Chapter 35

Harry drove up into Sarah's driveway, it hadn't quite been the next day, there had been...other things that distracted him.

Not just sex, that was preferable to what he had actually needed to do, more explanations to the Minister for Magic.

It seemed he had not been too pleased with his report that Henrik's had been destroyed 'during events pertaining to an alien incursion into London. Said incursion was dealt with by authorities outside the persuasion of LPI, UNIT and other British forces.'.

Despite Daphne's ease with the concept of aliens and the Doctor and everything in between the Minister seemed to be more demanding of information, or misinformation. Or perhaps just blame, well, direction of blame towards him and elsewhere.

The demands of politics and all that, it was something the Doctor was always annoyed by, but politicians had their uses.

Even if it was just as potential sources of information...or blackmail.

Sarah was doing some gardening he noticed as he drove up. At least that was what it looked like, considering Sarah's own fascination with the extraterrestrial world she could be hiding sensors or grenades in the flower pots.

Though, they'd more likely be sensors than grenades, Sarah had voiced her dislike of guns on more than one occasion, though K9 the smug little robot didn't seem to count. Jumped up fax machine that he was.

"Hi Sarah, sorry I'm late," he apologised.

Sarah smiled at him. "I'm used to people turning up late, he could never get the time right." Harry smiled at her comment. The Doctor occasionally got his timing right.

"He could get it right," Harry defended.

Sarah chuckled. "Yes, right so we materialised in front of the guards instead of behind them."

Harry shut the door of the Exige and walked around the boot of the car to grab two sets of bags, his old dimensionally trancendental bag and a magically expanded bag, both of which he'd filled with various things he thought might be useful to fix the toaster with an over inflated ego that liked to think it was a computer with some semblance of intelligence.

"I know you don't like K9 Harry but..." Sarah started seemingly sensing his thoughts, or likely seeing his expression.

"I..." Harry started as he shut the boot and locked the car. "Appreciate its..." Harry trailed off again. "K9 was useful in providing me with information to build an energy detection system and sensors," he finally decided on, it was something that would have taken him much longer and possibly not at all had he not had the metal mutt's assistance.

Sarah let him in and led him upstairs, where she had mentioned she kept all her research.

"Must have been hard to haul it up here," Harry commented.

"There's an old dumb waiter in the house," Sarah explained.

"Appropriate," Harry commented, Sarah looked back at him disapprovingly.

The attic was much like his workshops and study, littered with alien related stuff, and Harry guessed what were mementos of her time with the Doctor.

There was also the metal mutt itself on a table in the middle of the attic.

"So what have you tried?" Harry asked as he put the bags down and walked around the annoying robot. He then added. "He's gone wrong in the past you've mentioned before."

"Oh, yes, many times, Brendan" Harry looked at her puzzled. "Oh he was my Aunt's ward, works in San Francisco now," she said, musing to herself. "He helped fix him a few times. I've tried jumper leads to his ears and running him on a slow battery charger. That worked a while ago when he was completely discharged."

Harry shook his head as he walked around the robot. "Charming technology. I guess by its inaction that didn't work."

"Not even a peep." Sarah looked forlornly at the robot dog that had assisted her throughout the past 20 plus years.

Harry grabbed the handle at the front of the robot dog and lifted it up, it was heavy, though not as heavy as he expected it was going to be, propping it on one side to look at the underside there didn't appear to be anything dangerously alien sitting there.

Turning it back up he looked at it again, thinking to himself and then turned back to Sarah who was leaning against one of the desks in the attic, watching him quietly.

"I'm no expert with robotics you know," Harry said with a sigh looking at the dog.

Sarah smiled warmly at him. "I know, but you're the closest thing to an expert that's around here. I don't think he's going to make a house call."

"What doctor does nowadays, they've got bigger things to deal with," Harry said as he looked around the attic. "I just want you to be prepared in case I don't get it working." Harry walked around and grabbed one of his bags from the floor. "This is something like 51st century technology."

"Is it?" Sarah exclaimed looking at him.

"The one I met was significantly less..." Harry paused musing on a slightly less offensive word than first came to mind. "Curt with me than this one."

Harry started to remove his energy scanner and a few screwdrivers.

"Screwdrivers?" Sarah asked amused.

"Not sonic," Harry chuckled. "But there's some marks on the case that look like it's been opened before so..."

"I'll leave you to it" She paused. "Unless you'd like me here?" She asked looking to him.

Harry shrugged. "Stay, let me hook this up" He gestured the energy scanner and its sensor leads that were dangling from it. "If there's nothing on this, then I'll try opening it up."

"Him," Sarah idly corrected as pulled over a two chairs and picked up the energy scanner weighing it in her hands as Harry grabbed his bag over for the other connections. "You built this?"

Harry made an affirmative noise. "With some of the information from him" he knocked a knuckle against K9. "And with stuff I learnt from around UNIT and other places."

"Clever." Sarah said putting it back down. "So that should tell you if..." She trailed off.

"If there's anything switched on inside his not so small body," Harry continued.

"And if there isn't you'll break out the tools?" She asked watching him.

Harry nodded. "Except I don't have a handy sonic screwdriver in my kit, unless you...?"

Sarah laughed and then grinned. "That rubbish screwdriver! No, the Doctor only let me use it when he was too busy to rescue Harry or me!" She looked at him again and said slightly more quieter. "Have you ever thought of building one?"

Harry paused with what he was doing. "I've no wish to copy the Doctor Sarah. Plus." He reached into his jacket and removed his wand, passing it to her. "I've got my own get-out device, and if I carried around another vaguely phallic device my friends would just endlessly tease me," Harry joked.

-/

Sarah turned the wooden stick over in her hands, she knew about Harry and his wizardry, but he'd not so far shown her any major examples of magic, nor shown her his wand.

It was...it showed use, there were small marks along it, it was totally unlike the Doctor's screwdriver, which had been made of some sort of metal that showed none of the wear and tear of their adventures. But this had the marks of a rough life, the life Harry had so far lived in his young life.

But there was also disguised power in it, just like when she used to rest her hands on the console in the TARDIS or even along the walls in her room, or the corridors when they were in flight. It was like a barely tamed power pulsing throughout the craft.

This likewise felt like it could contain or wield a brilliant power, yet it was elegant, she wondered how one held it and used it, grasped like a tool, or written into the air like a pen or perhaps even waved as one did a wand or even a gun.

Then suddenly with that thought its meaning changed for her, it was something they didn't speak of, not in so much detail.

Then she handed it back to Harry, who had watched her turn it over in her hands as she thought.

"So are we ready to see?" She asked, breaking the silence.

Harry bit his lip as the lines and equations and readings formed up on the screen.

"Not good?"

"No," Harry said as he adjusted the small suctioned sensors he'd attached to various bits of K9. "Not much of a flicker or a tick."

"Well..." Sarah smiled at him as she stood up. "I'll leave you to it. To let you concentrate alone."

Harry nodded to Sarah as he pondered opening it up.

It was different, somewhat taking apart something the Doctor had build Harry mused, it had taken him a good hour to work out how to open and undo the bolts, screws and 'other' that were holding K9 together and now both side panels were open and K9 was exposed.

And...Harry didn't want to remove anything. He's cleared out the dust and what appeared to be detritus plus the spider webs and anything else that didn't look like it was essential.

But it was a mess, in only the way the Doctor could have built something.

The Doctor had once shown him the control mechanisms he'd build for Bessie, there had been sophisticated, stylish and logical once you saw what he was aiming for in his own direct way.

This, while it had been build by the same being, but not the same man, was...there was flashes of brilliance mixed with the madness that was essentially the Doctor.

As he was grabbing around for another torch Sarah called out, there was an edge of panic in her voice.

Harry came running down the stairs to find Sarah standing looking out into her front garden.

Two cars had pulled up.

"That's interesting, expecting anyone?"

Sarah shook her head.

Harry reached into his pocket, as he did so Sarah shot him a look. "Harry," she said in a warning tone. "No shooting in my house."

Harry opened his mouth to reply when Sarah added. "Or garden."

Harry pouted. "You're no fun."

One of the men, as they watched walked up to the front door and rang the bell, they both jumped, despite watching him do so.

"Well," Harry said, and jabbed a thumb to the side. "Mind if I?"

"No, Harry-"

"K9's in pieces, I'll fix him if I come back."

"When," She gave him a firm look.

"When," Harry repeated. Judith had pointed out that he did that, wondering into potentially dangerous situations and giving indistinct answers about surviving said situations.

"Hello. I'm the Doctor, I believe you want to kill me," Harry said in his best Doctor voice.

"Harry!" Sarah exclaimed in a loud voice as she rushed over.

"Harry Potter, could you come with us?" Said the main in a neutral tone, making eye contact briefly with him.

"As a friend of mine would say, why not, getting into cars with mysterious men either makes me someone about to get killed or a prozzie," Harry said once he was closer to him. "I don't really like either of those options really."

-/

They'd escorted him into a car with blacked out windows and driven him somewhere non-descript.

Harry fancied if he were an expert detective he could have worked out where they'd taken him by the ruts and holes in the road, the turns they'd taken, where they'd stopped and for how long.

Except he wasn't, he'd leave the Holmsian detecting to Holmes and Watson, according to the Doctor they existed.

It was an old factory somewhere, or it could have been somewhere mocked up to look like an old factory. It gave him something of a rush, in that to the death or torture sort of way.

There was a table and two chairs one on either side.

Harry was led to it and left to sit, it was less exciting than he'd hoped, there'd been no threats, not even a little bit of physical violence, they hadn't even jabbed him in the back with their guns which remained annoyingly holstered. Harry considered that he should be feeling good about all these points, but if he was being led off like this by somewhat interesting though not all that mysterious people, they should impart a bit of danger to the whole enterprise. If not, what was the point of it all, this sort of thing wasn't at all interesting, as he waiting he flirted with the idea of trying to leave, just to see what they'd do.

After several minutes a man walked out of the gloom and sat down.

"So, Mr Potter."

"Who are you?" Harry asked looking at the man, not trying to hypnotise him, just trying to judge his reaction at the implication that he might try. "No uniforms, not regular UNIT, Broadsword?" Harry looked at the man and then tried "Maybe you're NUIT or OGRON."

"Do I look like I'm a member of the Operativnaya Gruppa Rasvedkoy Obyedinyonnih Natsiy?" Asked the man in an amused tone.

"So...ICIS is that still around? Maybe you're Torchwood" The man snorted as Harry mused to himself. "Or are you Six or Five?" Harry returned from his musing to look at the man. "One of those."

"And you are from LPI, the League of Paranormal Investigations. Provisioned for since the late 60s, operating since the early 2000s." said the man who ,was distinctly unmoved by any of Harry's musings and continued with a calm tone. "Did you establish the cause of the explosion at Henrik's?" He enquired.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "That's UNIT's jurisdiction."

"Yet you were there," he paused. "With your associates."

Harry sighed. "An explosive device placed on the roof by an external agent, it destroyed the non-terrestrial device that was planted there," he rattled off in calm slightly bored tone.

"And the building?" The man asked.

"The external agent would, if the agent thought of it at all would consider it collateral damage," Harry explained in a neutral tone as though he were delivering a report. It was not quite what he'd written in his report to the Ministry, but enough that he could rattle off the details.

"It is fortuitous that your organisation should make its existence known now," they observed.

"I've been in the phone book for several years now Mr...?" The man ignored his question.

"But the first rather public appearance," he continued.

"I like to stay low key, I'm sure you can understand," Harry said as he leaned back in his seat.

"Yes." The man gazed at him for several moments.

"So..." Harry trailed off looking around. "Have we just come together to chat...if so a cup of tea would be nice...or is this a lead up to torture? That's more Torchwood's jurisdiction though, but all in the name of Queen and Country of course," Harry commented cynically.

"Of course," the man seemed amused. The man opened the folder and passed several photos across the table. "Several people, officials, government policy makers, a few military people have been going missing."

Harry leaned forward looking at the photos, some were official photos the sort that adorned offices, some were press, a few were surveillance photos. "Missing? Killed?" Harry asked.

"It was considered," the man acknowledged.

"Or defected, there's still governments out there that want the huge...non-terrestrial resources we have," Harry commented and then frowned to himself. "What is your clearance level by the way?"

The man looked at him amused. "Somewhat late in the conversation to be concerned about the Official Secrets Act."

"I couldn't really give a flying fig about the Act. But one likes to know where one stands with regard to m-" Harry stopped himself from saying 'magic' "m-many different things that the act covers."

"I have above Black level clearance and eyes on 'No Eyes Only' documents," he said in a serious tone.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You think wizards have something to do with this?" Harry asked after a moment. The man regarded his question. "Either that or aliens." Harry had decided to abandon the wordy 'extra-terrestrial' wordage for the moment. "If it was just aliens why not go to UNIT?"

"Why not indeed? UNIT has a complicated relationship with the British security service," said the man after a beat of a pause.

"Like the cover up for Torchwood the service did in the North Sea in 1997." Harry commented casually as he looked at the photos.

"My, my, you are well informed," the man commented, though didn't seem surprised.

"So, disappearing people," Harry mused. "There's any number of ways these people could have disappeared, or been made to."

"This isn't some UNIT disappearance or simple murder Mr Potter. These people have been targeted since the turn of the 21st century," he continued.

"And you just became aware of it now?" Harry asked surprised.

The man seemed irritated by this observation. "A pattern and acknowledgement has just come to light." He passed across a letter, it was a copy, but Harry could see the original had yellowed considerably and the original had been of a high quality paper, its shape and seal that had leached onto the page indicated it was very likely a scroll.

It was a letter written to a 'Harry Pearce' by an associate, from the context of the letter it seemed they'd known each other and been involved in various plots and what not together.

Some sections of the letter stood out to him however.

I remember the day that led me here, in my offices, some stun weapon and then in a room, and then something grabbed me, cold, hard and I found myself here.

Always a fan of history Harry, I thought maybe someone had slipped something into my tea, and this was some strange form of information gathering, but this. Henry's history doesn't do him justice.

I'm writing this and leaving instructions for it to be delivered to Thames House, when it gets built.

The family I've entrusted will make sure of it, I would leave it with a bank, but they've not been built yet!

The government still has use for a good spook, even one who's out of time.

Harry handed the letter back. "I gather you're Harry Pearce."

"That would be a fair assumption Mr Potter," Harry Pearce said.

"And your friend was clever enough to get this information to you. Even from where he's ended up." Harry tapped the table. "So, what do you need me to do?"

"Nothing of that sounds odd?" Pearce asked.

"Odd, but nothing I've heard of, none of this happened anywhere near Cardiff?" Harry queried.

"Torchwood monitors that section quite carefully," Pearce all but spat.

Harry guessed that Mr Pearce was not a friend of Captain Harkness.

"You think this is a magic-related issue," Harry surmised again.

"Someone has been removing people, some CCTV footage suggests wizard involvement, but every official and unofficial advancement has been blocked or-"

Harry cut him off. "Or they come back not remembering what they did."

"Yes!" He all but shouted.

"Oh..." Harry realised. "And they've done it to you," he said in a calm tone.

Pearce looked at him hard.

"Do you have any leads? Somewhere I can start to look, I'd imagine you've tried your own investigation a few times." Harry asked after many moments silence.

-/ - \\-

Harry shifted around the fibre optic connections again as the picture shuddered and adjusted again flaring like lens flare throughout the image.

The eye piece was an amazing bit of technology, especially paired with the sensor spheres from the Dalek's lower body, but he'd never thought to take them apart for this purpose. Spying. He'd mostly had in mind using them for one of his other projects, weapons and detection, but this was far more interesting. Though, what, he was sure would have made K9 even more smug, had he been working was, that while he had K9 open he'd seen how it saw things and how everything was connected through the visual and sensor connectors.

Flashback...

He had been driven back to Sarah's house following a briefing on various things Pearce and Harry imagined a team of people had collected and a person and location where he could pass on information to them, or could request a meeting, as it soon became apparent Pearce didn't trust anyone in the government and even less in the Ministry of Magic. Which was actually wholly understandable. He also didn't trust UNIT and its various tendrils or Torchwood.

Which had left Harry as the one that was on the outside of all these organisations, ministries and everything else.

Sarah rushed out to greet him as he walked up the drive.

"Harry, who-"

"Inside," Harry muttered.

"Secrets, you won't tell me," Sarah said as they made it up to the attic.

Harry shrugged as he sat back down in front of K9 as though nothing had happened.

"Nothing that you can do to help Sarah. Plus I wouldn't want anything to happen to you," he said seriously.

Sarah smiled warmly at him. "I can look after myself Harry, I've travelled with the Doctor after all."

"Which prepares you for lots of things, but not others..." Harry trailed off as he continued to muse to himself. The man who had been grabbed, his signature had been fairly indistinguishable, maybe Pearce had deliberately done that. He'd been grabbed by something, something cold and hard and then thrown backwards through time. It was an odd way to kill someone, chucking them back into history.

"You're thinking to yourself again," Sarah butted into his thoughts in an amused tone.

"Yes, just thinking to myself," he admitted.

"So what about K9?" Sarah asked, changing the subject.

"Well, just let me just settle back into looking at it Sarah!" Harry said as he switched on the torches again as he gazed into the inner workings of the metal machine.

It was weird, circuit boards on top of what looked like vacuum tubes, along side stuff that wouldn't have looked out of place inside a Dalek or a Drahvin interceptor.

But acting as interface between these things, between the soldered bits and the fluid like golden connections was a rubbery sort of thing, almost plastic like, and that was the stuff that had twisted and moved, crushing certain bits and pieces.

He pointed it out to Sarah.

"Can you do anything?" She asked in a tight voice.

Harry looked at it. He had very little idea how to activate it, if it was Nesetene technology and if he could get a hold of an energy unit or another bit of their technology either from their recent invasion attempt or from one of the earlier incursions he was really unsure if he could do it safely.

"By your silence I-"

Harry cut her off looking to her. "If I could, I would, but, I'm not sure if that's even the cause."

"The Doctor could," Sarah said looking at it.

Harry nodded. "Keep him with you when you go out, maybe you'll run into him." Harry said lightly. He knew the Doctor met, would meet...whatever, Sarah at some point before he'd met Martha Jones. The Doctor had mentioned it when he'd been recovering. He'd at least remembered that, he always remembered the Doctor's companions.

Sarah looked at him oddly for a moment or two. "As long as you put him back together. You never know, he might work things out on his own," Sarah said as she picked up his screwdriver handing it out to him.

"Fine. Maybe," Harry said as he took the offered screwdriver.

-/ - \\-

Working out what to use to wire up the Dalek eye piece wasn't too difficult, the ICMG's Professor Rachel Jenson had taken extensive notes after the Doctor had wired the Dalek's transmat in the 60s.

But trying to make whatever century the Dalek was from work with 21st century technology was still tricky, but his initial tests had shown that it was the thing for the job, at least partially so.

The Dalek eye piece and the sensor spheres that adorned the 'skirt' of the Dalek "saw" through an amazing amount of energy spectrum, right through and including all wizarding protections, occlusions and other forms of magic that he'd managed to point the eye and a section of the Dalek spheres at.

Which presented a rather good opportunity for espionage, but also raised several interesting questions and answered a few.

It meant that the Daleks could see wizards and any wizarding stuff, but whether they could make sense of it was another question.

It also meant, should wizarding culture ever come up against the Daleks, they wouldn't be afforded any protections, anything more than humans did at the moment. Though conversely it meant that they could use magic against the Daleks. Probably.

"Playing with a Dalek's bumps, surely that's some form of xenophillia," Judith drawled by the door to the workshop.

Harry quickly whipped his hand away from section of the spheres that he'd been resting his hand on and tapping the spheres idly and glared at Judith.

"Of all the aliens I didn't think you'd be found fondling a dead Dalek. Necro-xenophillia," she tutted.

"Surely because I'm fondling the travel machine it's just a harmless bit xeno-paraphllia?" Harry deadpanned as he looked back the electronics and laptop that everything was wired through.

"Touché," Judith praised. "You're learning Harry, my influence is-"

"Badly rubbing off on me," Harry muttered.

"Well, I wouldn't have used quite those somewhat Freudian words," Judith said as she approached him.

"Well, I can stop my fondling of alien machine parts once Ioan arrives," Harry commented.

"And so begins our work in the spy trade," Judith said in an oddly neutral tone.

"We're all part of the espionage family. UNIT covers the and cleans up the alien detritus, Five and Six do their work-" he was cut off.

Judith cut in. "And we do everything that falls into the cracks."

"Not the words I would have used." Harry grinned at Judith. "But yes, all those cracks in time and space into and out of the wizarding world that aliens have fallen through."

"Or been pulled through," Judith commented in a dark tone.

"I heard Judith muttering about darkly, obviously we're going to have a great time then," Judith beamed as Ioan walked in.

"You're happy." Harry tapped at the keyboard and looked back at him.

"Spying on old wizaridng families with alien technology for ways they've been bumping off spooks? Why wouldn't I?"

"Why indeed." Harry raised an eyebrow.

-/ - \\-

"I feel like we're doing the Grand Designs tour of great wizarding estates," Judith said as she shifted in the front seat of the Defender. The Dalek eye stalk might be able to see through a lot of stuff, but it did have a very narrow field of vision.

They'd also, after the first house had to take it apart and readjust the zoom functions of it to get a better look from the distances they were forced to keep from the houses.

Harry'd left Ioan to the driving as he'd needed to sit in the back with the rest of the equipment, which, while the Dalek eye didn't mind being near the wards and the rest of the magical protections, the same could not be said for the various interfaces he'd had to bodge together to make it work.

Harry felt like thumping the laptop as he looked at the screen, and then changed his mind to feeling like thumping the people in MI5 who'd provided him with the list of locations to search, this would be the fifth house that was a bust.

That was if they could get a clear picture, there was a heavier than 'normal' amount of interference coming from the wards around the grounds that they were driving close to.

"Anything?" Ioan called backward.

Harry muttered to himself as he adjusted the electronics that were sitting on the seat beside him, it was a mix of current technology and 60s era technology, for some reason the 60s stuff handled things better than any transistors and microprocessors he'd tried to use. It didn't handle it very well though, the fact the adjacent foot well was filled with vacuum tubes was evidence of this.

"Just..." Harry trailed off as he looked at the screen, there was something...fuzzy, which could mean anything, the Dalek eye piece was registering it as a 'something' with the interface also acknowledging that is was a something. But he couldn't tell what, ideally they needed to get closer, which was problematic.

Then Ioan started to turn the Defender around and began to accelerate.

Harry looked around. "What's happening?"

"Behind us," Judith's tone was darkly amused.

Harry craned around, behind them, with all 6 heads barking were two three-headed dogs.

-/ - \\-

"Do you think this is a good idea?" Ioan's voice came through the headset as he looked out of the window of the helicopter.

"Probably not, but if they're hiding something then I'd like to know if they're who we're looking for," Harry said his voice equally distorted.

"And if they're not?" Ioan asked.

"Then we leave them to go about their lives." Judith snorted.

"As Judith says, we discover what they're doing and then if they're not doing anything within our purview we leave them to it..." Harry paused.

"That's very reasoned." Judith shot a quizzical look at Harry from the seat beside him.

"And keep the information should we need it for coercion methods in the future," Harry continued.

"That's more like the Harry we know," Ioan chuckled to himself as he looked out the window from the rear of the aircraft.

Harry checked over the instruments again and hoped the wards didn't go unbelievably high as he really didn't want to have to bail out of the helicopter should they suddenly run into any magical wards, it had cost a fair amount to hire the helicopter at short notice, especially as he wanted, well needed to fly it himself. Explaining away the Dalek eye piece and the sensor spheres, the other alien technology and what they might be able to see on the ground would be fairly difficult.

After many minutes flight Harry checked the instruments and then also looked down.

"We're here," he announced as he lowered the hovering aircraft down as much as he felt safe.

"Alright, let's see if they've got grow lights and hydroponics or a pill press and a meth-lab," Judith commented.

Harry rolled his eyes. "You really think wizards would get involved with that?"

Judith just shrugged.

"Children. Picture's up, shift a couple of inches to the left Judith," Ioan as he adjusted the connections in the rear of the helicopter and studied the screen.

There was something in the building, but it wasn't alien, that he could tell from the energy signatures the eye piece was reading, it was magical.

There was also the dread of realisation of what they were, not that he had a huge fear of them, but spiders tended not to inhabit one's dreams.

"Acromantulas," Ioan announced.

"Acromantulas?" Harry repeated.

"Looks like they're breeding them, the lower section of the house is separated into areas, I've got different sizes. Organic and magical, both flaring up on the sensor readings," Ioan replied.

"Very well," Harry sighed. "We'll put this in the potential blackmail category then. Time to go then."

"Speedier the better Harry, it looks like they're none too fond of being spied upon," Judith said gesturing.

Harry was about to have a go at Judith's turn of phrase when spells shot past them. Harry stared in amazement for a moment, there were at least 5 wizards on brooms rising up, shooting at them.

"Whenever we go out we're always shot at," Ioan complained.

"And we wouldn't have it any other way," Judith commented lightly, looking to Harry, but his face was full of concentration as the helicopter rotated on its axis and tilted forward, gathering speed.

"Are they still following?" Harry asked after a moment as he adjusted their speed, a flash of spell fire was the answer. Harry adjusted his control to make their flight a little more unpredictable.

"Yes," Judith answered calmly.

Another burst of spell fire followed.

Ioan whistled. "They must be using top of the line racing brooms to follow us and fire at the same time takes some skill at speed."

"Been there, done that," Harry said, though he very much wished he was on a broom at the moment. The helicopter was not any form of military craft and he really wasn't sure how long he'd be able to keep them from being hit.

"Do you think they'll keep following us?" Harry asked.

Ioan was trying to look backward. "By the looks of things, yes."

Harry bit his lip and grabbed the radio, adjusting frequencies. "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is Whiskey-Hotel-Oscar Zero Nine, Wyvern, Wyvern, Wyvern," Harry waited as likely the codeword was processed.

"Wyvern confirmed, location tracking. Hostiles?"

"At least 5 hostiles, visual recognition possible."

"Confirmed Whiskey-Hotel-Oscar Nine, ETA 2 minutes. Continue on heading."

Harry could feel the eyes of Judith and Ioan on him as he focused on pushing the helicopter faster watching the instruments approach their maximum.

"Well?" Ioan asked impatiently.

Harry sighed. "After that stuff with the dragon it was decided that the government couldn't have deadly stuff flying around, an amendment to the various agreements with the Ministry of Magic were quietly pushed through. Wyvern allows the United Kingdom to defend its airspace against any magical threats that are identified."

Harry didn't feel it was the time or place to mention he'd been deeply involved in helping to get it through to the Ministry of Magic, or how he'd assisted in what and how to do with various creatures...and people.

It was, a different world they lived in.

It was at that point two jets screamed past.

"Whiskey Hotel Oscar Nine, continue on course."

"Received."

-/

Ioan stepped down firmly onto the ground. "I never thought I'd be relieved to be out of the air," he said and glared at Harry.

"You're not going to say all you want now is a quiet life to grow vegetables and watch the Earth be invaded by the slimy sea slugs of Vogon are you?" Harry asked.

"There's such a thing?" Judith asked, handing Harry the Dalek eyestalk.

"No. Hopefully not. Their poetry's terrible," Harry said as he gazed up a the sky. He doubted there would still be bits of people and broom falling out of the sky, their pursuers had been well and truly...defeated.

"You two can get this packed up and head home, we'll continue in a day or two," he said looking at the helicopter, there was no outward signs of damage, but he still suspected the hire company would penalise him.

Ioan and Judith looked at him oddly. "Dangerous situation, nearly dying I thought you'd want a break."

Ioan shook his head. "See you tomorrow Harry," he said walking past Harry patting him on the back as he did so.

"Nice that you're finally caring, even if it does give you the jollies when we're in danger." Judith winked at him.

"Just when I'm in danger!" Harry called out in jest as Judith walked from him.

-/ - \\-

Day Five and Harry was starting to think that MI5 had just grabbed the wizarding equivalent of the phone book and aimed grabbed a bunch of names out of said hypothetical book.

Or it just meant that a large number of wizards, none of whom seemed to live next to a main road were up to various dodgy things that MI5 had detected and then sent LPI to investigate.

Though whatever it was that had sent Pearce's friend backward in time was as intriguing as it was worrying. As it happened nowhere near Cardiff, none of the disappearances happened near Cardiff in fact, and it wasn't as though the rift had a portal somewhere that you could chuck people into.

It was more a belching and farting temporal phenomena.

Harry hoped they'd get lucky soon, they had been going through his stock of vacuum tubes rather quickly. Ioan's wife had a friend of a friend who was going to help him source some old Soviet ones.

"Anything?" Ioan asked with a sigh as he changed gear, they were currently crawling over the rough terrain near this particular house somewhere far west of Sheffield.

Harry glanced at the sensor and image readouts, it was still fairly inconclusive, fairly high level protections around the house, the various comings and goings of house elves, various spells, but nothing that screamed dangerous.

"Nope. Onwards I guess," Harry said dragging a hand through his hair, something he had done in the past whilst thinking, but he'd stopped when at Hogwarts, even after a few years there people still seemed to look when he did it, when his hair revealed "the scar".

It didn't worry him any longer, he had far more physical and psychological ones to contend with.

Then he almost head butted the head rest in front of him and moments after that everything on his laptop started squawking at him.

It was registering massive un-recognised energy signatures fluctuating between the negative and present...whatever that meant.

"What happened?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Argh," Ioan said rubbing his shoulder where the seatbelt had grabbed. "We drove into a deep ditch."

"Well, we've also found our house, where's the eye?" Harry leant forward. "Judith?"

"Got it, still holding your precious Dalek stalk," Judith called, seemingly unaffected by the hole they'd fallen into.

"It must be a fair way below the cellar," Harry said to himself.

Ioan was meanwhile trying to extricate them. Harry frowned as they didn't move, just the engine revved.

Locking the coordinates, readings and sensor information down he unbuckled his seat belt and shifted gingerly outside.

It was more of a hole than a ditch they'd fallen into.

"Recovery equipment," Harry called. "And Judith, a hand."

-/

"Tell me, why you're not just levitating it out of here?" Judith asked as they hammered the land anchor into place.

"Because we're on the edge of some wizard's property who's holding something mysterious and likely dangerous and I don't want to alert him-" Harry was cut off.

"Could be a her." Judith interjected.

"Or her." Harry glared at her. "That we're out here."

"You just don't want to be rescued by the cute fly boys-" Judith was cut off this time.

Harry cut Judith off. "Or girls."

Judith raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to be rescued by the cute flyboys."

"I think you're confusing me with Jack," Harry commented.

"You're happy to shag your girlfriend in every room of your house," Judith countered.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Can we not discuss my sex life?"

"No better place to Harry. When you're up to your knees in mud and moss, you can't escape my questions," Judith intoned in a grandiose voice.

"I can ignore you though," Harry muttered as he leaned over to check the land anchor, then Judith slapped him on the arse.

"Ignore that," she laughed.

"Sexual harassment," Harry stood up quickly.

"You're the employer," she teased.

"Try the winch now," he growled at her. Judith just smiled slyly at him.

-/ - \\-

Harry leaned back in his chair, musing to himself, wishing that there was the wizarding equivalent of a phone directory, or something. A search engine would be nice.

The estate was large, the grounds large with a lot of plants, and the main house fenced, there was a small access road near to, unsealed and probably only used by horse and carriages. Plus there was the track they'd approached on.

Going in guns blazing probably wasn't going to be the best course of action.

The cause for his musing was the satellite image that he'd got of the house, it seemed, of the several he'd been able to find, at least three of them showed several people there, it appeared to be some type of party or something that was going on there.

Which would suggest that there was a way of getting in to have a nosy about, if only he knew someone with in roads to the upper classes of wizarding society who didn't think he was mad or hated him for bumping off Voldemort.

Not that those were the only people around. Some just didn't like him.

Then there was one rather special woman, whom he was thankful of knowing, and sharing a bed with.

-/

"You want to know if I know something and someone, without telling me why or for what?" Daphne asked around the wine glasses that Harry had poured a mellow wine into.

Harry nodded.

"But if I were to guess this was for your work." Daphne ignored the wine and walked over to him, running her hands down over his chest.

"This is...different." Harry said.

"We've acknowledged further feelings and more complicated lives to one another Harry," she whispered into his ear. "There must be a little more foreplay and interaction."

"Okay," Harry said as he tilted his head back to look at her.

-/

Daphne walked back into the kitchen dressed in a slightly more casual clothing than she had arrived in, extracted from her clutch bag of clothing she carried with her.

They had somewhat missed dinner during their engaging in conversation...and other things.

A smell of bread and soup greeted her as she walked in, Harry was similarly attired, working in his kitchen in a manner that spoke volumes of his character and upbringing in moments.

"So, what is it, Harry Potter, that you wish to call on my knowledge of the wizarding world that you cannot discover with your muggle devices and ingenuity?" She asked as she covered the distance between the door and where Harry was standing.

"Later, food first, we missed dinner. Again," he said looking back to her.

-/

Daphne frowned slightly as she looked at the estate of Baron Liam Warner-Tirnevere and Baroness Louise Liam Warner-Tirnevere. They were known to her, her and most of those who had been in Slytherin or Ravenclaw probably knew them in some way.

They were collectors of highly prized materials, dealers in artefects and somewhat dangerous company to be around at the best of times. But their parties were a perfect place for higher society wizards to meet away from the confines of Ministry functions and other functions where less salubrious members of society might attend.

Their soirees were tolerable, sometimes enjoyable to a point. They did not tolerate spies from the Ministry, she had heard rumour that the Baron and Baroness disposed of spies in interesting ways, somewhat macabre in some respects.

She explained this to Harry, who seemed mostly indifferent to strangely fascinated with the prospect of being danger, it was one of the more interesting parts of his personality. But it was completely understandable given his school life, though she had suggested lightly once that some wizards given his life would settle down on an estate and live life and luxury. Harry had scoffed at the idea 'how boring would that be!' he'd said.

"So do you think you'd be able to wrangle an invite to this potentially dangerous household?" Harry asked with a grin.

-/ - \\-

Harry shifted next to her again for the umpteenth time since they'd departed.

Daphne looked to him again and glared at him. Harry sighed.

He was, at least dressed for the occasion, he appeared to have taken similar advice from whomever it was that advised him when she first saw him, when he was stabbed, or apparently stabbed.

The coat he was wearing extended past his waist to his knees.

Daphne had suggested he seemed to have chosen it because of its space for him to place things within its pockets.

The expandable bags she had warned him would likely be confiscated, but he'd muttered something about hiding things in the lining.

The shirt he was wearing seemed to accentuate his body shape, Harry had said something about a captain being very persuasive about it.

This captain must have been very persuasive, considering Harry tended not to dress up for many occasions. Practicality never was his turn of phrase.

It was understandable for his work, but one should always be ready to attend a function, you never knew what might come of it, and if there was a death, one must maintain decorum, and the best way to avoid notice is to blend in.

Harry had wanted to drive to the Baron and Baroness' residence, he assured her he even had something that would probably be impervious to the magical environment.

However, one arrived at functions such as these in certain agreed ways. By horse, carriage or portkey, but portkeys were of issue to arrange with the Baron and Baroness, though they did not object to their use.

It was also nice to use this carriage, her mother and father had been somewhat intrigued that she had requested to use it for this outing, and that she elected to go to the locale. Though she was not sure which intrigued them more, her attendance here, or the use of this carriage with space for two people.

She supposed that given that her relationship with Harry had moved beyond that of mere sexual intercourse, or at least they had begun to share more secrets, as one did in a deepening relationship, that her mother and father would wish to have a meeting between them.

Any purely sexual relationship was of her own business and they wished nothing of her personal life. She had her own house, lifestyle and movements. But a deepening relationship was something that could have the potential of family affects.

"You rode to the last engagement you attended," Daphne said as Harry gazed out the window, frowning.

"I didn't have anything capable of making it up here then," Harry replied.

"And would you feel comfortable knowing your conveyance was left to the groomsmen while we are inside being entertained?" She asked and then smiled as she knew she had grasped upon his concerned.

He pulled a face at her. "I should never have confided in you," he pouted and then grinned.

"I don't understand why we can't be sitting next to each other," he said nodding around the cabin.

"To allow the occupants to have civilised conversation Mr Potter," she replied.

"Ms Greengrass, must we be civilised within the confines of our carriage?" Harry asked in a teasing tone.

"My carriage," She corrected, Harry glared and than smiled at her.

"Thank you for arranging this and coming along. You didn't and..." he trailed off, he had already said, many times he was concerned for her safety. That this was an investigation he and his League had been charged with, not her and that he was...quite concerned for her welfare.

Harry didn't know just how well she could manage her safety and endanger others', should of course the need or the situation ever arise.

-/

The carriage started to slow and then came to a halt, Harry stepped out first, and held his hand out for Daphne as instructed to do so.

The Greek revival-style manor was far more impressive up close than as he'd seen it from the satellite image and through the Dalek eye piece.

Thinking of that he looked around out into the darkness, he had explained everything to Ioan and Judith, they had been completely against him investigating alone.

But it was the only way they'd get into something this fortified, they were however keeping watch, with the express orders not to come rushing in.

Unless it was with something suitably armoured, and with enough firepower and defences to deal with the danger within.

Perhaps a tank.

"It's impressive," he pondered needlessly aloud as he resisted the urge to whistle as he looked up at the building. "It puts my house into perspective."

"It is interesting," Daphne observed.

"Imagine cleaning it though." Harry shook his head as Daphne gave him a look as though he were an idiot. "Oh, elves, magic...right." Harry shook his head again.

"Come along Harry," said Daphne politely as though he were her simpleton boyfriend marvelling at the lack of dust in a wizarding household.

"Yes Daphne." Harry said with a sigh.

-/

Daphne had gone off to greet the Baroness, leaving him in the antechamber...or greeting room or something.

Harry almost wished someone would start shooting, stabbing or generally torturing him, it'd be better than all this pomp.

Then something, or rather someone turned up, which was not quite as bad, but still...

"Potter! What are you doing here?" Exclaimed a voice behind him.

Harry turned around and beamed an acid smile at the blond haired pomp himself.

"Malfoy! Long time. How've you been? Read the latest share prices, on the rise, panic buying and all that?" Harry asked brightly.

For a few moments he seemed genuinely perplexed. "Are you the entertainment Potter?" He asked, Harry wasn't sure of Malfoy was trying to be funny, didn't understand what he'd been talking about, or was trying to be genuinely insulting.

"I accompanied Daphne Greengrass," Harry said simply.

This time Malfoy did laugh. "You, accompanying her? Don't make me laugh Potter I-"

He was cut off as Daphne walked over. "Harry. Draco. I wasn't aware you attended these soirees."

Malfoy looked between them slightly taken a back. "Shall we go in Draco or are you greeting people as they arrive?" Daphne asked saccharine sweetly.

-/

There were people inside a large ballroom milling around talking and eating. Daphne nodded to him as he opened his mouth to say he was going to mill around and stake out the room.

"So, he's your latest sexual relief? You could have done far better Greengrass."

Daphne turned to Draco who after accompanying them in had wandered off until Harry had started his rounds of the room. Looking for some form of passage or mention of below into the depths of the building, where supposedly lurked something of non-magical power.

She turned to observe him. "With such a lovely turn of phrase Draco I am surprised my sister proceeded with the annulment."

"That was a private manner," he said immediately looking around.

"Between families," she countered. "And what of you Draco? Have you had anyone of interest pass your way?" She asked casually, plucking two glasses of sparkling wine that passed them by, handing one to him.

He dipped his head slightly to her as he took the glass. "I am exploring my options abroad, it has been made aware to me that broadening my appeals would be as beneficial as it is interesting."

"French whores then?" Daphne asked flippantly and then cursed herself, it was Harry's flippant nature rubbing off on her.

Draco was shocked and then amused for a moment. "An interesting turn of phrase my dear Ms Greengrass. But I have no need of whores." He paused taking a sip. "Speaking of, have you heard anything of the Weasley girl Potter was infatuated with?" He asked, seemingly genuinely interested.

"Do you mean aside from her psychotic break and cult connections?" Daphne asked casually.

Draco paused for a moment. "Yes." He took another sip of his wine looking around at the other guests. "Aside from that. Is discussion of his exes what passes for pillow talk between you?" He sneered slightly.

"We're too busy fucking to engage in conversation Draco, maybe you finish too quickly?" Daphne said with a smile as Draco choked on his wine and then turned to glare at him.

"My stamina is not at question Greengrass. Perhaps your Lothario is too busy with his own ministrations," he paused and looked at her. "Or is it you, using" he smirked to himself, "Potter for your own amusement."

Daphne smiled sweetly at Draco. "I'm sure you spend your time imagining that all of the time my dear Draco."

Malfoy was nodding along, thinking she was agreeing with him, and then stopped, eyes wide. "I do...so enjoy these little discussions we have Daphne," he said attempting to recover some composure.

"It is always enlivening to discuss things that one finds stimulating," she paused taking a sip of her wine. "Well, for one of us it is stimulating, you still haven't enlightened on your life Draco, despite showing great interest in mine and Harry's. I'll be sure to tell him you were so interested."

"Where is Potter anyway?" He asked looking around.

"Changing the subject back to Harry Draco, I always knew you were obsessed, but..." She stepped closer to him. "Just how obsessed are you, should I worry about him sharing his bed with another?"

Daphne smiled to herself as Draco Malfoy looked like he was going to throw up. Which was a pity, because the wine was of an excellent vintage, and the carpets sumptuous, the Baron and Baroness had managed to completely remove the blood and brain matter that had been spilled over them at a previous soiree.

-/

Harry had left Daphne to mingle and it seemed talk to Malfoy, or if Daphne was to be believed he should call him Draco as everyone on 'known terms' did, titles were only for formal occasions, which this wasn't.

Harry wondered if Draco would adhere to social conventions, or just be the git he'd always been.

That said, Draco was consistently a git, Ron had been one on and off. That incident back during the Triwizard was something he'd never forget, 'a great insight into an individual's personality are during times of unexpected revelation' Magister had said to him on one occasion. It was one revelation he'd never forgotten.

A tray of sparkling wine floated past him and paused waiting expectantly in front of him. While he would've loved to have a drink, he also wanted to keep as clear a head as he could, especially given he didn't know what exactly he was looking for.

"Umm..." He started and felt odd talking to a tray, even a magical one. "Anything not alcoholic?" He asked forcing his inflection just a little bit higher to make the question obvious. The tray paused for a moment and shifted away. Harry looked around and started to walk off, and then another tray appeared from somewhere that held tall glasses of what looked like various juices, including pumpkin and sparkling water. Plucking the water he resisted the urge to thank the tray.

"Really, you're getting worse than Sarah," he said to himself as he continued to mingle around the edges of the room as he made mental notes of anyone or thing that looked interesting.

Interesting thing of note 1: No house elves. Daphne had been somewhat unsure with regard to this. Some witches and wizards had elves as wait staff, some used magic as was used here, at least for the drinks and some used other witches and wizards sometimes even squibs.

It was odd being already on the inside and not surreptitiously breaking in...gaining entry without notice, which was how Judith, Ioan and himself usually conducted operations.

At least most of the people were actually mingling around, talking about...whatever they were talking about.

While interesting the conversations were, on an intellectual level of the conversations of wizarding industrialists, business men and women and whomever else was here, the lords and ladies of wizarding society no doubt. They weren't vital to what he was here to investigate.

But the people on the periphery, the wizards and witches who weren't engaging in conversation and seemed to be doing a good job of not being noticed.

If this party had been a movie scene, he imagined they would all be dressed in suits with little squiggly earpieces and very obvious.

Except this was the wizarding world, which meant that things were far more interesting.

"Hello there," he said to the man, he'd managed to find someone who was standing some ways away from the main action in a small anteroom that seemed to lead to the toilets...or something.

The man didn't respond but Harry saw his arms flex under his robes, the man hadn't reached for his wand but he got the impression that he could have grabbed it and shot a stunning curse at him before he would have even the briefest chance to shout 'don't shoot I'm pregnant'...or something shorter and more truthful.

"I know. You shouldn't talk to me." Harry walked slowly past the man, continuing to keep his voice calm and steady.

Harry paced again looking back towards the door to where he assumed the toilets, or quite possibly the private sex chamber lurked.

"I was just wondering..." He paced past the man again. "Is that the way to the toilets?" He said coming to a stop in front of the man, who despite being somewhat taller than him, he could still maintain facial contact with his eyes.

"Yes, they're just..." He trailed off as stared at him.

"Just through there," Harry said with the man. "And that is how it's done," Harry whispered to himself.

"You are no longer in control of your faculties, do you understand me," astatement rather than a question

"I...obey."

"Good," Harry said smoothly. With practice came less headaches and more energy channeled into concentration, eyes, body movement, facial expression, all focused the individual's mind.

"How many does Baron have protecting the soiree?" Harry asked the man calmly and slowly.

"30, Baroness demands full security," he said in a monotone, watching him.

Interesting, Harry thought to himself. The Baroness was the one organising the shots. So Judith might be right it was a she.

"And now, tell me about the things in the cellar," Harry said in a low tone.

-/

Daphne looked around the room, she had seen Harry go into the antechamber of the powder room many minutes ago and then depart having obviously not visited any washrooms contained within.

But now she wasn't sure where he had gone. Draco was seemingly trying to get the attention of a woman who was even younger than Astoria, her younger sister.

"Must you go after such young women Draco?" She muttered as she brushed past him.

"She's out of schooling Greengrass," was Draco's only response.

Really. Draco Malfoy was an uncouth individual sometimes, more than sometimes. He had however changed since their darling days at Hogwarts, she was challenged to think of anyone who had not changed. Those years at Hogwarts had been some of the hardest for all of them. Harry the most, but Draco also, for entirely different reasons.

Making her way carefully to the powder room she found one the sentinels who attempted to make themselves unknown at these gatherings. Most guests failed to notice even their existence. It was as though they had powerful notice me not charms on them, but not. It was something more than that, something practically undetectable, unless you knew where to look.

Also, what to look for, but this man was not what she expected. He was relatively attentive, no one looking briefly at the man would think otherwise.

But there was a slightly glassy look to the man's eyes, not quite the Imperius curse, this was far more subtle. The man, his personality was still there, but there was something..., something she couldn't quite grasp.

As she move closer she could her him mutter softly. "I will obey, I will continue to monitor as the Baroness instructed..."

It was not difficult to draw the conclusion that this was of Harry's doing, though she could not think, at the moment how, without casting any spells, which would have been noticed by if not the other party-goers then by the internal charm work.

Whatever information if any that Harry had extracted from the man he had needed to move on to others to continue to gather information.

Given that she had not seen any great influx of the sentinel personnel to any location he was likely still in the process of information gathering.

He wasn't in the main room, which meant he was searching the adjacent rooms and corridors for more...she paused looking at the man muttering to himself. More pliable individuals to extract information from.

-/

Harry found himself wandering the corridors, feeling a little like he was trapped in a maze.

He'd so far questioned about 10 different people, and the last couple seemed to suggest there was something in the rear left of the house. The last two people he'd had to push rather hard to extract that information.

They'd probably recover.

He'd found cloak rooms, more toilets, what looked like a private dancing room and a small library, but no stairs, nothing really.

Then he came to another corridor that went straight across the one he was standing in, and then someone told him to stop where he was.

-/

Daphne had managed to track Harry by deducing the path he'd taken to find the various sentinels and gather information from them. As she'd gotten farther away from the party she'd looked closer to the carpets, while they were of a more resilient blend there was still a faint impression left by the passing footwork of people, and it appeared only one, a man had walked the path she was following.

The very faint impression of the boot was of muggle manufacture, rather than refined wizarding craftsmanship.

As Harry was the only person who would dare wear non-crafted footwear to such an occasion, she reasoned that this was the path to choose.

Daphne turned down another corridor and then stopped suddenly as she saw a man approach Harry.

"Stop where you are and do not move," he said in a hard tone, she could tell that he had raised his wand at Harry. Carefully, drawing her own she moved swiftly up behind him.

-/

Harry turned around and looked at the man, raising an eyebrow.

"I wasn't really moving, I was more pondering my next move." He smiled gently looking to the man. They were about the same height, however he seemed to have spent many hours in whatever the wizarding world had instead of a gym working on his upper body.

"Why are you in here?" He asked, though it didn't really seem like a question.

"Just...looking around, looking for somewhere to powder-" He paused for the briefest of moments as he saw Daphne approach behind the man. "Room." She made eye contact with him.

-/

Daphne looked at Harry as he finished talking. He made an extremely tiny movement, a shake of the head to her, though he made it seem like a shiver.

"Sorry about that, there seems to be a breeze, maybe from a window or a cellar."

"I need to escort you back to the party room and to the Baroness. She will be informed." The man took a small step forward.

"Oh," Harry said, not at all surprised. "I am very, very, very, sorry." His tone had changed, almost dramatically, it was calm, deathly calm and confident, it was a swift and almost dangerous shift in Harry's tone of voice.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry?"

"I was just so very intrigued by the architecture around here, these corridors all look the same," Harry paused, seemingly smirking to himself and totally ignoring the raised wand in his direction. "But there are such fine, fine, subtle differences."

"Fine differences..." The man repeated.

"Yes," Harry said gently.

"No," he said firmly and took another small step forward.

Daphne also walked with him step in step, staying outside of his peripheral vision.

"No one has seen such architecture around here, it's all fascinating, corridors. They're so very, very long," Harry continued to speak calmly, she could see him gazing into and meeting the man's gaze.

"Long," the man repeated. Even though Harry seemed to be talking rubbish his voice had taken on a strangely hypnotic, if not mesmeric quality.

"Yes. I wonder what Master of the arts has crafted this. You know of Masters don't you?" Harry asked the man calmly, but there was not a firmness to his calm tone.

"Masters..." The man repeated.

"Yes, and you will obey your Master, will you not?" Harry asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Master," the man repeated.

"Yes, and you will obey me, you will obey me, you will obey...me." Harry's voice had taken on a commanding tone, it seemed as though he had grabbed the man's mind and body through merely a command of words and watching his facial expression. It was a hugely powerful act to do such a thing without the use it seemed of a wand and it was of no legilimency that she knew of.

"I will obey, I will obey, I will obey..."

Harry snapped his fingers. "You will obey me, now stay silent until I snap my fingers again," Harry said in a rough tone and then beckoned her towards him.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed in a low tone of concern.

Daphne looked at him and back to the man. "I wished to see where you were."

"This is what I am doing, I'm surprised it took this long for someone to come after me, and they didn't start shooting straight away." There seemed to be some disappointment in Harry's voice, as though he was looking forward to being shot at.

Harry was different here, when he was 'working', passionate as he was when they were together but there seemed to be another part of his personality, bubbling beneath as well.

Harry spared a look at the man who was just standing there, as though waiting for orders, which, she considered for a moment was what he was waiting for.

"You should head back the party Daphne, I...I'm not sure what I'm going to find," he said concern present in his voice once more.

"I am more than capable of looking after myself Harry Potter, there is much you don't know about me."

Harry raised an eyebrow at her harsh tone. "Very well. You can't blame me later then."

"I would never blame you Harry." Daphne put her hand gently on his shoulder, squeezing it gently. He smiled back at her and then his posture changed and it seemed he had returned to his harsher, more powerful stance.

He clicked his fingers. "There is a space hidden beneath this building, where is it and how is access gained to it?"

"Third panel down, there is a magical cupboard to transport visitors down," everything was said in a monotone, except 'visitors' which had an odd inference to it.

"Good. Remain there," he said as he walked over to the wood panelled walls and counted along before standing in front of it looking at the panelled walls.

A revealing charm would likely show its location, but using one would probably reveal their location. Harry started to run his hands along the joins in the paneling before stepping back to look at it again and then reached up to a small nail at the top and pushed it. The whole wall slid across to reveal a darkened space.

"Ah..." he said as he walked back to her, rummaging in his pockets as he did so, removing a small cylindrical device with small handle on it and a small ring at the top.

"You should really go now Daphne, this is the point of no return," he said in a low tone.

"Do not presume what I am capable of withstanding Harry," she hissed at him.

He looked at her for several moments. "Very well," he paused and clicked his fingers at the man. "Take and grasp this device," he ordered.

"I obey, master," He intoned.

"Hold it tight, if the Baron, Baroness or others of your association approach you will drop the device and forget all knowledge of our conversation, do you understand?" Harry asked.

"I understand." Harry smiled as the man grasped the device tightly Harry pulled a pin out of it. "It's a stun grenade, shouldn't do any permanent damage," he explained to her as he pocketed the pin and returned to the darkened cabinet.

-/

"Huh. City of the Exxilons," he said as he bent down to look at the exposed technology within.

There were symbols flashing on the technology within the space, they were black and grey tones in sort of rounded shapes. Dots and U-shapes and other approximations of symbols and letters, it would have looked harmlessly simple, were it not distinctly not muggle...and not wizard.

Daphne had never heard of 'Exxilon' it could be something Mesopotamian, or Aztec, or given Harry's familiarity with this...alien.

Such a complex concept, now that she had been made more aware of it, it entered her mind along with any other more reasonable explanation as one of the reasonable explanations.

Daphne wondered how different her life might be, had they not found themselves together.

Far less interesting she fancied.

"I've seen some things like this before, read about them," Harry explained quickly in a tone above a mumble as though he also wasn't completely sure of what he was seeing. As though he was explaining it to himself, speaking through the problem.

"I'm going to try and activate it, see where it leads," Harry said as he jabbed a finger at one of the symbols. "This might feel a bit..."

Then the world went dark and her whole body spasmed as though she were being splinched a thousand times over.

-/

"Daphne..." Harry said shaking her gently and shining the torch around them. They were very likely in the area he had seen through the Dalek eye piece, but he couldn't see anything around here, there was almost no light around here, but he didn't want to start searching for a lamp, torch or even a good old light switch until Daphne was awake.

"What...?" Daphne muttered.

"A very badly aligned transmat, it's the worst I've been through, even that dodgy Bandril one rotting in the channel was nicer than that."

Daphne blinked rapidly trying to clear her head. The words Harry was saying sounded like words but had absolutely no reasoning or sense to them.

"Here," he pressed a short thin device, it was he explained a muggle 'torch light', it was on, but would flicker every so often.

"-hy not spells?" She said as he pulled her to her feet.

"Because," he paused stretching. "I don't want to cast spells until we know what we're down here with and because the effects of the transmat will take a few minutes to wear off and let us recover," he explained shining his torch around.

They were in a dull grey cellar.

Daphne looked around, there was a dark cupboard which looked the same as the one they had entered against one side of the cellar.

"Disabled. No way out," he chuckled momentarily to himself.

Daphne shone the torch back around and jumped slightly, she made a slight noise.

"What is it?" Harry called from one side of the cellar. The walls were he noted a modern concrete. Not of the older concrete he had seen used in some buildings and wizarding constructions which was more similar to Roman constructions than normal new concrete. This concrete appeared to be new, of the last 20 to 40 years. He smiled, Judith said he'd never use the book of construction comparisons he'd picked up about a year ago, he'd read it just to prove her wrong.

"Nothing, just some statues," Daphne said with relief. "Ugly statues." A statue that had its eyes covered and was facing the wall and another in the corner, which was strange, statues almost never looked like that, and why face a statue to the wall?

Harry's torch flickered again, he walked over to see what she had discovered, and failed to see the figure had turned around, though its face was still covered.

Daphne looked between the statues, they, she could have sworn, were facing the far corners of the room, but now, as Harry approached they were facing them, their eyes still covered.

"Harry...?" She said in a worried tone.

Harry tracked between the statues and then spun around as he heard something move, there was a third behind him.

Then their torches flickered for a moment.

"Oh...crap," Harry said, though his words totally underplayed the concerns of the situation. The statues had moved and they didn't look like they wanted to be friends.

Their torches flickered again. "Wands out!" Harry shouted.

"Lumos!" They both shouted quickly.

The cellar was suddenly bathed in spell light, they winced slightly from the sudden brightness after the darkness. Harry tucked his torch back into one of his pockets.

"Oh...kay..." Harry said as he looked around. There was nothing, nothing in here that suggested any type of disposal or transport system, aside from the very dodgy transmat, which seemed to have trouble just transporting two people down from the surface.

"This is a bit of a bugger," he said.

"What are they?" Daphne said, mostly to herself, she was keeping her distance from the statues, which had their arms outstretched, they seemed to be seeking them out, somew how.

"I don't know," he said in a tone filled with dread. "I don't think we should touch them though."

"Have you, or your Doctor heard of them before?" Daphne asked taking her eyes off the statues to look at Harry.

"No," Harry said looking at her. As their eyes met, away from the statues something happened a noise and...

"Oh...fuck," Harry said. He spun away from Daphne. The statues had moved again. "I think we should keep them in our sights."

A chill went down Daphne's back. "How can they...how can they affect our spells they're not..."

"Wizards?" Harry asked trying to split his gaze between the statues.

"Yes," Daphne said.

"Maybe," Harry said as he backed backwards to the transmat. "I doubt that apparating out is an option." He said trying to sound casual.

"I could check for sure, but it would mean ending my spell." Daphne called backward to him. "What are you doing?"

"Come back here, but keep an eye on them," he said.

Daphne walked backwards so they closer to the transmat. "I'm going to see if there's anything really wrong with it," he said thinking, he closed his eyes, in thought and then opened them almost immediately as he heard movement.

"It's not just light," Daphne whispered in realisation. "It's sight as well."

"Oh bugger," Harry said again. "Set fire to the ground and then cast your spell, the spell should feed off itself for a short while." Harry said as he re-extracted his torch turning it on and holding his wand high. It seemed his spell was only just reaching the edges of the group. "They're not just statues," he said switching his gaze around, trying to look at them all, some seemed ready to attack or rather they seemed ready to attack when he wasn't looking, but when he was they seemed to have their eyes covered, as though they were crying.

"What?" Daphne her voice heightened. "Oh, they're-"

"Angels," Harry finished as he backed away from Daphne slightly so she could cast her spell and so he could keep all the statues in view.

Harry wracked his brain for anything he knew of statues, statues that could move when you didn't look at them. How would anything like that even come into being? Or more to the point why would someone keep a bunch of them in the cellar? The latter was easier to answer, probably like keeping a pit or piranhas or lions to finish off your slaves or something.

Maybe someone's got a Dalek in the cupboard or a robot Yeti in the loo. They'd be easier to deal with than this.

"Harry," Daphne's voice was calm, breaking him out of thought as he split his attention around what he now realised were the 6 statues.

She didn't look back at him, but she'd cast a lumos, furthering the lighted areas and allowing him to drop his arm down somewhat.

"There is heavy distortion of magical wards around here and a level of magical disruption I've never seen. If we tried to disapparate it is almost certain we would be ripped to pieces." Just to punctuate this their spells fluctuated, plunging them extremely briefly into darkness. When they concentrated on their spells the statues were closer.

Harry felt a rush of adrenaline and fought the urge to laugh, in situations like this laughing probably wasn't what was needed. So he swore instead, and then aimed a spell at one of the statues. "Avada Kedavra!" He said in a vicious tone.

-/

Daphne flinched as Harry almost shouted the killing curse at the statue, the voracity with which he said it and the intensity that the spell had was as surprising as it was revealing about him, such ease with which he cast it meant he had used the spell several times in the past.

"How do you kill a stone?" He mused to himself.

"Should we try blasting them?" She asked, she had already dismissed the idea, with the level of the ceiling and the proximity to them, if they used a blasting curse the blow back and ricochet would very likely injure them, any debris travelling at velocity had a high probability of killing them.
"I thought of that, but the closeness to us..." He trailed off. "I'd say the walls are impervious to spells as well, the floor barely took the your spell." Harry tapped his foot on the floor, there was barely anything to suggest a spell had been cast on it.

"Can you keep the light up while I pry open the transmat panels?" He asked, squeezing her shoulder.

"Of course," she said, holding her wand aloft, bathing them in the spell's light. "I'll make sure to keep them all in sight." She added.

Harry moved backward to the transmat and looked around it. There were no controls, he suspected it was one way, or controlled from the surface.

But the guts of it had to be in here, the transmats he'd encountered and heard of usually had the guts on both ends, even if they didn't work in the same ways. Unless of course they functioned under the Star Trek principle, then they were in a less fortunate situation.

Getting the main panels out of it was simple enough, but it looked like someone had pieced it together from dozens of different sources, with some human technology and some alien technology. It only had a passing resemblance to the ones he'd seen, and vaguely resembled some of the stuff he'd heard of from the Doctor and from Sarah and the metal idiot K9.

"If in doubt...reverse the polarity," he said to himself.

"What was that Harry?" Daphne called to him.

"Nothing, just talking to myself," he called back.

"Harry Potter, you will talk to me, not yourself. Have some decorum," Daphne called back, it made him smile.

"Of course Daphne, of course. We must maintain-" Then he let out a string of expletives as he touched a live wire and felt his heart speed up a bit. "Live wire," he said as he took some calming breaths and wondered how much air they had in here.

"I would like to berate you and say that I have never had anything this dangerous happened to me when I've gone to a party," Daphne mused.

"Oh, I'm sorry Daphne I-" Harry started as he prodded a connection with his wand and hoped it wasn't magic-compatible.

Daphne cut him off. "But it's not Harry, so don't start your worrisome concern for my safety, I am more than capable, and have been in situations of equal concern to this."

"Psychos in the bathroom and torture in the cellar?" Harry mused as he switched around two wires, the lights within the transmat brightened and flickered.

"Something like that," she answered. "And evidence of such extremes of experiences is so difficult to get out of clothing. One should never wear whites when going somewhere for the first time."

"Hence your choice of dark colours," Harry commented.

"Far more practical," Daphne responded.

Harry bit his lip as he traced the connections around, and then Daphne's spell and the transmat's lights flickered again, Harry grabbed his wand as they were plunged into darkness again.

"Lumos!" They were back into light again, but the statues were closer and even uglier.

"This is not good. Why don't they talk. Some things will even shout at you?" Harry wondered. "Some will let you discuss the logistics of warfare, but these...silence."

"Maybe they're so powerful they don't need to talk, silence fells enemies as much as action, Fudge's silence likely cost time and people against Voldemort," Daphne mused.

"Maybe. They are getting stronger, I don't know how, but they feel more dangerous," dread filled his tone.

"And closer," she added. They were closer, none of them seemed to be crying or hiding their eyes now.

She changed a quick look to Harry who was turned away from her and looking at them.

"I want to test something," he said in a dangerously worried voice.

"What?" She asked, chills going down her back.

"I think, even blinking allows them to move," Harry replied. "Turn and focus on three of them. I want to test it."

"Harry is that wise?" Daphne asked.

"No,"he said simply. "But we need to know how to survive this."

She turned away and he very likely blinked as she heard the stone against concrete noise.

"Oh, bugger," Harry's voice was deflated.

"Your assumption was correct," she asked.

"Yes. So we can't blink," Harry said casting his eyes around. "Blink and they get closer."

"And if they get close enough to touch us then what?" She asked.

"Then, we're dead or...something else not good. I think this might be the way the others were-" He was cut off as the transmat buzzed, his rewiring smoking as it activated again, a figure appeared bathed in light and energy, and then several areas of the transmat exploded. Harry leaped forward and grabbed the figure who had transmatted in.

He, for the briefest moment thought that Doctor had come to their rescue. He couldn't have been more wrong.

"Draco fucking Malfoy," Harry exhaled and cursed again, the acrid smoke of the transmat hitting his lungs.

"Potter?" Malfoy winced looking up at him.

"You've transmatted into a world of trouble Draco," Daphne said again calmly, then hers and Harry's spells flickered and they were dropped into almost darkness, the transmat was still smouldering.

"Lumos!" Harry and Daphne almost shouted. The statues were closer again.

"Can you stand Malfoy?" Harry asked as gently as he could given the circumstances.

Then there was a dull thud from above them.

"What was that?" Daphne asked curiously.

"A flash bang. It's probably stunned everyone," Harry explained quickly grabbing Malfoy under the shoulders. "You'll need to stand up Malfoy," Harry said trying to maintain his calm as he pulled Malfoy into a standing position while holding his wand and look at his fair share of the statues as a chill ran down his back as he chanced a look at the remains of the transmat.

"What...Potter, get your hands off me!" Malfoy pulled himself out of Harry's grasp.

"Can you stand Malfoy...Draco?" Harry said eventually in as calm a tone as he could manage.

"Yes." he said, but didn't sound good. "What...?" He looked around him at the statues.

"Look at them Draco and don't blink, blink and...I think they might kill us," Daphne explained in an equally calm, with a hint of concern tone that harry had used.

"Greengrass what are you talking about, they're just statues," Draco said taking out his wand and casting lumos. Intensifying their light a little more.

"Statues that were on the edges of the room when we got down here." Harry's voice was edging towards worried.

"What...what do you mean?" Draco asked, his eyes darting around. Then their collective spells flickered again, just a little this time.

But enough to illustrate the gravity of their situation.

"Oh Merlin," Draco said in a cursed tone.

"Harry's been enlightening me on the amount of expletives are in his vocabulary, it's been most enlightening," Daphne deadpanned. "No wizarding related ones."

Draco snorted. "It isn't surprising given Potter's love for muggles."

"Maybe two of us can make a difference. Malfoy, know how to cast the killing curse?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Potter?" Malfoy asked incredulously.

They'd agreed to set fire to the surrounding floor and then try to 'kill' one of the statues.

"There must be some semblance of 'life'," Harry had reasoned.

He and Draco were now standing side by side.

"I never thought I would stand side by side ready to wield the killing curse with you Potter," he commented sarcastically.

"I think as we are Draco ready to let death fly and probably standing not far away you can call me Harry," Harry offered.

Draco made an annoyed noise. "In three Potter?"

"Yep. Three, two, one," Harry counted down calmly.

"Avada Kedavra!" Green light illuminated the cellar actually driving the statue back slightly.

-/

Draco found himself somewhat amazed by Potter's experience with the killing curse, he wielded it with passion in a way not even the Dark Lord had. He wielded it like a tool, but one that he had used many times before. Like a knife or a bow. Potter held and continued the curse as one would to kill large beasts or to murder groups.

But he saw out the corner of his eye Potter shake his head and ended the curse.

Potter didn't seem as weakened as he felt by its use, another sign that Potter, for all that faith idiots like his friend Weasley put in him, Potter was well versed in death.

-/

"Bugering hell." Harry swore, again, letting several more expletives fly as he cast lumos again.

"Ideas would be good."

-/

They were stood backs to one another, but it seemed as though the statues were absorbing their energy from their spells. She only knew of a few crystals and handful of extremely rare plants that could do that on the level that they were outputting.

It was a level that they couldn't keep up for too much longer, even Harry, who had more experience in these sorts of situations seemed to be faltering.

-/

"They're getting stronger Potter."

"How come you came down here anyway?" Harry asked, breathing in deep of the air which had become far warmer since they'd started casting all manner of spells and Harry suspected it had also become thinner.

"I..." He trailed off. "Was curious for Greengrass and about what mess you were in Potter."

"Little old me," Harry pondered in an amused tone.

"Trouble follows you," Draco commented. "I wanted to know if I needed to leave the building. Or the country."

Harry flung another sticking charm at the statue, it seemed to have some success in halting its advance, briefly.

"Draco, how interesting, concerned," Daphne commented sounding somewhat out of breath.

"There are only so many people to engage in conversation with Greengrass," Malfoy raised his voice as Harry cast another spell. But then all the statues moved.

It seemed they'd all blinked at the same time, allowing their movement.

Then Daphne and Harry's lumos spells flicked and they were plunged into darkness.

"Lumos!" Draco said, nothing happened. "Lumos!" He shouted even more panicked.

Harry and Daphne did the same; nothing. They could all hear the sound of stone against stone.

"Together," Harry shouted. "LUMOS!"

The cellar was bathed in flickering spell light...and also the statues faces barely inches from their faces.

"Oh Merlin and Morgaine." Draco whispered.

"Arseing hell," Harry said and swore again.

Daphne said something but it was muffled as their collective spells failed for the final time.

-/

Harry felt something grab onto his shoulder and the world exploded in pain and light.

Draco felt something grab onto his shoulder and then the world exploded outward in a rush of air, light and at the very upper limit of experience; pain. He wasn't sure if he screamed.

Daphne heard Harry's shout and Draco's scream as what had to be the statues latch onto her shoulder. She may have shouted or screamed, she wasn't sure as her senses were overwhelmed, air and light seemed to disappear and pressure and dissipate around her, pain exploded through her senses.

-/ - \\-

It was a field somewhere. Midday.

The sun was shining and there was a brisk wind blowing across the countryside, there was nothing, save for a few butterflies.

Then there was...a nothing, an anti-flash, and appearance. Appearances.

Dragged, if they were able, kicking and screaming, through the time vortex, dumped, back onto the Earth. Unawares they lay unconscious.

They were not alone.

-/

A/N:

Cue theme music. Though no next time trailer, this is like old school Doctor Who, there's just a cliffhanger and no next time.

I was going to keep this as one long chapter. But decided to stop here as it's already 14,000+ words long. It will hopefully only be two parts (hopefully), it may run to three, but hopefully I'll keep the next chapter in line and it won't be too long and rambling.

There is a little more coarse language in this chapter than usual, I believe I'm still within this story's rating as it's not gratuitous or all that offensive. But I think it is appropriate to the ages of these people.

Harry Pearce is from the TV show Spooks (aka MI:5 in the US)

Other notes; Operativnaya Gruppa Rasvedkoy Obyedinyonnih Natsiy, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, it's the Russian division of UNIT, NUIT is the French division of UNIT. UNIT Broadsword is their intelligence division. ICIS is Internal Counter-Intelligence Service.

Update A/N: I last edited this chapter in December 2011. Now in February 2019 I've revisited it to do a little bit of editing during a bit of a lull in inspiration for the on-going story.

I've not changed much, just spelling, punctuation and made it a bit clearer who's saying what.

I think were I writing this chapter now, it wouldn't be this long, or maybe it would be, but the events covered would be split over two chapters.