Chapter 29

"Ron told me about Ginny," Hermione's voice was calm, though Harry fancied it hadn't been when Ron had told her the details, maybe he didn't give her the whole details.

Though one look at her face, despite her voice being calm her face betrayed the concern about everything.

"Ginny is no longer my concern," Harry said neutrally.

"You don't know what the Ministry's done with her?" Hermione asked.

Not technically, vaguely sort of. "No," Harry replied sipping his pint. They were in the courtyard of a pub near to Hermione's university's rooms.

There wasn't anyone around nor would anyone notice them, a few spells on his and Hermione's part. They could have chatted anywhere, but it was nice to be outside. Even if it was a little cool.

"I..." Harry started and then re-thought it.

"You've changed Harry, since you went back there," Hermione observed.

"The 1970s, yes," Harry said leaning back in the aluminium chair.

Hermione gave him a look. "More than that Harry Potter. I'm worried."

"I'm worried too," Harry muttered to himself. "I don't think you want to know the full extent of what I did in the past."

Hermione looked at him for several seconds. "Have you told your" she paused considering the next word "associates about it?"

Harry nodded.

"Then tell me the bare essentials so I can stop worrying about you." She tried to smile.

Harry sighed. "Some of Ginny's followers made it there with her. They...I...they" Harry shook his head. "Any extra-temporal people in that timezone with Ginny's ideologies in their heads were a danger to the timeline."

"Oh," Hermione said after the slightest of pauses.

"I could have killed her you know?" Harry said looking at Hermione. "She apparated through some quickly and badly placed wards."

"You? Setting up wards quickly?" Hermione interjected lightly.

Harry glared at her. "I'd already shot her several times prior to that and then again later even more so...but." Harry looked up at the overcast sky, it was already some ways through, Christmas having come and gone without too much incident. That would be something of a rarity soon. "Killing her might have been easier. But I couldn't." Harry shook his head. "I wanted to at some points. Really wanted to."

"But you didn't Harry." Hermione fixed him with a look.

Harry wondered if she needed to know, just how many bullets he'd put into the crazy bitch of the west.

Probably not. He decided.

"That makes a difference," Hermione continued.

Harry allowed the relative quiet hang for a short while and then nodded with finality. "So what's on your plate for 2004?"

"Study," Hermione's answer was short and made both of them smile.

"The great studying archaeologist Hermione Granger," Harry proclaimed throwing his arms out.

"Stop being so melodramatic Harry!" She commented with a huff.

"What's the point of being an eccentric if you can't be a bit melodramatic some of the time?" Harry challenged.

"I'm also beginning a magic-course in addition to my study that will allow me to study magic-related sites," Hermione explained.

"Magic-related?" Harry asked slightly puzzled.

"You have no idea how many magic archaeological sites there are! It's really amazing Harry and they want muggle-trained people because they admit that muggles have better equipment for this sort of precision work and have been at it professionally longer."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Well 'anything ancient is in books'," Hermione's tone was distinctly disdainful as though she was quoted something. "So any real in depth discovery of the past is a relatively new idea, it's a little bit strange but Ron just sort of said 'that's the way it's been done'."

"And Ron? I haven't seen him since Ginny's..." Bat-shit crazy ranting session slash operation Harry wanted to say. "Procedure."

"He's doing some of the course with me!" Hermione announced in an overjoyed manner. "It's a combination of some of the Auror elements and other parts. According to the man who oversees this part of the ministry it's somewhat dangerous going onto magical archaeological sites."

"So you might be able to top Bernice Summerfield's tales, or are going to try more for Lara Croft?" Harry asked in a playful tone.

"We already tried that after Ron saw the movie..." Hermione blushed deep red as she realised she had started talking without thinking.

Harry laughed, and continued to laugh as Hermione tried to regain some composure, then she punched him.

"Do you put on a posh accent and wield guns?" Harry paused in his laughter. "Who'd have thought Ron and Hermione Granger indulging in role-playing, sexy role-play at that."

"Instantly Harry Potter's mind goes to sex, imagining your best friends, maybe I was just saying...in a casual sense," Hermione tried to say in a serious tone.

Harry grinned at her. "Because Hermione Granger would blush like that about regular role play, like muggles going and pretending to live in the 16th century and battle knights and dragons." Harry shook his head.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. Harry sighed. "Just something I found out about over the new year's period. The pub near Ioan's place, it was one of the meet up places for the other sort of role play. The non-sex kind."

Hermione punched him again.

-/

Harry looked around him. There wasn't anything too strange about this part of London. Except for Shakespeare's Globe a totally accurate reconstruction based on original plans discovered some years ago by the British Museum. Which sounded like some nefarious group had released the plans, or maybe some equally nefarious group had just decided to de-classify them, after all nothing that bad happened to the original Globe Theatre.

Except there was something on the tip of his mind about Shakespeare and the TARDIS, but it was when he'd been recovering and Cedric and everything like that.

Harry smiled sadly to himself. Cedric Diggory was one person he wished had never died, even more so than Sirius some of the time. Cedric may not have had his life entwined in the war, maybe he'd have got out of the country, maybe he'd have fought and escaped. Sirius would have been involved somehow, maybe he would have survived, maybe...

Walking away from the reconstructed Globe Theatre he checked his sketched map and began to walk.

He'd been lead here by the 'box of things that aren't urgent' or as Judith put it the 'Can't Be Buggered box' (CBB box).

They were things had been sent to LPI for their attention by the Ministry, or others, but hadn't made any noise or hadn't been marked urgent, or weren't glowing or anything like that, and had basically been left until Harry had returned so that they could all throw their full attention at it.

And now that he's had conversations with both Judith and Ioan regarding their interactions with the Ministry of Magic and other entities while he'd been away...it had been decided that among other things Ioan refused to be in contact with most of the pig-headed people within the Ministry, his working relationship with several people seemed to have soured considerably while he'd been not-enjoying himself in the past.

Most of the things in the CBB box were relatively minor things, requiring investigation, what the League of Paranormal Investigations did. Most of them acknowledged that some of "the organisation" was "incognito", but it seemed they just wanted to dump these problems somewhere and they'd been told to send it his way without knowing who they were sending it too, most likely it was just so they could cross their Is and dot their Ts on their little forms and be assured that it was proper and correct even if it didn't appear that way.

Crossing across Southwark Street he started to look for the shop. According to this Drew Fuller, the wizard who'd sent the covering note of parchment there was a bookshop located near the train line selling "transgressive and questionable literature that may undermine the Statue of Secrecy and may affect the correct pursuance of rules and regulations under which the Ministry of Magic operates". It was more the "transgressive and questionable literature" that had Harry interested.

With Judith still sorting out some Drahvin thing and Ioan finishing the communications network work at his house Harry'd elected to begin investigating this one alone, if it turned out to be anything interesting or dangerous then he'd call in his 'associates' as Hermione had called them.

It was a bookshop, close to the railway line.

According to Fuller's notes he had attempted to apply some Muggle-repelling charms to stop people going in and therefore close the shop, but to no avail. The charms "failed to adhere to the construction materials and/or decoration used on the premises."

Harry fancied looking at Drew's quill work that he was fairly officious man, but seemed happy to be able to pass the problem onto someone else.

The window displayed a variety of books, all of which seemed normal.

He watched as people came and went, some looking at the window, others walking straight in, none of them seemed to be witches or wizards.

"Now what questionable literature is there to find here I wonder? Hmmm?" Harry muttered to himself as he stepped into the shop, the wood flooring creaking under his feet.

Technological Theories and Explorations by Elizabeth Klein with additional material by Johann Schmidt was possibly the first indication that things in this bookshop were not exactly on the level. Considering, firstly it was an essay seemingly not released for publication, and secondly it had the Nazi flag stamped on every second page with "security vetted" written on it...plus there was the sketch of the Doctor's TARDIS on one of the pages. That made it all the more odder.

Harry hung onto it and continued to wander and it was in the fiction section, upstairs that really surprised him.

It was a book stand with 12 different books with a sign above that read "The Adventure of Harry Potter".

Harry rolled the thick essay and shoved it into a spare pocket of his jacket and picked up one of the books that was titled. Harry Potter and the Dark Awakening. It had a picture of a stone on the front and what sort of looked like the Hogwarts express, if the Hogwarts Express had been blue and had carried trucks full of broomsticks and jelly beans.

It was more amusing and worrying, though he was mostly ambivalent in his response was to the writer's interpretation of events. This "JK" person who had written it. He couldn't find anything beyond those initials inside it.

Flicking through the book some things were totally wrong, he'd never, ever, let Ron borrow his toothpaste. But the final parts of the book, the chess game, the potions and this fictional Harry's battle against Voldemort. There was some, quite a bit of truth to those.

And there were 12 of these books. Looking around for something to shift the books with he found a trolley obviously used by the shop to put away the books and bought 5 of each one of these 'Adventures'. The shop keeper didn't even blink by the amount of books, just loaded them all into boxes and then wandered off to make a cup of tea, which conveniently left Harry to shrink them and walk out.

-/

"We're investigating a book shop?" Judith wondered in an arched expression looking at the pile of books on the table.

"What are these Harry?" Ioan eyed the pile of books that he'd covered with a sheet and the large bound essay with the Nazi flag stamped on it which he hadn't.

"They're books," Harry said as he removed the sheet with flourish. He'd since read all 12 of the "Harry Potter and the..." books.

It was rather weird reading his "adventures" laid out for all to see, thankful though this "JK" person had only got about half their information right, some things were just down right weird. Like his relationship with Draco Malfoy in book 5, or the odd "Mary-Sue" person who turned up in book 6 proclaiming they knew everything and had seen it on TV, and she promptly disappeared shortly after. There was the odd sub-plot in book 10 which suggested that Snæp the Master of Potions was Harry's father. Which was a little strange.

Then there were some that struck fairly close to reality Harry Potter and the Trials of a Wizard, book 5 in the series, which reminded him of the Triwizard Tournament, but there was no rescue by the Doctor in this "JK"'s rendition of things and there were two people killed by Voldemort the Great.

On the whole it had been a truly surreal week of reading through these things. In the end he'd decided it was an amusing bit of fiction.

But according to several of the books he'd vaporised in order to get a clear energy reading they didn't belong in this dimension and they had an alter-energy reading across most of the lower-energy flows according to his energy scanner.

Which meant they'd need to investigate.

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner's Dilemma?" Ioan read the title and looked at Harry puzzled.

"Harry Potter and the Death of a Hero...Harry Potter and the Serpent's Dream." Judith said as she and Ioan looked through the titles. "Harry, have you been writing your autobiography under a pen name?" Judith asked.

"And while you were drunk?" Ioan said as he closed book 10 Harry Potter and the Awakening of Night shaking his head.

"I felt like I'd been drinking when I'd finished these," Harry tapped what was the final of the 12 books; Harry Potter and the Darkness' End.

"So some person's been knocking out bad versions of your life? Unless you really did..." Judith winked at him. "With the three girls from the Snailtusk's group under the stairs."

"Sadly my life was more fraught with danger and less full of sex," Harry mock sighed.

"Which explains a lot Harry Potter," Judith chastised lightly with a satisfied smile.

Ioan pulled a face. "So you didn't get it on with this Cho woman?" He said as he said as he closed Harry Potter and the Journey of the Order.

"No, nor did I, after spending time in a coffee shop, did I go and have a variety of romantic and somewhat disturbing encounters with various Slytherins and Hufflepuffs." Harry shook his head. "But, a few years ago the Doctor did mention something to me along these lines."

"The ole-alternate universe thing, where somewhere you've got an eye-patch and Ioan's a dominatrix and we've got a fascist leader?" Judith commented lazily before Harry had a chance to say anything.

Harry had a look of surprise on his face. "Science fiction or actually listening to me when I talk about conversations I had with the Doctor?"

"Science fiction, Harry, you can't expect us to listen to you all of the time, what are you, our employer or something?" Judith smiled.

Harry exhaled. "Something like that is probably where these came from, an alternate universe where either this Harry's tales of mayhem-"

Judith interjected "And sex."

Harry continued, ignoring Judith "Mayhem, action and death actually happened or maybe it was just some fiction this JK person came up with. But whatever's happening it's leaking into our reality."

"So we should talk with the bookseller first, get any information, this might not focus on you." Ioan said without malice as he tapped a pen on a piece of paper thinking. "I never came across anything like this when I was researching my papers and essay. What sort of thing could be leaking this stuff out?"

Harry shrugged. "Time holes, dimensional cracks. I don't really know. I vaguely remember something about Shakespeare and witches."

"Brushing up on the classics Harry, not just indulging in your alter-autobiography?" Judith asked.

"Not something I want to read again too soon. But no, I was in the TARDIS and the Doctor and Martha were telling me about...something...to do with Shakespeare..." Harry screwed up his face in concentration.

"You usually have pretty good recall," Ioan watched him. "To do with the Doctor and everything. When was this?"

"After" Harry paused, closing his eyes, his hand unconsciously going to some of the scars he incurred on that night. "When Cedric died, the Tri-Wizard and all of that, I was more out of it than any of our encounters. It was just nice to have them talking, calming and everything and I didn't take it all in." Harry shook his head, opening his eyes wide, suddenly realising what he was doing; his arms dropping to his side.

-/

Harry was thankful of the extra space in the back of the new Defender for all the energy detection gear and the other stuff they'd brought along as a 'just in case', which was an assortment of weapons and other defensive equipment.

From what he'd been able to figure the affected area was bounded by the train line near where the bookshop was, Blackfriars Bridge and Cannon Street Bridge, where also a lot of trains crossed over. They'd decided on him doing the majority of the scanning work as neither Ioan nor Judith fancied driving endlessly around in the Defender doing the scanning, so he'd tasked them searching, interviewing and/or coercing information out of anyone who had knowledge of the stuff like the books that featured him so most prominently.

Judith had already called to say the bookshop owner had said he'd sold a huge amount of the books "that just turned up in a loading dock near the Tate Modern" and that a "friend of his in the gift shop directed them his way".

Harry wondered to himself as he sat at the back of the Defender with a laptop hooked into the energy scanner whether it was the train line and the river was somehow keeping it at bay, as though there was a resonance of structures.

"Resonance of structures..." Harry repeated to himself out loud and bit his lip in casual thought as that phrase triggered a vague memory. Pity it was a random memory tinged with a drug addled-like feel that came from the aftermath of his encounter with the rebirth of Voldemort. Mixed liberally with the realisation he was within the Doctor's TARDIS for the first time.

The data that he had coming through was a mess, grabbing a clipboard that Judith had been using to plot all the instances of "stuff" (the technical term she assured him) that had turned up, it was everywhere; books, magazines being sold in small take away joint (with such titles as Fascist Dictator Monthly) and newspapers for the New British Republic used to wrap fish and chips. All textual things, which was very likely important, though he wasn't quite sure how.

Using a pencil he added extra data points that he could make some sense of, to the map, looking between his paper map and the data on the laptop's screen.

There were points where he had picked up more incidents of "stuff" around here, locations where there was a greater instance of "stuff" appearing. The bookshop was actually the outlier in all of this, it had purchased books from another location and taken it to away, so it couldn't necessarily be included within the scope of all of this.

Chewing the end of the pencil he revealed, as he caught himself in thought, he wasn't being shot at, spells weren't being fired in his direction, he looked around the streets for a moment Daleks were not trundling down the streets bent on exterminating him. His work actually involved none of those sorts of things, just looking at stuff to see patterns and...

"Patterns..." Harry said aloud to himself, he'd long stopped being bothered by the fact he often talked to himself.

Patterns were something that people tended to see everywhere (so said the Doctor, except he said humans, and then added that he also saw them some of the time), but this was more than a pattern it was a big glaring X marks the spot.

Sort of. Nearly. Almost.

"You know that this isn't the real Globe Theatre Harry," Judith said in the same tone as she'd used to tell him where he had parked wasn't a parking spot.

Unless the parking officials were wizards it wouldn't matter.

"I know," he said looking to her. "From everything we've discovered it looks like whatever it is, is focused here."

"On a re-creation of the Globe Theatre, the real site is down the road, at least that's what the plaque says," Judith jabbed a thumb backward.

"Just grab the energy reflectors, the scanning equipment and the anti-tank rocket," Harry commented as he grabbed the large battery packs and bag of potion ingredients and other random things he'd thrown into the Defender before he'd left.

"How'd you get in here? The official was muttering to himself," Ioan said to them. Harry just looked at Ioan. "Oh."

"Harry Potter and his amazing mesmeric skills," Judith half praised.

"Something I had practiced when I was in the past," Harry said looking around and immediately felt a chill pass down his spine.

"In certain circumstances there are people predisposed to dimensional instability," the Doctor's face darkened as he leaned forward, his hands on the handle of his question mark-shaped umbrella handle. "Sometimes there's a feeling, a sensation, other times it's a literal perception of the blurring of realities." He looked to Harry, the wood around them was dark, Hermione was some ways away near the tent. "It's often a result of flitting between the timelines, or contact with certain unique space time events."

"Like the TARDIS?" Harry asked.

"Sometimes, sometimes it is merely the time and death's way of balancing the scales, allowing unique individuals to move between where others may not step."

"You talk about them as though they're people."

"Perhaps not people, but forces to be reckoned with."

"Did anyone feel a sensation?" Harry said aloud.

"Sort of chilling tingling sensation down the back?" Judith asked curiously.

Harry turned around looking at her carefully. "Yes."

"No, didn't feel a thing, it is a bit parky out though," Judith shook her head.

Harry returned to staring at the ceiling which as he stared at it turned red, the air swirling around, and then, it stopped.

Harry turned around again and looked to his two associates. "You saw that right?"

Ioan and Judith nodded.

"Good to see this wasn't just about bolstering Harry's auto-literature fascination." Judith said as she walked forward dropping the cases she was holding, Harry cringed, one of the larger ones contained the ATR.

"I'll unpack the reflectors, can you have a look around the edges of the theatre?" Harry asked Ioan who had just removed his wand from an internal pocket of his jacket.

Harry squatted down to release the clamps on the two cases, inside were essentially large pick-ups for the energy scanning equipment, he'd spent some time extrapolating outwards and improving on the original designs he'd obtained from Sarah Jane Smith and K9 and incorporating some things he'd learnt ironically in the '70s. But from advanced technology that UNIT had in its keep. The reflectors were two large tripods that had mounted two sets of dish-like apparatus that would focus the energy to a central point so they could capture more detailed information. In theory they could also project energy along certain wave lengths, but aside from one experiment where he'd accidentally crippled it by firing a stupefy at it he hadn't really tried anything special.

"Love's Labour's Won." Harry looked over, Judith had in her hands an ornately bound book.

"What?" He quizzed.

Judith held up the book, waving it at him. "Another book to add to your collection of stuff that doesn't exist."

"Love's Labour's Won existed, Shakespeare wrote it..." Harry said trailed off as he plugged in the cables to the reflectors and connected the laptop and smiled as everything lit up green. Then he frowned in thought.

"Martha said something about that…" He said again trailing off as he thought to himself. It was like the memory was fuzzy, additionally so, like...

"It's weird, I read a book, while back, about Harry Potter, it's weird, must be a coincidence."

Harry blinked, his body awash with a variety of pain killers and other things the Doctor had provided to do what the Doctor did, make things better.

"This doesn't look like a Shakespearean play Harry," Judith said slowly.

"How so?" Harry asked curiously as he looked around the spot the book had arrived, there were no burn marks, nothing was rumbling, it was still a wooden floor the sky above them a powdery grey of overcast clouds.

Judith opened up a page and began to read. "Onto a point in space betwixt Dravidian Shores Linear 5930167.02 and stikes the fulsome grove of rexel 4 co-radiating crystal activate." Then Harry heard it, in fact they both probably heard it, it was the sound of the time vortex, even though he'd heard it only a few scarce times it was still etched in his mind as a noise unlike anything, above them a cloud, or maybe a tunnel or something, he stumbled for words something seemed to wish to claw out of the space.

"Stupefy!" Came Ioan's voice, the spell, splashing across the cloud...portal thing and then they were suddenly once more bathed in the grey sky of inner London.

"Suddenly the walls are all thrumming with energy and you two are standing enthralled."

"Fascinated Ioan, I was hardly in the thrall, not sure about Judith though, maybe she was enchanted," Harry chuckled though it failed to wipe away the shadow of worry on his face. "Did you find anything?"

"Fourteen sides and nothing else not of this world," Ioan reported.

"You alright?" Harry asked slightly more gently to Judith.

"So that switches it on, what'd you think turns it off?" She said looking through the book.

"Maybe it's at the back?" Ioan asked.

"They'd be stupid to put whatever it was we needed at the back," Harry said as Judith looked through the to back of the book where several pages were blank.

"So it's not too easy." Judith looked at Harry. "But you know something."

Harry slumped slightly and sighed, and walked over to the stage, jumping up and sitting on it. "Martha and the Doctor said something about this, considering things at the time I don't remember everything. But it was something to do with Shakespeare and that play and..." He trailed off before whispering "words." With intent.

"Words?" Ioan asked.

"Like wizards use spells as the start of a lot of magic these...I can't remember, they also use words as starting points to their magic. The Doctor said that there was all sorts of magic in the universe, some not as benign as others."

"And guessing by how your Doctor does things he bumped them off and now they're back for revenge?" Judith said.

"He doesn't 'bump people off'" Harry said immediately. "Except the Daleks...and their home planet, and the Cybermen, and the Ice Warriors on occasion and...never mind." Harry glared at Judith who had another self satisfied smile on her face.

"So they're trying to get out of wherever they are?" Judith asked.

"And that noise was where they are?" Ioan wondered.

"The time vortex." Harry answered Ioan immediately.

"So what do we do now?" Judith asked.

Harry walked over to the energy reflectors and pondered the information on the laptop's screen. "We can either wait around and see what happens and gather information that way and work out some way to close up their infiltration, or we can poke it again with the book and see what happens."

"That sounds like a bad idea, considering we went all mesmerised under it."

Harry looked at the book and thought to himself. "If their power lies in words and the book has words that will open the whatever it is to let them out."

"Then we just need to work out what words to say to close it completely," Ioan reasoned as he took the book from Judith's hands. "Which doesn't really help, as it's all nonsense," Ioan's tone was somewhat defeated.

"No, we just need to record with the energy detector and turn that into words!" Judith exclaimed.

Ioan and Harry exchanged a look and Harry ended up shrugging. "Looks like we're in it for the long and boring rather than the dangerous and exciting."

5 hours later...

It was dark and nothing that out of the ordinary had happened.

"It can't all be exciting death and disaster," Harry said to himself.

"What I want to know is why this has started happening now?" Judith mused curiously as she walked around the outside edge theatre again.

Harry frowned. "What?"

"Well if these things have been trapped since the 1600s, why now?" Judith continued.

"Assuming they're in the Doctor's TARDIS or in the vortex where time is indeterminate you mean?" Harry asked.

"Whatever," Ioan shook his head "though Judith's right, why now? We're not in the middle of any magical conjugation, there's no astronomical alignment of any significance happening and there hasn't been any major seer events.".

Harry turned sharply to look at Ioan. "You pay attention to 'seer events'? I thought you washed your hands of the wizarding world."

"Even more so since you went off to the past," Ioan replied with a bitter undertone which had lessened considerably since when Harry had returned and they'd had their long chat about it. "but sometimes it's still interesting to pay attention to, out of curiosity mainly. Some of them do get the jump on certain things, even alien in nature, not that a lot of them realise it."

"Interesting. But you're right," Harry paused, then added. "You're also right about the jumping part, might I mention a certain prophecy that left me facing a psychotic wand waving lunatic-" He was cut off.

"There was a prophecy about you and mad-cow Weasley?" Harry glared at Judith.

"Thanks for bring her up again. But, it is interesting that it should happen here and now, once we're done we should look at the letter again," Harry said.

"You can," Ioan added. "No doubt its someone in the Ministry shoving his wand where it doesn't belong."

"I will have to leave a dead Dalek or something with the Minister the next time I see him won't I?" Harry said to Ioan with a smile. "Or maybe that Cybermat that I'm fairly sure is dead, that'd give them all a bit of a surprise and we can see if they'll actually live in that environment."

Then the ceiling caught on fire.

Not exactly, but Harry did panic for a moment and thought he might be having a 'Pudding Lane moment', but then all monitoring equipment started to make noises.

Then another box landed in front of them and the swirling vortex of mesmerising black and redness along with the echoing noise of the non-realms closed once more.

"Well? Is it more of my glorious adventures in the world or more Fascist Dictator Monthly," Harry asked.

Judith sniffed. "How Hitler could only be Mr October?" She shook her head. "It's an odd method of escape leaving books around and hoping they permeate the local culture enough to get people here."

"They're aliens, they do alien things, they're alien" Ioan commented as he opened the box while Harry started the laborious task of collating the information, and writing something up.

"Doctor Who Discovers Historical Mysteries," Ioan's amused and startled exclamation broke Harry's concentration and made him walk over to look.

"Oh..." Harry shook his head. "These actually exist, I think."

"You know? Harry what don't you know about the Doctor?" Judith exclaimed.

"Plenty," he said fixing her with a stare, she just glared back with a smile of a killer. "He did this in the 70s...or was it the 80s?" Harry shrugged. "It's meant to be 'The Doctor, Who Discovers...' but the publishing house messed it up."

"You think it's meant to lure the Doctor in?" Judith asked as she flipped through it.

"I didn't really think anything, but that's a good idea," Harry began in reply to Judith. "Though textually speaking it's still odd."

Judith looked at him oddly. "Did you just say sex-"

"Text, please Judith what would even make you think-" Harry just stopped and shook his head.

"Well in those books you do seem to put it around a bit," she joked "while having all those fun adventures and everything."

Harry just shook his head and walked back to the laptop he had set up. "Fiction Judith, a fictional me created by that JK person," Harry called out as he sat back down in front of the laptop as the data continued to collate and the aftermath of the energy petered out into the background noise. "You can get that stuff moved out to the Defender, last thing we need is copies of those turning up somewhere."

"And bringing the Doctor here you mean?" Ioan asked as he picked up the box.

"That would be..." Harry trailed off as he started to type away at the screen.

"Interesting, worrying, concerning?" Judith tried as she sat down opposite him.

"All of the above probably. We'll see him soon enough I'd wager," Harry mused.

"What do you know Harry about the future?" Ioan wondered.

"Plenty." Harry answered slightly distractedly.

Both Ioan and Judith knew he knew some things about the future which was very quickly approaching, next year in fact was when things really would start changing, small things, a certain blonde woman would encounter the Autons and a strange man in a blue box. Harry'd promised he's explain all closer to the date, there was still possible danger to the timeline letting too many people know of the impending future, especially big things like that and what was to come. His and the Doctor's timelines were interwoven, but now even more so as his present, the Doctor's relative present, though from Harry's perspective the Doctor's past were about to collide, continuously as time passed for Harry at a 1:1 rate and the Doctor interjected into the timeline with more frequency. Which was totally unlike his co-temperous experience in the 1970s with the Doctor, something he'd explained to Hermione, Ioan and Judith on separate occasions.

Leaning back as the data finished doing its dance he wondered aloud "How am I going to make this sound like anything?"

"That's why you get paid the big bucks," said Judith, whom Harry had forgotten had sat down opposite him while he was pondering the complexities of knowing a time traveller who, on occasion did make co-temperous visits to the relative present.

-/

Harry had to say he was immensely thankful to the designers of Shakespeare's Globe that, while they had replicated what the Globe Theatre had been like, they also had to adhere to modern occupational health and safety requirements, so while the thatch roof was real thatch, it had been backed up by a modern roof and fire sprinklers. Because, while their (Judith and Ioan said it was his) solution did seal up whatever rift it was, at least he hoped it did considering the feedback did make one of the energy deflectors explode sending a few sparks onto the floor and onto papers and parchment that had been disgorged while they'd been reading out the worse than random wordage that he'd set them to say. It hadn't been a bigfire, just one that had required a little bit of clearing up and a small amount of memory modification, so the manager on site didn't call the police...or the fire brigade.

It was all fine now though. Now he could relax for a bit, check his email, his post, catch up on a few things.

The most intriguing thing for today came via his mail redirection service, his somewhat costly but oh so worth it service which prevented all owls reaching him or being tracked to him.

The letter that held his interest today though, hadn't been hand written though quite clearly had been from the wizarding world, the paper was the same quality as the paper in books and maybe some very high quality parchment. But his name on the envelope and the letter within had been printed with relatively simple and therefore untraceable ink.

Meet me at the Dog and Duchess, Midday.

It ended with the day after tomorrow's date.

There was no explanation, nothing that would point to who it was.

Harry smiled at the piece of paper, its mystery intrigued him, though there was the slighted possibility that it was a trap to kill him or something like that. That's what made him continue to smile. Of course, there was always the possibility it was just some boring ministry type.

-/

He'd left a message with Ioan's wife Akilina, as Ioan was out under his instructions to get a full medical work up, just in case.

While there wasn't anything too major that he knew of, next year with 2005 was when things would start anew.

Judith was off investigating any 'alignments' in a similar vein that Ioan had mentioned, but through her own 'contacts' concerning Shakespeare's Globe. He and Judith would go and visit the ministry later in the week, once they'd had a chance to go back to Shakespeare's Globe and take another set of readings, just to make sure everything had settled down.

Interestingly there was only one Dog and the Duchess in England, in the outskirts of Hampshire.

Getting out of the Defender, which he'd driven, rather than his Jag or McLaren because he could fit more stuff in, including a body, should there be a need.

But also a few weapons, energy scanners and handful of potions.

Buttoning up his Kevlar lined jacket, which also neatly concealed the holstered gun he locked the Land Rover and walked in.

It was a mostly empty pub much like several he'd frequented across the country and across two different periods of history. It was something that didn't tend to change much, just the prices and what was on TV.

Except this pub didn't have a TV.

Ordering a sparkling water, something he generally wouldn't do in a pub, but if someone was going to try and kill him he wanted to be level headed, plus he could throw the bottle at his attacker or attackers...or maybe even assassin or assassins Harry thought to himself with a chuckle.

Giving the bar another once over and finding no one who was going to jump him he, in fact, there were hardly any patrons in here and those that were, were giving him the 'country glare' given to outsiders who dropped into the local establishment.

Locating a table near a wall at the back where he could keep an eye on the rest of the pub without being seen he relaxed slightly.

Then a few minutes later as he was taking a sip of the sparkling water several things happened in quick succession; the grandfather clock started chiming midday, it was something he hadn't realised was in the pub, but its ringing meant it was either a clock or someone's ringtone. Someone sat down opposite him, but whomever they were they were under an invisibility cloak, who had probably used the clock's chime to mask their approach, and were it not for the ripple in the cloak's fabric he mightn't have seen it in the dim light of the pub. But as the chair took the person's weight Harry had removed the gun from his secluded holster and was pointing it at where he guessed was the person's, very likely a witch or wizard's chest.

"You might as well uncloak," Harry said calmly, not lowering the weapon. He wasn't really sure what made him grab the gun rather than his wand.

The wizarding way of death had been on his mind recently, and where or how to find wizards who had died; their graves, more specifically. Aside from Dumbledore's, his parents and the graveyard he didn't know. It was, it was Cedric's he wanted to visit, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do, or say, or anything, just...just reading that truly weird version of his life by that JK person.

That and other things...

"What's that Potter?" Said a voice who wasn't a wizard's voice, unless they were using a polyjuice potion and it wasn't the voice of an assassin, or not a dedicated assassin, he wasn't really sure what the voice and the body, a downright sexy body if he was at all honest with himself did.

"It's a gun," Harry said as the woman with the sexy body pulled the cloak off and stuffed it into a small purse.

"A gun?" She asked curiously looking at him.

"Fires a projectile at great speed out of this barrel, like a small cannon. It's used to kill people, among other things," he explained in a controlled tone.

"Like a flintlock?" She asked studying his face rather than the weapon.

"If you like," Harry said with an incline of his head, adding. "So Ms Greengrass, what are you doing here?"

Then a waiter brought over a glass of something and placed it down on the table in front of her. Harry noted two things, firstly he didn't realise there were any waiters here and two he didn't pay any attention to the fact he was pointing a gun at the lady whom he'd served a drink.

"What is the dangerous Mr Potter drinking?" She asked taking a sip of her drink leaning back into the chair and removing her wand. Harry raised an his weapon. "A simple privacy spell Potter."

"Fine I'll wait for the privacy spell," Harry said. "And sparkling water, to answer your question."

"Water?" Came her surprised answer.

"The message did leave something open to interpretation Ms Greengrass." Harry said and then added "Daphne."

She looked at him but didn't say anything to counter what he'd said.

"Your arm must be getting rather tired Potter, I've been shooting with my father. Such fascinating things, but rather cumbersome compared to a wand."

"I'm still trying to decide if you're here to kill me Daphne," Harry calmly wondered.

"Kill you?" She seemed genuinely surprised.

"High grade paper used in several books, basic ink available anywhere, printed rather than written type in the letter, making it all very hard to trace," he explained.

She smiled. "My father has a printing press, I find it interesting to use, such communiqués between associates should be kept as anonymous as possible I have found."

Harry slipped the weapon back into his holster and poured himself more of the water.

Daphne raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean you believe I'm not here to kill you Potter?"

"Perhaps. So, Daphne...?" He said as he took a sip of the water looking at her over the top of the glass as the bubbles popped and shifted on the surface.

He allowed the silence to hang, to force her to answer why she'd sent a mysterious message to him getting him down here to see her.

The silence dragged on though Harry just smiled, watching her. He didn't have anywhere he needed to be, today at least, and Daphne wasn't here to kill or assassinate him, which was a little bit of a disappointment he had to admit. But not all days could be exciting.

Though there was always interesting to fall back on.

"Following our previous engagement I thought we might reconvene for a repeat," she began simply.

Harry raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"And as I found that you take your privacy in a considered and careful manner, I thought likewise to follow suit," she explained in an equally levelly toned voice as her first statement, it was as though they were talking about the weather. Maybe they were.

"Next time-" He was cut off.

"You presume-" she started but Harry just continued.

"Next time you may want to put something else, like your name or some other identification. I..." Harry trailed off for a moment. "Lead an interesting life, so I came prepared for an interesting day."

"Proved by the protective clothing you're wearing, the muggle projectile weapon and the knife hidden in your boot, not to mention your wand not in a holster, but equally within reach," she commented casually as she took another sip of her drink.

"Touché," he smiled.

-/

Daphne looked out the window at Potter's conveyance, it was a somewhat blocky, black vehicle, seemingly of a dedicated purpose, however he had said it was not his only conveyance.

It was interesting the way he had inveigled himself into the muggle way of life, that apparating was not enough for him.

He could easily use magical transportation to conduct whatever the extent of his business was. She had not asked what he needed such conveyance for, nor had he enquired to her daily excursions.

Too many of her associates whom she partook of copulation with wished her to join them for poetry readings, or walks through their estates.

It was a rather unsatisfying way to spend one's day.

She had chosen this place for their engagement because it was a wizard-run establishment, with discreet rooms above. It was not a location she had used in the past for the alleviation of urges with any of her known associates. But it was a location she knew of; her sister had used places like this, both before and after her annulment. The facilities and rooms were almost up to the standard of her own rooms, and that of other wizards of whom she had participated with.

Daphne turned looking over towards the bathroom as she heard the shower turn off, it was where she and...Harry had begun proceedings and despite his leering and suggestive comments she preferred to reflect following their intimate association.

Running her finger over the weapons that Harry had removed and laid on the chair and table there was a cold mechanised quality to the muggle firearm, it functioned for one purpose. He wore it with such casual determination, such ease, it was fascinating, and it did make her somewhat curious as to the reasons why he should need to be armoured in such a fashion.

It was no unknown for wizards to need to be armoured, most people had enemies of some description, and those who did not just didn't know it.

"The safety's on you can pick it up," came Potter's voice a slightly disconcerting in its proximity, she chastised herself for not noticing.

"I'm good at creeping up on people," he said, but his voice had an odd bitterness to it, as though this was not a skill he valued. It made him all the more a fascinating man.

Daphne turned to look at Harry Potter, who was shirtless and still had wet hair, though he seemed to have rubbed a towel on it, he seemed unable or just unwilling to use charms or spells to do such things like that.

She looked to him once more as he picked up his shirt, he nodded towards the weapon she had her hand on.

Carefully she removed it, it was its weight that surprised her, she had used flintlocks before while hunting and other activities, but they had a sense of construction, her father had visited the firm that crafted those pieces, crafted with small details that her father wished on them. But this, this was heavy an all metal construction, it wasn't a piece, that could be appreciate both in its function and form, this was a functional device, though there could be a purity in that also she reflected as she replaced it within its holster.

Daphne could tell that Harry was hesitating about something, as he did up his shirt.

After a few moments he spoke. "Daphne, you know about wizarding culture, more than a person such as myself," he began with in a depreciating manner, yet with a smile.

She watched him and than acknowledged this with an affirmative.

"I well..." Harry sighed, she saw a great sadness pass over his featured as he sat down against his jacket. "I only know where my parents are buried, but...I wanted to visit Cedric's grave, for...I don't know..." Harry sighed, his shoulders slumping.

Daphne frowned for a moment. "Diggory?"

Harry nodded. "I never, never really, just with everything that went on at the time. I wanted to visit to...I dunno."

It was a side she hadn't seen to Potter, not that it was a side many wizards or witches chose to show, outside of memorials and funerals the dead were remembered for their history. Maybe that was what Harry was remembering. Diggory was the first of the student body to die at Hogwarts. She knew, that it had taken a toll on him, the events at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

"I'm sure I can find out the information Harry," she said with a smile.

He looked at her and smiled a relived smile. "Thank you."

"Should I send you a letter or," she paused. "Would you like me to come to you?"

He seemed to consider it and then shook his head. "I think-" He paused. "You might not like where I live, my life is less than ordinary Daphne."

"Then...? If you're to turn up to all of our associations armed I think we shall have to review how we meet," Daphne said with a teasing tone.

He seemed to think for the briefest moment. "I'll meet you at midday at Land's End in a week."

"Land's End?" She asked curiously.

"You know it?" He said curiously.

"Near where Lyonesse used to be?" She nodded to herself. "Yes."

"I'll take you for a drive in something more exciting than the Defender," he said jabbing a thumb backwards to the window.

-/

"You look suspiciously cheery Harry Potter," Judith said as they paddled the dingy. Spring was taking its sweet time to make an appearance, so the tunnel through which they paddled was freezing, shit stinking sewer, thick with water and rats that had died in the filth that could be considered water.

"Do I?" Harry asked curiously as he pushed gingerly against the wall with the oar. Despite being one of the filthiest ways to enter the ministry it was also the most covert.

"I suspected something the other day, but, the professional I am Harry Potter I thought I'd save asking you until-"

Harry interrupted her. "Until we were paddling down a river of storm water and-"

"Shit. Yes," she continued.

Earlier...the other day...

"So what did your contacts say about the theatre?" Harry asked Judith as he put his feet up on a pile of Harry Potter and... books that he'd yet to destroy, though the pages were useful as fire lighters and the latter books were to get the fire going, not quite a replacement for logs, but they were useful.

Harry looked over at Judith who was looking at him oddly, just for a moment she was giving him her 'look', which didn't bode well.

"I put the word out to my associates for anything that might be related to your phallocentric brethren," Judith explained.

Harry shook his head. "Do you know, when I was at Hogwarts we didn't really think about that all that much."

"Alternate-Harry seems to have though," she said gesturing his foot rest.

"He's fiction, reality is a far more grim and grimy place," Harry said as he took a sip of his mug of tea.

"So it was just drinks down in the coffee shop, chaste kisses in the broom cupboard and no wanking in the showers?" Judith commented.

Harry shook his head. "How did I cope?" He deadpanned. "Maybe it was all the death and Lord acronym wanting me dead," he continued.

"Please, you were a teenager, even certain death wouldn't get in the way of"

Harry stared at Judith as she motioned something obscene at him. "If I didn't know you as well as do and if we hadn't-"

He was cut off by Judith. "Tortured people together?" She offered in a friendly tone.

"Used information retrieval techniques," Harry corrected.

"Of course, much more PC," Judith finished.

"Worked so closely together" Harry continued with the sentence he had started. "as close as we have I would've thrown you out of my house."

"Please, for that you'd just be a bit offended Harry Potter," she made the motion again with an evil smile.

"So, while you're mocking my wand wavering antics, what did you find out?" He queried.

Judith looked as though she was going to say something but didn't. "Surprising even myself Harry, I struggled."

"No shoot outs, binge drinkers, or unwarranted police raids on squatters in the area?" Harry asked sarcastically, Judith kicked him.

"No all my associates Harry Potter are-" Judith began.

She was cut off by him. "Delinquents with ASBOs?"

"I'll remember that the next time you need a shotgun loaded with rock salt in the middle of London," she challenged.

Harry shook his head. "So many blood replenishing potions for those wizards..." He paused. "Who shouldn't have been messing around with a giant leech. And if I remember I thanked you for procuring it."

"From my associates, and had you let me finished Harry Potter, I would have explained further." She passed him a sheet of A2 paper, from where Harry wasn't sure, it wasn't folded and there wasn't a bag or anywhere for Judith to have pulled it from.

Harry looked at the page and frowned for a moment. It was a charcoal sketch, which had been edged with paints. It was rather nice.

"Umm..." Harry said.

"Very touristy down there, when we're not in there, nearly setting fire to a rebuilt building," Judith commented.

"And they say OH&S isn't worth anything," Harry said.

"Quite clearly the government official who made them install their fire systems had an extra-dimensional alien in mind when they installed all that stuff," Judith deadpanned.

"So we're looking for a group of people who were wearing dark purple robes and," Harry looked hard at the picture. "Green socks."

Judith nodded.

-/

"So, your one night stand then?" Judith continued having somehow established he'd had sex. How was another matter that Harry didn't think about as he looked around for the route they needed to take.

Considering going through this way you could essentially get into the Ministry without anyone knowing, Harry hoped they hadn't blocked it up. Though knowing the Ministry, even with Shacklebolt in charge, they were still somewhat lax and of the 'if it hasn't fallen to pieces, or even it has and killed someone not too important' don't fix it. Plus any organisation needed at least one way to sneak into their offices. It was even better that this method was one they hadn't made themselves.

"So it's the same woman?" Judith continued to read his body language or something "The one night stand that's become something more."

"A mutual associate Judith" Harry swore to himself, he should have just stayed quiet and let Judith postulate on his relationship. "Maybe I'm just happily polishing my wand, maybe that's why I'm happy," Harry said as he pointed the torch down the tunnel and pushed them onwards.

Harry felt the dingy shift from side to side and turned around to see Judith smiling and shaking her head in an exaggerated way, to make the craft shift from side to side.

"You don't call your 'wand' a mutual associate. Not unless you're really lonely."

Harry could hear the air quotes in her voice, the mocking tone also helped.

He breathed out a sigh of relief when he came upon the hole brickwork, which was more a wobbling space, where a something like a notice-me-not spell had been cast, but it seemed to have degraded quite a bit to just this wobbling void.

Conjuring some ropes to secured the dingy and climbed up and waited for Judith.

"'Just walk around as though you own the place,'" Judith repeated what he'd said.

Harry shrugged. "Just don't go shouting 'muggle power'," he said recalling their previous visit together. "and we should be alright."

"So you're looking for this officious guy, Fuller?" She asked.

"I doubt he's got any robes or socks in his cupboard, at least none that are remotely interesting," Harry said the lift shuddered and came to the floor they needed.

"But you still want to rifle around in them?" Judith asked turning to him with a smile.

"Yes. Down here I think," Harry said as he consulted a board which was either a map of a piece of modern art that someone had vomited up after a particularly long binge on the firewhiskey.

The room was much like a lot of low paid offices in the ministry; despite magic and the wonders that it could do to the dimensions, it was still little more than a cupboard.

"Out to lunch, hmmm," Harry said to himself as he pushed Judith in.

"Good or bad?" Judith asked as she walked over to the desk, or more to the point shuffled past Harry to get to the desk.

"Bad, I had hoped just to get the information out of him and go," Harry said shoving his hands into his pockets.

"You don't want to go through his files and see what's cooking?" Judith asked.

"Officious, stuck up and a stickler to protocol," Harry mused as he walked over to a filing cabinet. "Do you think he's filed it under B for books, L for literature, or T for transgressive?"

-/

Harry closed the door carefully to the Drew Fuller's office, Judith was leaning against the wall outside, waiting for him to finish.

"So the mysterious 'he' is just someone who writes officious letters."

"And it is someone who is poking their wand where it shouldn't belong." Harry mused as he rubbed the back of his neck, thinking. Judith looked up and down the corridor cautiously.

"The Ministry does like the play two sides of the same coin, and also keep other dragon-shit crazy people in reserve just in case..." Harry trailed off.

"Time to leave?" Judith said, and then added. "You've just thought of something?"

"Yes," Harry admitted as a bell that sounded rather like a fire alarm started ringing. "On both counts."

-/

"You're thinking about that stuff in San Francisco that you and Hermione investigated, wrapped up with the Doctor again?" Judith said to his back as they paddled away from the ministry.

Harry wanted to say he was thinking about whether the alarms had been for them or something else. "I don't just think, sometimes I muse," Harry paused to push them away from the sides of the sewer tunnel as there was something of a tide beneath them.

"The Ministry does like to watch their pies closely, even if they don't want to know what fillings they have," Harry mused to himself and shook his head and wondered where he got that phrase from, or maybe it just lost some of its intensity given they were paddling an inflatable dingy through water that wasn't exactly safe to drink, or swim in for that matter.

"And now they're sticking their appendages into things adjacent to again?" Judith mused ominously, though with a slight suggestive tone on appendage which left Harry with a disturbing image in his mind. He cursed, wondering if it was the fault of his imagination or Judith's suggestive tone.

-/

Daphne looked around, she had apparated to the location that Potter...Harry. That Harry Potter had specified, it was a muggle location, though she doubted that many knew of the significance of what lay beneath the waters near here.

Potter had suggested that he would be awaiting her arrival somewhere around this locale. She had made sure to arrive shortly before midday.

It had been a fascinating diversion to locate Cedric Diggory's place of burial, while researching and knowledge for the sake of it was not something she pursued, unlike Potter's muggle associate Granger, this did present some tasks that were of interest. Her mother did suggest merely requesting the information from the Diggory household. But there was no pursuit or challenge in a simple request, though it was interesting that Potter did not follow that path.

However, it was quite likely that Potter did not wish to have direct contact with Diggory household.

The body of Cedric Diggory wasn't located within the locale of Ottery St. Catchpole, though that was where she had initially and wrongly assumed it would be. Her father had chastised her for assuming anything, assuming anything of anyone was arrogant, something her housemates, at Hogwarts had done far too often.

Researching Cedric Diggory's place of rest, also brought back some memories of her time at Hogwarts, it was not a time she had thought about for a few years, once that time had passed, it was a period she had closed. It had not been the most stable of institutions and educations, but she had learnt far more she reasoned than many of her housemates and those in other houses. She had also completed her education at Hogwarts, something Harry Potter and the Ronald Weasley failed to do, though from what she had heard whilst pursuing other matters within the Ministry Weasley, it seemed was perusing some specialised Auror activities, though that was all she was able to gather from her unique vantage point.

As she looked around the general, she saw a rather curious man watching her leaning against a muggle conveyance, he was wearing a scarf and darkened muggle glasses, it was only, as she turned away, turning the image over in her mind that she realised is was Potter, the glasses, something she never imagined Potter to wear, covered his eyes and made his face far more unreadable. Though rather than turn back and approach him straight away she continued to survey the area around her, and then casually walked back to where Potter was leaning against the conveyance.

"Daphne, I thought you'd missed me," he said as she approached.

"Merely taking a turn around here, it's been some time since I ventured down to Land's End," she paused "I wanted to see why you chose this locale to meet."

Potter shrugged with a smile. "I rather like it here," he said and continued to smile, but he did remove his glasses, blinking quickly at the sun.

"You're looking rather dashing today I must say," he said with a grin.

She would have considered a comment such as that, had it come from others to be of a more suggestive nature, and although their previous encounters would suggest something different, she couldn't read anything beyond an enthusiastic complement in Potter's words.

She noted, with a slight sense of amusement that Potter tensed, only just as she reached within her jacket, it seemed to be an unconscious move on Potter's part and he relaxed just as quickly as he tensed, seemingly realising what he was doing. It suggested many things of Potter's life.

"This I think you will find is everything you need." She said handing over the tightly bound scroll, sealed with neutral wax that she used for many professional communications which she did not wish to be tracked, charmed or spelled to reveal anything.

Potter did not open it, she noted with a slight arch of her eyebrow.

"I trust you Daphne, and thank you," he said, slipping it within a pocket of his own jacket and stepping away from his conveyance. "Now, would you like to come for a bit of a drive?"

As Potter stepped away from his conveyance, allowing Daphne to look at it in its entirety she noted it looked far less like anything she had seen muggles within when she had been present around them, and it also looked totally different design from Potter's 'Defender', this deep green conveyance had sleek smooth lines, a long front leading up to a glass window at the front and the curves and sleekness continued around to the back.

Its design suggested speed and smoothness and communicated this in such a way that was far clearer than the fastest broom, which remained a similar design, despite their speed, but this, this was far more different and more suggestive of its speed and sleek manner.

"This isn't like the other muggles have," she oberved as she looked at it.

Potter smiled at her, or at her question, she wasn't quite sure. The only rather public display of a fascination with muggle technology like this had been the muggle-loving Weasley man, that conveyance Potter had had first hand experience.

"No, this is from the 1970s," he said in an interesting tone, it was one that Daphne hadn't heard Potter use, his tone and inflection suggested...something different.

She inclined her head and...Harry slipped forward walking softly on the ground and opened the door for her.

"And these belts are for?" She asked curious as Potter indicated them.

"In case of an accident, muggles don't have momentum arresting spells, these in theory will stop you flying through the windscreen should we need to decelerate quickly," Harry casually said as he belted in his own belt and placed a key within the 'ignition'.

The noise as the conveyance started was unlike hearing the muggle machines outside, it was, in fact far more dampened, yet the connection, the rumble she could feel from the front where the mechanism lay was...rather invigorating.

Daphne revised her opinion slightly as Potter accelerated the 'car'. While playing Quidditch was not her forté, she had ridden a broom in several situations but this speed, with its indication on the dials in front of Potter and the noise was most...interesting.

There was also the calm amusement that Harry seemed to have for it all, his manipulation of the leaver with his left hand the 'gear stick' he'd said when he'd caught her looking around her.

And then he was asking her if there was any where he could take her, seemingly forgetting she had apparated to meet him, or perhaps he didn't care.

It was something of a different experience, none of her associates did anything of the kind, while some travelled by carriage or other means it was not a casual or simple method to use for travel. Apparating or utilising the floo network was far more of a uncomplicated method of travel. There was the Knight Bus, but that could hardly compare to this, that was merely a more directed train, utilised by those who could not access more civilised transportation.

Looking out the window she watched the country side flash past, it was unlike travelling by train, or by broom, this was so very much lower to the ground, the surface of the road felt very close indeed.

Then Harry said she could open the window. The air rushed in, it was shocking and exhilarating at first, and then, more surprisingly for her, continued to surprise and exhilarate.

Then they were slowing down and Harry stopped the vehicle in an area out looking a small inlet.

"Enjoy it?" Harry asked as he opened the door for her and offered her his hand as she stepped out.

Daphne smiled at him, a genuine smile. It was met by a similar smile from him. Not the lustful gaze that he, and others had for her during pre and post, experiences of relief with associates and one another. This was a smile from a man, who seemed to genuinely enjoy his experiences.

It was something of a change from the controlled expressions many wizards used, even when they were alone, though outside.

She nodded. "Yes, Harry, it was exhilarating," she said, breathing in the salty air. Chastising herself silently for a moment of honest lack of control.

Then he reached forward and kissed her, his dry, though warm lips on hers, she wasn't sure how long their kiss lasted for before they stepped apart and then they were both looking out to sea.

"Shall we meet again Potter?" She asked.

"Not just a meet for sex you mean Daphne?" Harry enquired.

She turned to him. "Yes, Harry."

Potter. Harry, turned and smiled at her.

-/

Harry looked at the space where Daphne had been standing, her goodbye kiss, still on his lips, she had apparated with barely any space between them and a sly look in her eye as she had done so.

Crossing his arms he felt the roll of parchment in his pocket and smiled sadly to himself.

-/

Harry walked through the graveyard, it was, much like graveyards were, quiet. The path, as indicated by the map Daphne had helpfully provided was a long path, away from the other graves, taking him deeper into the lands where the graveyard resided.

He passed a few graves on his walk, no tombs though. He wasn't sure if it was just memorable people, people like Dumbledore had tombs or if others...Harry shook his head and checked his map once more as he reached a fork in the path. There were no signs, the path was well maintained, though it didn't look like anyone had walked it in some time.

And then he was standing before it.

Cedric Diggory

24th June 1995

Harry laid the single white rose down in front of the grave and then resumed standing.

He wasn't really sure, why, why he'd come here, not really.

But he felt, he wanted to, needed to.

Now he was here.

"I will always remember you Cedric," Harry said aloud, looking at the grave once more before walking slowly back along the path.

-/

A/N:

Minor edit done March 2021.

This chapter just kept getting longer and longer. Initially it was just going to be a super-short chapter about Harry and Hermione and maybe some Daphne-Harry stuff.

Much of the alt-Harry Potter (the alt-universe books) comes from a conversation I had with a reviewer (I read and usually respond to all reviews). It stems from 'Harry Potter' being mentioned by Martha Jones in The Shakespeare Code, somehow I forgot this when I wrote Harry meeting the Doctor and Martha. I could have just ignored it, or thought of it as something that was eaten up by the Reapers or the Crack in time or something like that. But it kicked off some ideas in my head.

There are twelve because Harry Potterisreferenced elsewhere in Doctor Who, and it's stated in a novel that there are 12 books, hence, 12 appear here. The author is just called JK because the Doctor says in The Shakespeare Code "good ole JK". The book titles are never named within Doctor Who, so I've just created them.

Here is the list of all the alt-Harry Potter books' titles: Book 1: Harry Potter and the Dark Awakening. Book 2: Harry Potter and the Serpent's Dream. Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner's Dilemma. Book 4: Harry Potter and the Trials of Wizardry. Book 5: Harry Potter and the Journey of Order. Book 6: Harry Potter and the Death of a Hero. Book 7: Harry Potter and the Discoveries of the Past. Book 8: Harry Potter and the Family's Lament. Book 9: Harry Potter and the Foretold Discovery. Book 10: Harry Potter and the Awakening of Night. Book 11: Harry Potter and the Night of Revelation. Book 12: Harry Potter and Darkness' End.