew where Ginny is, that maybe he should be apparating in, rushing in to find and eliminate her. But brash moves like that tended to get oneself killed, even sneaking in likely wasn't the option, if Ginny was there she'd likely have some other sycophants around her, and if the Brigadier was worried then it had to be some other terrestrial form of problem, which also didn't bode well for him, but also meant that the bursting in guns a-blazing wasn't the option either, or at least not a very wise option, he was vaguely sure himself as a young man, in Hogwarts would rush in to find her. But he hadn't been that young man for a while, he doubted he'd ever be him again.
As the water became hot he plucked a cloth from beside the sink and began to wipe the contents of the potion from his wand.
"Well Brigadier?" He asked in a level tone, you seem worried.
There was some silence, Harry suspected that the Brigadier wanted to look him in the eye rather than talk to his back.
Turning around he grabbed the paper towels from the bench and looked up at the Brigadier.
"Well? Or should I just..." Harry trailed off. "Go there myself."
"No, Mr Potter, I don't believe that would be the best option," the Brigadier said almost immediately. "That location, is where several elements of UNIT believe is the central location of a terror and crime organisation. Individuals that have been affiliated with that location and their operatives have been linked to several incidents, murders, assassination and thefts around the United Kingdom and Europe," the Brigadier explained, he sounded like he had said the information before, or read it in a report several time.
"What sort of incidents?" Harry asked.
"Thefts from UNIT facilities and other secure locations and incidents involving alien technology and other related items."
Harry wondered if other was code for magic, or just other things that fell outside the UNIT's purview.
"We've been prevented from launching a co-operative investigation due to this facility's ties to some high up British connections and a few other issues. But this should help."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "What sort of connections?"
The Brigadier straightened slightly and told him.
"Oh. I wouldn't have put it past them." Harry sighed. "They're very big on the 'for queen and country' job. So what next?"
"Now UNIT will take charge of this," the Brigadier said with some finality, but then walked forward and looked at him. "This is" He gestured the map. "And your help Mr Potter UNIT can shut down this operation."
"Okay Brigadier," Harry said.
"I don't want you popping off to sort this job out yourself," the Brigadier warned, as he maintained eye contact with him.
"Okay Brigadier, I won't go off on my own," Harry said carefully. He'd already decided that he wouldn't.
Dealing with who these people were, and if they were working with Ginny presented a unique problem and people with those kinds of resources, he didn't want to mess with them on his own.
Now he just had to wait, something he didn't like doing.
Harry wondered just how long he would need to wait, and if it would cross over into when the Doctor encountered Omega.
-/ - \\-
It turned out he needn't have concerned himself, less than a week later he was standing on a chilly moor outside of Glasgow.
"What're those over there Brigadier, behind the camouflage nets," Harry asked.
"Oh, you know they're camouflage nets then?" The Brigadier sounded disappointed.
"Yes." Harry said as he once more checked that there was a gun in the holster.
"Tanks Mr Potter."
"Tanks," Harry repeated. When the Brigadier had briefed him (away from the other troops) he'd got the impression this was a large scale raid but he didn't imagine that they'd need tanks, plural.
And Harry thought the Brigadier was going overkill with the planes that were about to start their bombing run. All were UNIT, this was a job that couldn't be done by the British armed forces due to their target's unique relationship with the government. While their target's operations were illegal, they existed in a semi-legal state with the government and its other entities.
But what UNIT was doing was legal because of UNIT's mandate and its own relationship with the government and the armed forces.
It was all a bit complicated, but the Brigadier seemingly had sorted it all out and soon they'd be able to start shooting at things.
"Eagle is ready sir. Awaiting confirmation," Benton reported to their side.
"Confirm attack run. Let's see what this energy field will take."
Which was the point of all this, UNIT had already in the past attempted a covert entry and there was some form of energy field surrounding the whole property, not to mention the high and imposing walls, which he'd at first thought were allusions, but no, just paranoia on the part of whoever was in charge of the facility.
They really knew how to choose the people to be in charge of places like this. Harry conceded, mostly to himself that they couldn't all be like Jack Harkness.
"Just about ready to start your light show Brigadier?" Said the Doctor who walked up behind them.
"Doctor," the Brigadier sounded somewhat surprised. "I thought you and Miss Grant were busy at a conference."
"I let Jo go off and visit her uncle. Now what are you and Harry up to this time?" The Doctor asked looking between them.
"Eagle 30 seconds to target sir."
"Very good Benton," the Brigadier handed the Doctor a pair of binoculars.
Then 30 seconds later a several planes flew over their target dropping several bombs onto it, and what should have happened, following a carpet bombing like that, didn't. It just flared a very fascinating shade of chartreuse.
"What have you got involved with this time Brigadier?" The Doctor tutted.
"Tank assault confirm Benton." Harry heard the tanks nearest to them start up and swing around.
"Something you said during one of our conversations Doctor," the Brigadier answered the Doctor's question with a sideways glance.
"And what was that Brigadier?" The Doctor asked.
"Every force field technology has a breaking point like any other defensive technology, I believe your words were 'throw enough energy at it and it'll break down'," the Brigadier smiled in a satisfied sort of way.
"Yes, that was what I said my dear fellow but-" What ever the Doctor was going to say was cut off by several tanks, all bearing the UNIT logo on them opening fire on the walls and house that was encased within it.
"Everything has a breaking threshold Brigadier, not everything can be found by shooting at it," the Doctor shouted during a lull in the shooting.
Then one of the tanks exploded.
The Doctor looked around. "There, front of the wall...my, my, that's a Bandril mining laser. Very difficult to hold."
"Benton, get Captain Yates to take him out," the Brigadier ordered.
"Sir."
A moment later another tank exploded.
"Continue assault," the Brigadier turned to the Doctor. "Any idea of how long that shielding will hold out?"
The Doctor looked briefly annoyed but stopped and considered. "I trust some of your men have cut their power off?"
The Brigadier gave the Doctor a look. "Please Doctor, one of the first things I did."
"Then they must have very advanced power systems to have held out this long, who are they I wonder?" The Doctor mused to himself.
The Brigadier was about to open his mouth when something like a sonic boom exploded away from their target.
He turned to the Doctor who was holding his sonic screwdriver out in front of him, he smiled at the Brigadier.
"I folded back the energy weapon's main phasing array through a sonic loop."
There were several more explosions around the wall in front of them.
"Sergeant Benton?"
"Forces report declining opposition Sir..." Benton trailed off, looking across the land between them. "Sir...Doctor."
"That's not a good sign." Harry said as he let go of his binoculars to look at the sight without their aid.
A few explosions in the middle of the complex, where the main buildings were had frozen, like someone had hit the pause button on them.
"Fascinating, and terribly dangerous Brigadier, you didn't mention these people had access to time technology," the Doctor observed.
"They've stolen from several UNIT facilities, that's part of what makes them so dangerous," Harry said as he checked once more that he had a gun and his wand.
"Brigadier, collect your men, we should sort this out soon," the Doctor said firmly.
The Brigadier thought for a moment, considering what were essentially orders dressed as suggestions from the Doctor. "Benton, full assault on the buildings. Come on Doctor, Mr Potter," the Brigadier said, but found Harry was already behind the wheel of his Land Rover.
"Come on Brigadier," the Doctor said, throwing himself into the passenger side seat of the Land Rover.
-/
"Temporal field holding at 42 thousand megavolts and counting. Temporal redaction current and phasing."
UNIT, how they'd found his this base was something he would really like to know. They had put several deterrents, both magical and alien based to stop incursions like the irritating UNIT sticking their noses into things that didn't belong.
He'd already sent all their current information to London. Although not everyone there could be trusted like his team, there were enough that knew what they had to do for Queen and Country.
"Sir, Jones is dead UNIT created some sort of feedback loop on the weapon."
He nodded, UNIT did come prepared, he had to give the insufferable UN lackeys that. Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart had kept this attack covert, none of his contacts within the government had informed him of this assault on his complex.
"I think it's time to activate her," he said with a smile.
"Sir...we've not even tested her strength and the bonding, her injuries..." He stared at his assistant.
"I'll do it myself. Take a weapon from the armoury and defend the north quadrant," he said giving his assistant an icy glare.
He walked into the science-medical room, to her he was her Patron. To him she represented something of an experiment.
Hybridisation was something that very few people volunteered for, especially given the vaults of failed trials.
She had been in something of a mess when she had materialised back here, even ignoring the bullets she had been riddled with her mistimed auto-matter disintegration "disapparition" seemingly had been badly mistimed.
It did give them a chance to apply several elements that had been waiting for an appropriate subject. Her mind was ready for further appropriate mental preparation and reconditioning.
Metal connections removed from corpses replaced bones she had lost, while a poly-resin...filled in the gaps where blood and muscle once was.
Unfortunately, as was the case in previous trials, blood loss and rejection were the killers.
Quite literally, in this case her body's magical ability both hindered and helped her.
Depending on which one won the day she'd either be even more of a walking corpse or dead.
For now though she would be what they'd designed her to be.
"Patron..." She whispered softly, she reached up to her eyes to brush a wisp of red hair away from her eyes. Her arm felt heavier, stronger, more...powerful.
"We are under attack. Our base is being invaded by hostile forces," he paused and pushed a weapon into her hand. "Here, defend the central corridor."
He watched with some satisfaction as she took the gun, with her enhanced strength she would be able to use the Cyber-gun to its potential, and give the others enough time to destroy anything that might lead UNIT back to anything of high risk to their organisation.
-/
"There's a significant temporal field around the facility Brigadier," the Doctor reported.
"I can't see anything Doctor," the Doctor rubbed his chin in thought.
"No, but it's still there, I can...feel it." The Doctor explained.
"Feel it, Doctor my men are storming this facility and you're telling me what?" The Brigadier demanded.
"That we should be careful, when we enter we may be transitioning to a different time field, it may be disorientating, some weapons might not function close to the field. Radio will likely be intermittent," the Doctor explained.
Harry just shook his head, but with a smile.
"Marvellous Doctor." The Brigadier said.
-/
"Avada Kedavra." Harry barked at a man who was firing a very nasty looking weapon down an opposing corridor. "All clear." He shouted down to the UNIT soldiers who'd bunkered down behind some fallen filing cabinets.
"Harry the Brig says there's...something in the main corridor, the Doctor's heading there too," Harry grabbed Benton and pulled him with him as he took off at a run.
Somehow he knew that this was important.
Despite being grabbed by him Benton fell behind as Harry ran faster down a series of corridors.
Then he turned a further corridor as he recalled which was the Brigadier said he was going. Then he was shot at, or more to the point nearly shot at, someone grabbed him as an energy weapon fired off straight at him.
"I think running straight into trouble might not be the best idea this time Harry," the Doctor said as he brushed himself down. Harry looked over at the other side of the corridor where the Brigadier and two of his men were looking a little frazzled.
"What-" He was cut off as another blast of energy hit the wall close to the door's alcove where they were hiding.
"I didn't have a chance to see," the Doctor said.
"I'm going to chance a look." Harry said casting a disillusionment charm over himself and ignored the look from the Doctor as he eased out.
He wasn't immediately shot at, but he did recognise who was doing the shooting.
"The bitch isn't dead," he said mostly to himself.
"No I'm not Harry, but I do have excellent hearing." Harry threw himself towards the alcove where the Brigadier was.
"So that's Ms Weasley Mr Potter," the Brigadier observed wryly.
"The bitch lives it seems Brigadier." Another blast of energy fire impacted near them. "Seems she can't let too many of those rip too often," Harry chancing a look out.
"Hi Harry, come out and die!" She called.
Harry wondered why she wasn't coming to get them.
"My thoughts exactly Mr Potter. A-" the Brigadier started.
Harry shook his head. "Lets just say I know and understand your thinking." He pointed to the two men with him and made gestures with his fingers of shooting. He removed his own gun from its holster and held his wand in his main hand, the gun in the other.
They waited for the blaster fire and then jumped out, it seemed the Doctor had also chose this moment to jump out with his sonic screwdriver in hand.
Harry didn't wait and started shooting albeit not running to face her. The Doctor was doing something as the three of them, and it seemed more behind them joined firing at the single figure at the end of the corridor, though it seemed like only some of their bullets and his spells, stunning spells, which he was using only for economy of words were getting through, though the constant weapons fire did seem to distract the mad cow Weasley.
-/
There were reinforcements joining her now, that was good, she had to defend the facility, for Queen and country, for her people, her civilisation...From deviants that would destroy it, from the madness that was Harry Potter and the muggles who were drawn in by the creations of wizarding kind, by the shadows planted by the Ministry and she had to protect her world from the abnormal idiots who allowed their imaginations and psychosis of 'aliens' and the unreal to become a reality they ran around indulging in, like Harry Potter and his crusade against her and her associates.
The temporal field that extended around the facility would only protect her from an amount of the muggle weapons, Harry's spell fire was getting through though it just felt like a mild potion. Like something George and Fred used to get the Gryffindor house mates to test out.
She stopped squeezing the trigger for a moment, memories flushing through her vision for a moment.
Then it cleared as she felt several armour piercing rounds go through her body at plant themselves firmly in the asbestos wall behind her.
-/ - \\-
"We're entering an active time field Brigadier, some of your weapons may be less effective."
"Time field Doctor?" Lethbridge-Stewart asked as more shots from Ms Weasley's weapon and the other people who were supporting her narrowly missed the alcove there they were taking cover.
"Like the TOMTIT effect," the Doctor shouted as more of the Brigadier's men came around the corridor. "Be careful."
"Greyhound 2 to Greyhound leader, support on your position."
"Very good," the Brigadier barked into his radio as several more UNIT soldiers rounded a corridor behind them and came up them, adding to their firepower.
Harry rushed forward in the brief lull as the two forces fought more heavily with their added support they had a slight upper hand, even though the forces they were combating had whatever alien technology they'd pilfered from UN and other sites.
Harry took the offered rifle to replace his empty pistol.
"Armour piercing rounds," he said to himself with a grim smile. The Doctor paused from fiddling with his sonic screwdriver and talking or more to the point shouting at the Brigadier over the gunfire to frown at him slightly.
"I think we need to press forward and push the advantage Brigadier," Harry said quickly.
"Doctor is that thing ever going to run out of power?" The Brigadier asked roughly.
The Doctor shook his head. "I don't believe so Brigadier, you'll run out of bullets first."
"Armour piercing rounds then," the Brigadier shouted. "On my mark."
Then Ginny paused for the briefest of seconds in her shooting rampage. "Fire!"
-/
Ginny dropped the weapon. The Patron had said she was invulnerable, but there were rivers of...she felt her chest, her blood didn't used to be that colour...
Then he was rushing forward as those surrounding her fled or dropped their weapons.
"Harry bloody Potter, you snivelling, pathetic, deluded misanthrope," she snarled.
"I think you've got the usage of misanthrope wrong," Harry said holding the gun against her head.
"Still the deluded wizard who wishes he could be a muggle," she smiled, licking her lips. "You've got no heart Potter. Avada-"
She was cut off as Harry shot her again through the shoulder, the linoleum in the floor crumpled.
"Oops," Harry grabbed the wand from her hand. "Disarm the enemy before taunting the crazy bitch. Note to self."
"Was that really necessary Harry?" The Doctor said crouching down.
"You like to surround yourself with them, don't you Potter, believers in the cause, a whole organisation that wants to protect the world from delusions that we put there," Ginny coughed.
"She's more psychotic than Davr-" Harry started and then stopped.
"Who?" The Doctor asked.
"Never mind. Can she be saved?" Harry said, Ginny looked like she'd passed out. Possibly from blood loss.
The Doctor didn't say anything about the fact that he'd gone from shooting the psychotic mad cow in the shoulder to asking if he could save her life.
He had after all made and assurance to George about his sister, and if there was a chance...
The Doctor and had, while he had been musing on his responsibilities to his friends in a different century had pulled a pen from his pocket and dipped it into the puddle of blood, which, Harry thought to himself wasn't exactly the best colour for blood.
"Interesting." The Doctor mused.
"What's the prognosis Doctor?" The Brigadier asked.
"I'll need to get her somewhere, I have some worrying ideas Brigadier, Harry."
"Sir, we passed a medical lab just down that corridor." Benton said, who had just rushed up, he was covered in soot.
"Very good Sergeant, you men, help the Doctor with this...prisoner. Potter, you're with me," the Brigadier ordered.
Harry paused looking at the woman he'd crossed time zones to imprison...or kill, or subdue.
"I'll look after her Harry," the Doctor reassured.
"That's not my only concern Doctor," Harry said keeping an eye on her.
"Then my men will contain her Potter," the Brigadier said.
The Brigadier's men went to reach for the unconscious woman, but were stopped by the Doctor. "Put these on, just in case," he handed them some thick rubber gloves, Harry recognised them as highly rated biohazard gloves.
"I'll explain later when I have a better idea Harry," the Doctor said in a softer tone. Then added in a louder tone. "It looks like the Brigadier needs you."
"Wants me less distracted you mean," Harry said with a sigh. "If she makes any threatening motions, shoot her, kill if necessary," Harry ordered the Brigadier's men in a tone that wasn't to be argued with, had they not been pulling on the Doctor's rubber gloves he was sure they would have saluted.
-/
Harry's killing curse struck the man who was waving a wand at a rock in his hand, cursing to himself.
"You got him. Good. What do you think he was doing?" The Brigadier asked him as they walked across the room to a set of blown out windows.
Harry grabbed the wand and weighed it in his hand. "He must have thought he could activate a portkey."
"That rock?"
"Yes, I wouldn't touch it Brigadier. Like a lot of the things in this place, mucking around with things they have neither the understanding or intelligence to reasonably understand the dangers."
"You sound like the Doctor Mr Potter. And you're sure Carrington is dead?"
"No one survives the killing curse Brigadier," Harry replied with sad smile. "Almost no one." There were bodies around them, and others who were being cuffed by UNIT soldiers. Most had fought very hard, some had tried to escape, none it seemed had attempted to surrender. "For Queen and Country," he said looking down at the body.
"What now?" The Brigadier asked as he squatted down to check for a pulse on Carrington's body.
"That's their 'catch cry' as it were Brigadier. Or so a friend of mine says," Harry explained.
"The Doctor?" The Brigadier asked as he stood up.
"No, another rather long lived man, he's probably around here," Harry mused.
"Here?!" The Brigadier shouted.
"In this time period Brigadier, no, he hangs out in Cardiff," Harry explained vaguely.
"Oh." The Brigadier paused "You mean he's part of Tor-"
The Doctor cut off the Brigadier. "Ah Harry, Brigadier, good to find you. Everything cleared up?"
"Doctor, quite clearly you've missed all the action. What of Miss Weasley?"
The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck and became interested in the wall of computers that was on one side of the large room. "What was that Brigadier?"
"What's happened to the bitch queen of psychotic behaviour Doctor?" Harry shoved his hands into his pockets. If Ginny was dead then he wanted to know and then he could deal with it, with a body bag and a preserving charm. If she wasn't dead then...
"She's not dead despite the significant injuries inflicted, but she may be even more dangerous than if she were fully alive."
Oh frak...Harry didn't like it when the Doctor ended on a cliffhanger sentence.
-/ - \\-
There was a machine made of what looked like smashed computer and radio equipment, it was humming while making the area around it warm and imbuing the room with the smell of melting solder.
"I've rigged up a short term temporal field inducer. It should stop it."
"And what is it Doctor?" The Brigadier and Harry said at once, both looked at one another.
"It, my dear Brigadier and Harry is a weapon. It seems Carrington, the oaf has used this organisation's...which by the way, what's this facility called?"
"No idea Doctor," Harry said before the Brigadier could say anything. "You were saying?"
"What? Oh yes. Carrington appears to have trialled several mixes of biotechnology on Miss Weasley, she's had several bones and muscle tissue replaced with Cyberman technology, her blood, if you could call it that has been mixed with a poly-synthetic bonding polymer and her metabolism is running at about 150 percent. The only place I've seen that is the ooze from that Inferno project."
"Oh...shit," Harry said.
"How very succinct Mr Potter," the Brigadier commented unnecessarily.
"How all this is not tearing her apart I can only guess at some form of partial magical stabilising effect. But that's not the worst part," the Doctor paused, Harry suspected for dramatic effect.
"You said partial Doctor," the Brigadier prompted.
"Yes," the Doctor said pausing, rubbing his chin. "If her metabolism continues to interact with the elements within her body they will go into a runaway cascade reaction."
"What the devil does that mean?" The Brigadier frowned.
"How big a bang is that?" Harry asked, answering the Brigadier's question, or the question that would follow.
The Doctor was silent for a moment. "Given the power and the technology that idiot has played around with, humans, they never learn, large enough to destroy this facility, at least."
"Can we kill her?" The Brigadier asked. "Would that stop this explosion?"
"No. It would accelerate it. No, the only thing that can help her is her, and time."
"Time?" Harry asked.
"By slowing down the quantum effect and inducing natural entropy the polymer and other foreign elements within her body can be broken down, however she will need to have several transfusions of blood from genetically familiar relatives to allow her to recover in any sense."
The Brigadier was nodding, Harry wondered how much of the Doctor's explanation he really understood. Harry did understand most of what the Doctor said and it still worried him.
"How strong a temporal field and how long?" He asked.
"At least 10 years, relative to the outside world, I'm unsure how much she would experience given the mental effects." The Doctor replied.
Harry stared up at the ceiling. "What about 30 years?" He asked after a moment of thought.
"Why 30 years?" The Brigadier asked.
"So Mr Potter can retrieve Ms Weasley from his own time. Yes! That could work, I would need to isolate the facility's power systems and use them to encase the building just in case of an overload, that would lock this location off from regular space-time and render the location inaccessible from any interlopers..." The Doctor began to mutter to himself.
Harry opened the door out of the lab as the Doctor began to write some calculations down on a blackboard.
"So that's your end now Mr Potter?" The Brigadier asked as they left the Doctor to his calculations.
"Nearly, I still need to get home, and I need to check around, just in case Ginny has had any effect on the timeline, or left anything anachronistic around."
-/ - \\-
A week later Harry stood some distance away, watching Torchwood's facility.
The Brigadier's men had cleared out all the technology and anything else questionable that had remained.
Now they were just waiting for the Doctor to finish with whatever he was doing with the mobile UNIT HQ.
"I've aligned the temporal stabilisers in the facility and I should be able to activate a temporal shift" The Doctor said as he walked out of the mobile HQ holding what looked like controls for a remote controlled plane. "Now I just flick this button and..." There was a noise like the TARDIS and the whole facility, broken walls and everything disappeared.
"Where the devil has it gone Doctor?" The Brigadier demanded.
"No where, that is, it's still there, just removed, rather like TOMTIT did, it's lost between the moments of now and now. Harry I'll show you how to retrieve it later, for when you return to your own time."
Harry just stared, the Doctor had made, with basically a bunch of technology that Torchwood had amassed and a radio control from a model plane or something, made a huge estate disappear. Lost.
"Oh...I think I've just realised something," Harry said aloud.
"So you've got Torchwood Three, where's the rest of them Jack?" Harry asked Jack and him were sharing a beer on a warm Cardiff night, watching people go about their lives.
"Torchwood One is in London, Two's with Archie, Four's been lost for a while, maybe one day we'll get it back."
"Maybe, how'd they manage to get it lost?"
"Anything important Harry?" The Doctor was suddenly staring intently at him.
"No, just answering a question I didn't realise I had asked," Harry said casually.
-/ - \\-
"Quite a few weeks Harry, so why are you going off now?"
"The Doctor's got some cosmic ray scientist coming in., Benton said as Harry shut the bonnet of his Jag.
"Scientists are rather boring Benton, how many visiting scientists bring something interesting to UNIT and it turns out not to be a fleet of incoming warships and just dust on the lens?"
Benton shrugged. "I don't get into all that science stuff Harry, that's for the Doctor and Miss Grant."
Harry smiled. "Well, cosmic rays and black holes is all a bit boring for me, so I'll pop out for a bit and I'll come back when it's all sorted out," Harry opened the door. "Look after yourself John."
Benton watched the car drive away. "I didn't say anything about black holes," he said to himself.
-/
Benton looked around in amazement at the interior of the Doctor's TARDIS, with the Doctor inside, but not their Doctor, the other one whom he'd met with the Cybermen and Yeti and all that. He wondered, briefly, as the other Doctor stood at the TARDIS's controls if Harry knew about this, of course he did, that's why he wasn't here.
-/
Harry watched through a pair of powerful binoculars as UNIT HQ come under attack by Omega's...whatever they were.
It was one thing for the Doctor to tell him vague bits of this, he knew the general things, but it was another to see it from this perspective, and then...UNIT HQ, the main building just disappeared. Which was something of a shock.
Considering his only way back to his own time had just disappeared up and away to a universe of anti-matter.
Bugger the knowledge that he had that it all turned out in the end, this was still worrying seeing it all just disappear, with three incarnations of the Doctor along with it.
A part of him, the part who remembered the Doctor, when he was younger, yet older, with Ian and Barbara and a little older and younger with Zoe and Jamie, he wanted to go and see them again. Or even meet Omega!
But the older part of him, the one with the knowledge of the timelines, the knowledge from the Doctor, Jack, Sarah and his own experiences taught him not to go there. He was already messing with time, in his own little ways.
It did give him considerable pause for thought if the disappearance of Torchwood Four meant that he was always going to come back here and stop Ginny in the way that they had, or if Torchwood Four had always disappeared and there was a multitude of ways that his and Ginny's altercation could have taken or...the whole thing gave him a bit of a headache.
He was here, now and what he had done was prevent any major or minor alterations to the timeline.
Now, for a time he was without anything to do, any loose ends had been checked and tidied up.
Now only temptation existed.
Despite everything he could go to Hogwarts he could see his parents, and Remus, and Sirius. Also even Snape and see Dumbledore once more.
If he wanted to irrevocably bugger around with the time line.
But he knew coming here that it was a temptation, no matter how many rules it would break and how many heart strings it would pull on.
In the end though he went with his brain, he couldn't go, it would be a huge scar on his own personal timeline if he met his parents, before they'd met or conceived him. And he really didn't want a Back to the Future scenario happening. That would just be all sorts of wrong.
In the end he decided to go for a drive. Magister was long gone, they'd seen nothing of him after everything with Kronos and TOMTIT. There wasn't anyone around here in this time period that he could have a good long chat with about everything that had been happening.
As he drove towards London he looked around and found he was really starting to hate being stuck in this period of history. He really wanted to be back in the 21st century. Back with his friends, where the war had been won, rather than brewing, where he didn't have to watch his mouth or who he walked into or met.
He once more really sympathised with the Doctor and his exile to Earth.
-/ - \\-
"Did you know?" The Doctor said as he walked into the lab. Harry looked up from a book he'd been reading. The lab was still a mess, he didn't want to tip the Doctor off that he was getting ready to leave, not just yet. The Doctor still needed to meet his younger self, back in the day.
To the Doctor's question he merely raised an eyebrow.
"Should I have warned you Doctor? About your future and what happened?"
The Doctor's posture immediately changed to defensive. "Of course not. That would be against the laws of time!"
Harry smiled. "And isn't it good to know the Laws of Time once more?"
"Yes, with the Time Lord's exile ended I can go anywhere." He smiled at him. "First a test, maybe to Metebelis III. Then we will need to meet," the Doctor paused looking at him with a smile. "For the first time."
"Time travel, never simple is it Doctor?" Harry said closing his book
"Only for those not adept and perceiving all the dimensions of time and space." The Doctor answered in satisfaction and confidence before walking off.
-/ - \\-
Harry sat, waiting. The Doctor, Jo and Bessie had just disappeared from UNIT HQ, and at some point they'd return, from visiting himself, the younger him. 11 years old, innocent to what would come soon, the death, the love, the fun, the running, the terror. The experiences, the joy, the sadness, and everything in between. It was still strange, being able to look forward at his life like this, from the past, before it all started.
"Ah Mr Potter, I noticed your lab's all packed up."
"Yes, I've packed my personal things into the Cessna, the other things UNIT might find a use for or something."
"You think he'll want to return you to your own time straight away?"
"I think the Doctor will want to get on with his adventuring, being stuck in one time zone, one point in time..." Harry trailed off dragging a hand through his hair. He'd been stuck in the 1970s for about a year, maybe a bit less, and it was really starting to wear thin on him. "I know a bit of what he's been going through and I really want to leave this time period. No offence to you Brigadier, you've been of fantastic help."
"But you want to go home. Nothing to apologise for Mr Potter. You've been of much help here," the Brigadier said in a friendly tone. "Shouldn't you get out of the way, in case Miss Grant sees you when they return?"
"If she does then it'll be after she's already met me, me as a young kid," Harry said casually.
"Still..." The Brigadier wondered.
"Surprising yes. Seeing me age from 11 to now," he paused in thought "But I believe Jo can handle it. But..."
"But...?" The Brigadier continued.
"She did have a difficult time accepting my association with the Master," Harry said thinking back to his years previous.
Before the Brigadier could further question his associations and affiliation the lab was filled with the sound of the TARDIS rematerialising in front of them.
The Doctor was the first out of the TARDIS.
"Ah, Harry...good to see you, again," the Doctor rubbed the back of his neck.
"Just seen me off?" Harry asked brightly.
"Yes, well...yes. Jo, you can come out now," he called into the TARDIS.
"Really Doctor, why did you insist on rushing out, it's only UNIT HQ-" She said as she walked out of the TARDIS and came face to face with the Brigadier and Harry.
"Oh...Hello sir. The Doctor and I just...popped out for a bit." Jo smiled at the Brigadier.
"Quite alright Miss Grant, I knew where you went off to this time. Makes a change for once." He threw the Doctor a look, but the Doctor was just smiling to himself.
"Jo, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, of ours, you might already know him."
"Doctor?" Jo asked looking between the three men, the third she'd only just realised was leaning against one of the lab benches smiling, watching them.
"Hello Jo, long time, relatively speaking," Harry greeted with a smile.
"Doctor? Who is this man...?" She trailed off as she stared into his eyes...his deep...green eyes, ones that she'd never seen before and never thought she'd see since..."But...but...that was in the future...and he's 11 years old and...and..."
"Well, you see Jo, time travel has an interesting consequences and..." The Doctor began.
"Yes Jo, it's me, I'm here, you've just met me, but for me it was more than 10 years ago. But I've time travelled back here from my future," Harry explained quickly.
"I...I...don't understand." Jo looked between the Doctor, Brigadier and...Harry.
"You can talk about it while I pick up a few things. I trust you're all ready to go Harry?"
"Yep, the plane's all packed up with everything," Harry said.
"What about your car?" The Doctor asked.
"Car?" Jo asked.
"Green E-Type Jag," Harry said in answer to Jo's question.
"That's yours?!" She exclaimed, blushing heavily.
Harry winked at her. He and Benton had seen Jo and a friend posing and playing around with a camera one day. At least they'd been thoughtful enough to give it a polish after the amount of bare skin that had been involved.
"It's where I usually keep it. I wasn't sure..." Harry trailed off.
"Of course Harry, that was a gift, you're taking it back to your own time," the Doctor said.
"Now?" Harry asked hopeful.
"No time...as they say. Now, I'll leave you and Jo to get acquainted and meet in the hanger," the Doctor said, walking back over to the TARDIS and opening the door.
"Going far Doctor?" The Brigadier asked curiously.
"Not at all Brigadier. Just across HQ. Care to join me?"
"The last time I got in that thing, Doctor we were in another universe," the Brigadier reminded.
"That was hardly me or my fault Brigadier," the Doctor defended.
"Come on, they'll go on like that for a while, let's waltz on over to the hangers." Harry said in a soft tone taking Jo's elbow.
"So you've really been here for...how long?" Jo asked wide eyed.
"A while, more than 6 months," Harry said with a sigh, it was more like 10 months or more, he'd sort of lost count. Being outside of his normal time field, plus the rather haphazard method of time travel, according to the Doctor meant that while he'd been here he'd aged at a different rate. Burning off the chronon energy he'd picked up while time travelling. It was only in the past 4 months or so that he was ageing at a second-per-second rate, the same as the rest of the people here.
Harry hadn't been sure what to do with this information, he felt older, he'd been through a lot here.
Plenty of which he didn't want to tell Jo about, lest sully her idea of him.
She had enough problems with knowing his friends included the Master.
"Trying to capture this terrorist, and you've got him," Jo asked.
"Her," Harry corrected, automatically.
"Her?" Jo sounded surprised. "In that big flap that the Brigadier had organised a couple of weeks ago?"
Harry nodded. Jo looked around the hanger. "And you flew here, back in time in that?"
"Not quite, not just in that. I'm sure that Doctor might explain, I used a...a temporal fissure of a sort," Harry started, he wasn't sure if Jo knew about Torchwood, it was something the Brigadier hadn't really mentioned, given that Harry wouldn't be in contact with Jo, or wasn't for the majority of his stay in this time zone.
"Like that stuff with TOMTIT?" Jo asked.
Harry shrugged. "Something like that."
"And it runs from your now...until here...now. I'm not sure I get it," Jo frowned.
"Time travel, Jo is a complicated journey. Time...is...well she's something that is complex," he tried.
"She?" She laughed. "You sounded like the Doctor there for a moment!"
"I did?" Harry smiled. "I suppose I do sometimes. It comes from knowing him a long time."
"How long?" Jo suddenly asked.
"Since he was an old man, youthful, and when he's older and wiser and still young to the sight on first look, yet matured, scarred and journeyed beyond the years of some civilisations," Harry smiled warmly taking Jo's hand as the noise of the TARDIS filled the hanger, bouncing off of the walls and making it seem bigger and more beautiful and blue.
Then the Cessna slowly disappeared, to be replaced with a blue police box.
-/
Jo looked down at Harry's hand, the little and big scars that were there, the same, she could see on his face and neck and where his shirt was slightly unbuttoned.
What had happened to the young, sweet boy she'd seen depart for school barely half a day ago? The boy, who despite knowing the Master was full of...
"Did the Master do...?" Jo looked down at Harry's hand.
Harry quickly let go of her hand. "No." Harry stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"We all accumulate scars Jo, not all of them physical. But these..." Harry rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. "Are the scars from life, from death and the experiences in between, they shaped me."
"But the Master..." Jo tried again.
Harry shook his head and sighed, a smile on his face, walking a few steps away from her to look at the TARDIS. "The Master and I are as friends now as I am with the Doctor and have been for many more years than you have known either of them Jo," Harry said turning away from where he was looking up at the TARDIS, it seemed...more full of life now, now that she had her 'wings' back with her pilot at the controls. "Don't get caught up in my friendship with the Master Jo. I will count him as a friend, as I do you. I hope you feel the same, regardless of my friends now, as then."
"I...I..." She blushed again, this time somewhat ashamed. "I'm sorry it's just, it's the Master. And of course, you're my friend Harry...it's just...you're so old!"
"Thanks for that!" Harry joked.
"That's not what I mean it's just..." Jo tried again, then the TARDIS door opened.
"Ready for the off?" The Doctor asked.
"Certainly, definitely, let's go!" Harry said quickly. "The sooner I'm away from this time period the better," Harry exclaimed.
Jo looked at him, the Doctor gestured back at Jo, subtly, Harry turned around to see her looking a little hurt. "It's just, I've been stuck in this time period Jo, no way home until I finished what I started."
"Like the Doctor?" Jo tried.
Harry nodded. "Exactly and, you never really think that it's going to get at you, the lack of the things you're most accustomed to, but this time period, the 1970s, this century even feels so different, it's like another planet to 2003 where I left, when I mean."
"Oh..." Jo began.
"Yes...well, come along Harry, Jo," the Doctor said after a moment and disappeared into the TARDIS.
Harry gestured to open door to Jo and then followed her in.
-/
It was still...big inside.
Not as big as it would be in the future, well in the Doctor's future, in his past.
Harry looked at the console, it had an almost magical quality to it, not magic but other worldly, in the very real sense of the word.
"I suppose you know it's bigger on the inside." Jo said as the Doctor closed the doors.
"That there's a whole world in here, that she keeps it all together, with the Doctor's help of course." Harry said.
"Of course." The Doctor added for emphasis. "Now, adjust the temporal drift and correct for osmotic pressure waves and..." The Doctor walked around the console, adjusting controls and leavers before standing in front of a set of controls that Jo knew would make them take off. "Now." The dematerialisation noise filled the room and the central column started rising and falling.
"How long will it take to get there Doctor?" Jo asked.
"Well, no time at all Jo, we're outside time. That is, it'll take, as long as she thinks it will need," the Doctor answered.
"Doctor, you said that when we went to Atlantis," Jo countered.
"It takes time to ride the eddies of the vortex, to navigate the ebb and flow of time," Harry said as he dragged a finger around the console. It had a different feel to the Master's TARDIS, a sensation he'd never really been able to compare before now. "She must navigate the paths and non-paths of space time to our destination. She needs coaxing, encouraging." Harry said pausing, looking over to the Doctor and Jo.
"Not quite how I would have put it Harry, but essentially, yes Jo."
-/
Harry found a seat on one side of the console room to sit, enjoying the sound of the TARDIS as she travelled through time, he took a moment to practice his occlumency, not knowing if the TARDIS would be as curious as her pilot about the future, or even if occlumency could protect his knowledge, but he thought he should try, just in case. Just in case the TARDIS was as curious as the Doctor as to what was to come.
"It all turns out okay, for both of you," Harry murmured, his eyes half closed.
"What was that Harry?" The Doctor walked into the console room, studying an old leather bound diary.
"Nothing, just talking to myself and the TARDIS, or just myself." Harry said after a bit.
"Hmmm..." The Doctor surveyed the controls. "We should be landing quite soon I believe."
"Then there's something I should tell, or ask you," Harry said pushing himself out of the chair.
"Harry, you know the Laws of Time," the Doctor started.
Harry shrugged. "You don't even know them Doctor," Harry countered with a grin. "I just wanted to say...visit me."
"I always do, or will," the Doctor said.
"No. You, not...others," Harry said awkwardly. "Come and visit me, take a break, we'll have a cup of tea or a pint and just..." Harry trailed off, his voice cracking slightly.
"Harry old chap..." the Doctor began in an awkward tone.
"Just drop in," Harry started with a slight smile. "Visit."
-/ - \\-
Ioan looked across the yard from the sheds where Harry's cars were kept, he'd just finished replacing the oil in the Land Rover again, after their various encounters where the new vehicle had been damaged, running it around with new oil seemed to clean most of the magic residue that was in it out. This hopefully would be the last time. He thought, though he'd heard something in the yard, and then, there it was again, a wheezing, vworping sort of noise. Grabbing his mobile phone out of his pocket calling Hermione Granger. There was no point calling Judith, she was out, negotiating with a small town who had adopted what, according to a translation unit Harry had salvaged at some point was Posicarian light matrix into their power lines, it seemed it meant all the lights in the town never blew or needed replacing. While this was fine and seemingly on the surface a very good thing, it also created a null magic field, an inverse one at times at that. Magic didn't function in the town correctly and if a wizard or witch tried they'd fall ill and then if they attempted further they spontaneously combusted or exploded with messy results. It hadn't been an issue till now, but with people spreading out further, with the threat of Voldemort gone it was beginning to.
Obviously he couldn't have gone, no matter how removed he was from wizarding society he still was one. Judith without any conventional magic was the only one, even if Harry had been here. Not that he'd reappeared since he'd flown off 6 months ago.
There was noise of someone running as he wiped his hands on a relatively clean rag and Hermione Granger came running into the yard between Harry's house and the out buildings.
"You heard something?"
"Listen."
Hermione tilted her head. "I think...I think something's coming though.
-/ - \\-
The central column begin to rise and fall as the rematerialisation noise filled the room and then there was a thump and beep.
The Doctor pushed a button and Harry's heart began to beat faster and he couldn't stop himself from grinning. There was his house, and...his friends, not Judith though, but Ioan and Hermione, waiting, watching.
"Just a quick manoeuvre and..." The Doctor flicked a few buttons and the dematerialisation sound filled the room once more.
-/
Hermione stared at the police box, something she didn't think she'd see again, not since the last time she and Harry had met the Doctor, or actually the time before last that they'd met the Doctor, the Doctor and his TARDIS to be more correct. The one they'd met in San Francisco hadn't had his TARDIS.
"What's happening?" Ioan asked as the box began to disappear once more.
Only then two other shapes faded into existence, a plane and a car, with the box in the middle of them.
"Even in the past Harry manages to buy a car!" Ioan shook his head.
Hermione just laughed, amazement and happiness overriding her ability to say anything, that now her friend had returned, from something she did in the darker moments wonder if he would return from, despite everything he'd said.
-/
In the TARDIS Harry was going through a similar experience.
"Thank you Doctor. Thank you. I know you have much of an idea how it was to be stuck in that time," Harry mock shuddered. "I understand fully."
"Now I hope you understand how foolhardy it was Harry," the Doctor reprimanded lightly.
"And I won't do anything like that again," Harry promised equally as lightly, making them both laugh as Jo came into the console room.
"What? I felt us land?" Jo looked between them.
"Yes, I was just dropping off Harry to his own time." The Doctor said as he pulled the door release control. "Well I guess we should bid you goodbye." The Doctor offered Harry his hand, Harry pulled him into a hug. "Thank you," he said as he did so as the Doctor returned the hug.
Stepping away he smiled to Jo. "And thank you Jo for everything."
"Aren't we going to go and meet his friends?" Jo asked as Harry stepped through the inner doors and out of the TARDIS.
"Time to go I think Jo," the Doctor said closing the doors.
-/
Harry stepped out of the TARDIS closing the doors. He doubted the Doctor would come out, not at the moment to see everything here. Too much...too muchness here, with his friends and Jo and everything.
As the noise of the TARDIS's engines filled the air he waved, watching the TARDIS fade away.
Harry grinned as he breathed in the fresh air, the 21st century air at that and then he turned around.
"Harry!" Both Ioan and Hermione shouted and rushed forwards.
"You don't know how good it is to see you two." Harry said, emotion filling his voice.
-/
Hermione hugged her friend who was the same, yet different, his stay in the past obviously longer than it had been for them.
"You're...different," she said calmly.
Harry nodded and turned to Ioan. "I dealt with everything." Harry said with some weight. Ioan nodded.
"And Ginny?" Hermione asked, looking towards the plane.
"She's...a problem that still needs to be dealt with."
-/
A/N:
Minor edit done March 2021.
I considered splitting this chapter into two, the assault on Torchwood Four and Harry's return to his present. But then it would have been a chapter filled with lots of action and a chapter filled with farewells. So it's all together.
Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing.
