Chapter 33

The blocks of stone seemingly were just part of the various ports and quays along the Thames riverbank.

To any muggle that was all they appeared to be; blocks of what on first glance might be sandstone.

But there were two distinct blocks of stone, though what sort was harder to discern, even though she had been here many times past, Daphne still wasn't sure what sort of stone that had been bewitched to behave as it did.

Removing the invoice from a pocket she held it up to the stone and brushed it gently against one of the stones.

The wax seal was, according to the agents that produced the invoice impregnated with a special formula that the stones recognised.

She knew what that was; blood.

The stone pulsed gently and almost shuffled, poised, awaiting the next part of the entrance procedure.

Daphne stretched our her hand, her palm flat and placed it against the stone, very gently and then snatched it away, an almost biting sensation as the stone validated and confirmed her existence, that her presence was authorised, or something.

The agents who operated this port had implied that were the stones not 'fed' they were liable to go 'out looking for food'. Supposedly they were responsible for several street-walkers' deaths, prior to taming of their enchantments.

That is, if they were enchanted, there were some rumours that the stones had been found somewhere in the South of England in the 1970s.

According to her and her father's associates who managed part of their interests there was a different agreement to enter prior to the agents implementation of this system.

The stones shuffled apart, slowly allowing her path of entry to the secluded area.

While still on the Thames it was a short distance from the nearest Greenland Pier that the muggles used.

Though, as Harry said "sometimes people reject things they refuse to understand, or don't want to try understand."

Harry...Daphne found herself pausing, mentally as the stones continued to move to allow her free passage.

They had progressed beyond just sex. Sometimes they had conversations before and after. Occasionally they 'went out' and didn't have sex.

Though she, nor he had called it, what they had…a relationship, but it was clear, one early morning after much of the night spent intimately, barely a week into the new year, that they had moved beyond simply having great, passionate wonderful, sex.

Although, neither of them had classified what it was they had now.

Her sister had practically jumped the first wizard that crossed her path, drawn by ideals of family and the graces she thought were expected of her.

What had followed was an annulment, agreed upon by both parties, the wizard whom both she and Harry had been at school with had been quite amicable, considering the circumstances. Quite unlike his childhood years.

But then, school and the times between childhood and adulthood changed one.

Daphne pushed those thoughts to the edges of her mind and focused on the tasks at hand, the stones had finished moving, though were still pulsing softly, almost as though they were eager to see her stand there and be devoured.

Daphne moved on past them, it would not be done to ascribe thoughts to charmed rocks, if that was all they were.

Though, as Harry often alluded to the world, no, the universe was more complicated than anyone imagined.

-/

The schooner was sitting alongside one other ship, both ships belonged to the shipping agents who also had owned and run the port since there had been a trade for such things.

Though earlier in their business-life they would have had a fleet of sailing ships, just as the muggles had.

But as the muggles do, they had made things brutally efficient, something many wizards and witches had failed to understand.

But, certain ingredients could not be transported within muggle craft, either those aeroplanes, things like Harry could fly, which was a strange idea for her to imagine him doing. Although with his fascinations with such conveyances as the four wheeled variety she should not have been surprised by such a revelation.

Nor could certain items and materials be placed within the iron cuboid containers.

Certain items required care, the calm that a sailing vessel brought.

Some things could be detected by the muggles machines or were damaged by their machines and handling procedures. Others simply combusted, or made the iron containers combust, melt or simply disintegrate.

Those occasions had been lessons well learnt by those, such as her family that had interests in the industry.

"Ms Greengrass." The shipping agent stepped off the ship, he wasn't the captain of the vessel, but he was in charge of the majority of its contents.

Daphne nodded to the man. "I'd like to inspect everything before it is sent ashore," Daphne said removing the shipping invoice from her pocket.

It was the same procedure she went through whenever she came to arrange transport.

"Of course," the man said, he took the shipping invoice, yet, Daphne knew he knew every item on the ship and who it was ordered or sold to. But procedure had to be followed in these instances. It was almost like a dance, a game across the rules and regulations that governed their industries, hers, his, her father's.

Harry though seemed to play to a different set of rules, Harry Potter knew something about the world, that he wasn't or hadn't been ready to share with her.

Which was understandable, given Ginevra Weasley.

Daphne had only looked into her briefly, and that was enough to make her wonder what the youngest child of Molly and Arthur Weasley had done to earn such a burning of the records from the Ministry, and from the Minister for Magic.

She did know that Harry's job meant he did something for the Ministry and that he and the Minister had in the past had contact, but now, the relationship was different.

"The decking has recently been replaced," Daphne noted as she stepped aboard the ship. She didn't say that they had missed some flecks of blood that lead up to the bow of the ship, someone, likely several people had been killed on the deck recently.

"Pirates continue to be an issue, for us and the muggle sailors," he said from in front of her.

Despite the ship being a wizard constructed ship it was not imperceivable to muggles, for navigation purposes and sailing on the open seas she was aware that even this ship carried some muggle devices.

It was simpler to use and exploit certain muggle devices than to engineer spells and charms around various muggle obstacles as the Knight Bus did. Daphne was also peripherally aware that applying such charms to a ship involved other complexities. It was something she had been curious enough to read about some years ago when a certain complication came across her path.

With her relationship with Harry and his interest in muggle conveyances the interest had been renewed somewhat. Though a purely muggle conveyance held a certain amount of curiosity for her.

Every time Harry drove her around, watching the country side rush past, the vibrations from the mechanics within the engine coming through the conveyance.

It was an exhilarating experience, Harry had been delighted by her observation. He'd mentioned taking "taking her up" in an aeroplane or a helicopter, which was something he had recently become qualified. From the pictures it appeared to be some form of rotorcraft, functioning like some form of aerial screw. Which seemed a muggle mechanisation of hovering as one would on a broom or carpet.

Though none of these things, as Harry described them seemed odd, somewhat strange for a wizard of his caliber to pursue, but he had the intelligence of a man of understanding to pursue such interests. Unlike Arthur Weasley, whom while he was a capable wizard lacked the finesse of knowledge that Harry had in understanding the muggle world, and obviously living in it.

-/

Down below deck there were several wooden boxes and other barrels of potion ingredients and a variety of other rare ingredients that was impossible to bring in through other means.

Daphne walked straight over to certain marked and unmarked crates, knowing which ones, easily perished if not treated correctly to check. That done she moved further below decks to some of the larger items; carcasses of certain beasts that did not grow to a usable size within the United Kingdom, certain fish species that needed to be expertly preserved prior to their transport.

As she was checking the last box the agent approached her once more. "I have a few items which weren't on your invoice that I can offer you."

"Such as?" Daphne asked curiously as she gazed around the her. Everything was clean below decks, so it was likely whatever pirates had made it onto the ship had only had their blood spilled on the deck and had not managed to breach below decks.

If they ship's crew had been feeling particularly malicious they would have hung and eviscerated the pirates and placed them floating on a buoy as a warning. But such things weren't done as much as they used to be, given the muggle's frequency on the shipping lanes, such things, even done to pirates would no doubt become mixed up in the muggles' endless bureaucracy, which while it didn't have anything on what the Minister for Magic had to deal with on a daily basis, was just as long and as over reaching.

The man smiled and gestured to a small room.

While there was no reason for her to be attacked Daphne had her wand ready just in case. Paranoia wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it kept one alive.

"I have a flask of unicorn blood," he paused as Daphne gave him a hard look, the collection of unicorn blood was illegal in all magical states and territories. Slaying a unicorn led the slayer to a cursed life.

Then he hastily added. "I have documents certifying that it was collected over the course of several research trips through Russian forests, it is has been collected from the forest foliage and forest floor from cuts and the result of traumatic births."

"Was the research certified, do you have proof and certification papers that the blood was collected and purified in keeping with the resolutions regarding unicorn blood for sale?" Daphne asked calmly. She hadn't bought unicorn blood before, but had read in the journals her father received that there were very certain procedures that needed to be followed if it was. It was still illegal to import into most countries, but once within a country, as long as the requisite documentation existed it could be sold as a whole or divided.

"I do. I have full documentation photos included," he said removing a box hidden below a cloth nearby and showed her a set of scrolls contained within.

Daphne checked over the scrolls' wax marks and signatures, none of them appeared fake.

For the photos she removed a small magnifying glass.

It was one of the problems of many magical photos, when they moved their clarity suffered. These had been developed thus so, on some of them she saw evidence of a research group and its various items and objects used for research into the great forests.

"Where precisely were they?" Daphne asked looking at the photos. She was mostly just curious, the documentation would say exactly where, but she would need a map and time to analyse the exact locations.

"Near Podkamennaya-" he started.

"Tunguska," Daphne finished exhaling. Anything coming out of that region was fascinating, sometimes dangerous.

Much like what Harry talked vaguely about, though he had yet to explain precisely what he and his organisation were involved in.

It was one of many things she was sure she could discover (some) of the exact nature of if she pushed and looked hard enough, but something about the mystery of it made her want to find out naturally without stabbing too many people in the back to find it. Maybe it would come to her, as she walked her own path.

Harry had not, aside from a few comments pushed to discover 'what kept her busy'. She was sure, with his contacts that he too could discover (some) of what she did.

-/

Daphne walked away from the docks, her orders would be taken away along the well trodden routes. Her valuable purchase was within her coat.

The agent had allowed her to take the documents after a significant deposit was laid. She wouldn't take possession of the blood until she was sure everything was in order and she had verified to her own satisfaction that everything was correct and had not been forged or altered.

-/ — \\—

Daphne sat in a chair next to Harry, both of their hair still mildly damp following an 'adventure' that had required a shower. They had been experimenting, and it seemed it was possible to cast a momentum arresting spell to levitate them from the ground and suspend them above the bed. With somewhat hilarious results.

Now though they were sitting in Harry's study, which on her many visits to his house she had not been within, though not always the door had been shut, and now she was within, it seemed mostly normal for a wizard. There were books on the bookshelves, filing cabinets, though they were metal, unlike her and her fathers' which were wood. And on his desk there were papers and also a large screen for the 'computer'. It was, she understood an advanced analytical engine that all muggles had access to.

It was this and the other technologies that Harry had access to that she was curious about.

"So do you have a specific location you want to spy on or just curious what your house looks like from orbit?" Harry asked curiously smiling at her.

Daphne removed a folded piece of paper from her coat, it had a latitude and longitude as you would use for precise apparition, she was relatively sure that Harry would be able to interpret it for her, as it was this information her had given her once to arrive at his house, albeit on the road outside.

"Prepared, interesting," he muttered to himself.

It took but the shortest of moments, for Harry to enter the information via the typewriter board.

Daphne stared in amazement as the view through this screen continued downwards close and close until it was as though she were looking at the ground from a broom, high in the clouds, looking down at the ground on a clear day.

"You're impressed," Harry observed, a statement rather than a question, though somewhat amazed, which implied that there were more amazing things he could do, Daphne thought to herself and then added, mentally; With his computer, she already knew he could do several interesting things away from it she thought to herself with a subtle smile.

"You're smiling to yourself again," Harry leered gently. Daphne glared at him. He was becoming too good at knowing her moods. "So why're you curious about Tunguska?"

"Just for a..." She trailed off.

"A...?" He asked, swivelling on the chair, which like much of his house was not magic, it was merely another 'something' many muggles used.

"Part of what I do during the day," she said with a less subtle teasing smile.

Harry seemed pensive for a moment. "You're not seeking out aliens are you?" He asked, in a mostly joking tone.

Daphne was caught for a moment, that was not what she had expected him to say, although it was not the first time Harry had made a comment regard extra-terrestrial life.

It was something of an undeniable fact that the concept of aliens was or had been created by wizards to cover up their own actions, everyone knew this, but there were and had been a curious amount of 'alien' related occurrences in the past 100 years. A great number in the 20thcentury.

Occasionally, unwise wizards would write about it, suggesting that they actually existed, but had been promptly removed from wizarding society and ejected from any points of power. Publicly challenging this given knowledge was unwise.

"Not deliberately," she replied neutrally, meeting his gaze. "Is it something you're interested in?"

Harry held his gaze. "I'm interested in lots of things," he smiled. "Including aliens." He stood walking over to his book shelves. And leant against them. "Does that worry you?" He watched her, reading her.

Daphne stood closing the distance between them to stand with him. "No," she paused. "But I am curious how interested you are." He had always been somewhat cautious, about telling her anything about what he did. Though he had implied more recently that his work involved something outside the realms of wizardy and muggles.

"Maybe you'll find out," he said obliquely. "I think it's something you need to discover."

"Do you believe in them?" Daphne asked as she turned away from him looking around the room.

Harry's tone dropped from playful to serious. "Belief implies a structure; a fiction. Especially when wizards are concerned. I don't believe."

It was left unsaid that he knew. Harry sometimes, Daphne had experienced, became like this; around certain topics. Very serious, and concerned for her welfare, it was part of his being since even when they had been at Hogwarts.

-/ — \\—

Daphne stared at the building that had just exploded, rather violently. She had been inside the building earlier in the day.

While the shop; Henrik's wasn't somewhere she usually frequented for muggle-style clothing, it was a good place to meet to exchange information with certain contacts that did not to wish to meet in the street or in a wizarding venue. Henrik's was useful because no wizards or witches of note would visit there and no one connected with either muggle or wizard government would go there in normal course of events. It was also merely minutes walk from a rather excellent restaurant run by a wizard and his muggle wife.

The muggle emergency services were already responding and a crowd was forming moving people away from the affected area. It seemed interesting, Daphne mused that only the top floor of the building was destroyed.

Had she been placing explosives in the building to damage it she would have placed it around the lower floors and support structures of the building, to weaken its structural integrity, magical buildings were less susceptible to that form of attack, but not entirely, as she knew from past experience.

The next day Daphne found herself once more in London cursing her curiosity.

She had been in its capital visiting Diagon Alley, certain products had turned up in Knockturn Alley exhibiting strange behaviour, though they weren't charmed nor had any spells attributed to them. They seemed to be mere mannequins, they had been purchased as part of a bulk estate auction some years ago on Sentinel Island and had just recently found to have movement.

It was somewhat outside her usual purview of expertise, but she had to admit it was strange.

Removing, or attempting to remove the mannequins' appendages did not cease the movement.

Even melting the automaton down, which released a horrid acrid smell that was common for the muggle plastic items did little to stop the movement. The sludge as a result of the high temperatures still continued to move, shifting around of its own accord, seemingly finding its way, or attempting to located something out of reach. The others exhibited similar, though not as vigorous movements.

-/

Now though she was back within Henrik's store, annoyed by her own curiosity.

Surprisingly more so, muggle authorities were not in the building. In the past she knew they would be crawling all over a site such as this, like ants come to feast on a sweet treat. Yet, there was nothing, she charmed one muggle who prior to her spell had told her (under a compulsion spell) that some muggle unit had been involved. All these various sections and elements of muggle society, layers of bureaucracy, it was complicated knowing which groups did what, units, armies and whatever other forces.

The building didn't smell of explosives, no muggle or indeed magical explosives that she was familiar with.

In fact the explosion seemed to emanate from the roof space downwards. As far as she was aware the muggles kept nothing of value on the roof, beyond their communications towers, like the mobile telephone communications systems that Harry used and seemed to always have on or near him.

Though, from the small amount that Harry had said, there were many of these receiving and sending points, removing one wouldn't cause any issues.

Daphne prepared to apparate away, but paused and checked the area.

There shouldn't be anything of issue, while this was or had been a building she'd used for meetings it was also free of any wards and protections, making it a good place to meet, unlike many of the buildings around London which, over time had had many different protections on them, some, which broke down over time leaving traces of their spell work, lying in wait to splinch you at an inopportune moment.

Daphne inclined an eyebrow. There were traces of something, something that would not necessarily prevent apparition but might make it complicated.

She'd seen particulates like this before, in far larger concentrations at Harry's house. She turned hearing voices coming up the fire stairs that she had used to gain access to the floor she was standing on, concentrating she disapparated.

-/ — \\—

Daphne quickly cast several disillusionment spells as she hid herself behind a lamp post and watched the space before her.

She had, having departed the space formerly occupied by Henrik's allowed herself the time to have a meal and relax and to 'process' as Harry was want to say sometimes. His odd turn of phrase often amused her, when they were both obliquely talking about what they spent their days doing.

She rather enjoyed that, even in their conversations it was fun, interesting and exciting, much like their sexual activities.

But it was how much she enjoyed that side of it, the just being around him that had made her realise that they had long passed beyond just sex.

Leaving the centre of London she'd decided to take a walk along the Thames, which was where she had been fortunate enough to see a cabinet of some sort materialise before her.

She knew of cabinets, such as the one Draco had used while they had been at Hogwarts, and of course the crushing cabinets that some families still maintained for occasional use to extract information from particularly troublesome individuals.

She'd also read of a Chinese Cabinet about 200 years ago that came with it a cursed midget, which had aroused her interest merely because of its rarity, cabinets were hard to create but this had so many features to it along with the midget; there were the gangs, the unique key that could open it, the deaths of whores the came and went as the cabinet was sold. All the information dried up in the 1890s, but the story of it continued to hold interest for her.

But this box, this was something else, it had slowly made itself apparent, a wheezing, groaning trumpeting noise. A light on its top flashed like a beacon to the surrounding area, alerting anyone around to its appearance, and yet, she was the only one who noticed.

It was deep, dark blue with the words "Police Box" and in smaller writing between those words "Public Call" on across the top.

Then a man, tall, with very short hair burst out of the box at speed, Daphne stared into the box's interior, it seemed he was a wizard, but something suggested to her not. Its interior was larger within than without. A younger woman came to stand on the edge of the box's threshold and stepped out, the door closing before Daphne could move to see further into the realms of the box's interiors.

"I got so close!" The man shouted in exclamation.

"We've moved," said the young woman, her standing suggested she was very young, though an adult, very likely, and definitely of a lower class than the man. But her statement confirmed what Daphne had assumed, that the box had dematerialised from somewhere else and then rematerialised here.

"Does it fly?" Which, Daphne thought to herself suggested that the man was the box's owner, its driver or if it flew its...what had Harry called himself A...'pilot'.

"Disappears there and reappears here, you wouldn't understand," the man sounded like he was a wizard, explaining the simplest of magic to a child, a muggle child.

Average muggles failed to understand the simplest of spells, let alone moving a body through space such as apparition or a portkey.

"...What about that headless thing it's still on the loose?" Daphne just caught the blonde woman's question, though she was more interested in the man.

Something about him, the way he held himself, as he leaned out looking to the river. How he spoke, it was all...different.

It seemed that he had had training in how to speak, how to talk, how to hold himself.

Training that wizards of maturity knew as second nature, Lords and Ladies knew the rules of movement, of standing, and interactions.

This man, hidden below his accent and leather jacket, behind his hair and anger he was someone of standing.

"...Are you going to whitter on all night?" He asked walking past the blonde woman who was talking to herself once more. The man had spoken down to the woman, as most Lords and Ladies would.

Something about this man suggested great power, and great pain, it was most intriguing.

"Mickey, I'll have to tell his mother he's dead and you just went and forgot him! Again!" She continued. "You are right you are alien."

Daphne frowned, she didn't quite catch what the woman was saying as she turned away from the man. It had been 'Allen or 'Alien…'? She knew that muggles sometimes used the term to suggest a disconnected disposition, which this man did have, or perhaps it was how this muggle reconciled the man's abilities with his magical cabinet.

"...because I'm trying to save the lives of every stupid ape blundering about on top of this planet."

Daphne cursed herself silently for the amount of charms she had layered around her, they were designed to occlude her from view, sight and sound, had she known she'd need to listen in she would have cast different spells, though she didn't know this pair were going to have such an intriguing conversation.

The pair argued and the woman said the A word again, this time Daphne was sure that the blonde woman had said "Alien", then she mentioned something relating to the man's accent.

Daphne hadn't thought much of the man's accent, any more than the woman's.

"It's a disguise." Daphne shook her head, partly at her own assumption that the box was just a cabinet, the man's inference suggested it disguised far more than just something that could move between points in space. But the girl's response, having been within it, surely it would be obvious that it would need a disguise to hide the powers within.

"This living plastic what's it got against us?"

"Nothing, it loves you..." Daphne couldn't make out some of what he said as he moved closer to the girl. "plenty of smoke and oil, toxins and dioxins in the air. Perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs."

This gave her pause for thought, it was a name, a species, consciousness suggested an gestalt of some form, an amalgam of some for of consciousness.

"Its food stock was destroyed in the war all its protein planets rotted. So Earth. Dinner." He motioned eating and grinned towards her for a moment. Daphne stepped away from direct sight of them as he walked away from the box once more.

As they walked away Daphne slipped out of her hiding and quickly sidled of to the box. She was tempted to removed her wand and cast some spells, but she had no time to do so, the man was still talking to his blonde woman.

Daphne placed her hand against the box, most magical cabinets tended to give off a small amount of magic, depending on their age, one could feel the magic, it tended to crackle with age or bend if new, like green wood.

This though, this blue box, it felt old, older than its wood grains suggested and it was humming, almost undetectably to itself.

Then the man exclaimed "Fantastic!" Daphne rushed back to her place of hiding, but found the couple running away in the opposite direction.

As they ran across the bridge towards the large wheel the muggles had built Daphne allowed herself a moment to relax and again take in the box.

Removing a note pad from her pocket she walked around the box, noting its general dimensions, and using the pad itself to note sizes of its panels and windows. She intended to later research this box, it could be as rare as the Chinese cabinet, or just another vanishing cabinet.

-/ — \\—

Daphne stood, waiting at the front door, she had all her information placed carefully within her jacket inside compact folders that could hold a multitude of documents from her researches.

She waited patiently for Harry to answer the door, hopefully their conversation would be as interesting and as stimulating as it always was.

He smiled as he saw her standing at the door. She gave him a guarded greeting as he allowed her entry.

"Harry," she said once they were inside.

"Yes...?" He answered looking at her curiously.

"Who's the Doctor and how did you get into the 1970s?" She asked in a deathly calm voice.

"Ah..." Harry said which revealed much in his knowledge of both those subjects.

-/

A/N:

Yes, this chapter is a little bit "Harry-lite". But Daphne is a character I also like to write and it's good to see events from another's point of view on occasion.

Harry's presence will be revealed more so in chapter 34.