Chapter 36
Sunlight.
Grass.
Sunlight.
Grass.
Sunlight, heat.
Sunlight, heat, grass.
Grass.
Heat, light.
Air.
Air.
Air.
Draco groaned sitting up from a fetal position and breathed a great huge lungful of air.
Air.
He breathed another lungful, every muscle in his body twisting, aching. It was a thousand times worse than the Cruciatus.
Air.
Light.
Heat.
Grass.
Air. It was his only thought.
Then his stomach twisted and he had the greatest need to vomit, for a moment he thought he was.
Then he realised he wasn't alone.
But his senses were still overwhelmed.
It was like recovering, not just from the Cruciatus but a multiple other curses the Dark Lord liked to throw around.
Air.
Light.
Grass.
Draco forced himself to think, think through the pain, through the twisting of his senses.
Think.
Concentrate.
Air.
Light.
Sun. Sun. Sun and Light. He was outside.
Air.
Grass. Somewhere in his awareness he realised he was sitting, kneeling on grass.
Another part of his consciousness realised he had known this fact for some time, but he'd pushed it aside.
Knowing the basics, knowing you could breathe. That was one of the tenants of surviving the Dark Lord's "moods". His father had seen a man die through lack of air, watching as the man convulsed on the floor, his father never knew why.
You did not question the Dark Lord. But all that was in the past.
Air.
Draco carefully opened his eyes.
LIGHT.
Squinting. He took in his surroundings as they resolved into focus.
Grass.
There was a figure, who seemed to be mirroring what he was doing, the figure was female. She was wiping her mouth.
Vomit.
The smell of stomach acids.
It hadn't just been his imagination, someone was, someone had been vomiting.
He had also, almost. You learnt not to do so, the Dark Lord would punish those who did not have the disposition to serve.
Light.
Grass.
Heat.
Sunlight.
Draco blinked, there was another figure, this one was pulling himself up. It seemed to be causing him great pain.
Draco knew not to move yet.
Pain.
Light.
Air.
Grass.
Heat.
Draco took another deep breath of air, holding it in his lungs as he felt his arms begin to tingle, the signs of some sort of torture.
Light. Air. Grass. Heat. It was sunny. He could feel his senses coming back into alignment, he could understand everything in sequence, he didn't have to force himself to take each thing that entered his mind as one.
Understanding it, and forcing his body to acclimatize.
-/
Harry had not felt like this before, never. The pain had been excruciating.
The adrenalin rush was amazing and he could still feel it tingling throughout his body.
There was pain, like a thousand Cruciatus curses had ripped through his body.
He realised he was kneeling.
On grass.
He was outside, on grass.
There was sunlight, a short breeze.
He was alive.
Then the last few moments came crashing back like being hit by a yellow tow truck.
They were back to back. Daphne and Draco and...then pain.
Something had grabbed him.
Grabbed them and then pain.
He had had the dull need to vomit, an after effect of the whatever had happened. He'd only had water so far. He forced himself not to.
He burped. With chunks and spat them out, cringing. That wizarding sparkling water was far too fizzy. Someone should speak to their supplier.
Harry almost giggled to himself and realised he was still on an adrenalin high. He need to use it rather than what he was doing. Thinking about catering.
He grit his teeth and pushed himself up so he was standing.
He still had his eyes closed.
Photosensitivity was often a result of the Cruciatus, that said he'd often been tortured in dark places, so it wasn't really an issue.
As he stood he continued to grit his teeth he could feel his muscles biting, groaning, tort and tensioned.
But then he was standing upright and cautiously opened his eyes, squinting.
He realised there were two figures in front of him.
One had it seemed just finished vomiting and another was looking up at him, also squinting.
-/
Daphne sat up after having emptied her stomach on the grass in front of her.
She was supremely regretting eating a small supper before attending the soirée.
While the Baron and Baroness' food was usually delectable it was easier to target people for 'special treatment' than with drinks, and she had thought to be prepared in case Harry's activities lead to difficulties.
She had for the last few minutes been ignoring the pain, the spasms, the tension throughout her body. She had pushed awareness of those things to the side as she focused on the pressing issue of vomiting and not choking on what was coming up.
She had only undergone the Cruciatus on a few occasions, on one to truly understand it and therefore wield it more professionally.
As she breathed in and out of the cool fresh air she allowed her mind to relax, relaxing her hold on the pain in her body, she gasped slightly at the sudden in-rush of pain.
She opened her eyes, forcing her body to adjust to more of her sensory perceptions. This had worked for her in the past, though in others it tended when confronted like this to make them black out.
She could manage the pain, she just needed...
Focus.
Light exploded into her eyes and she was forced to squint and look around.
There was a figure, standing tall, a long coat flapping around him. Harry. She thought though she didn't smile, that required too much of her already taxed body's abilities.
She looked around, away from the small puddle of vomit.
Between herself and Harry was another figure.
He was looking at her.
Draco.
Draco Malfoy.
They had survived.
Survived those unmoving, yet not statues.
But where?
Harry realised he was grinding his teeth and stopped, he hated going to the dentist, even though Hermione's parents gave him a special rate.
Though he continued to grit his teeth. Which was different, more or less.
The light was becoming less and less intense and the heat from the sun was easing his muscles.
He continued to look around as his eyes adjusted fully to the bright light, they were in the middle of a field. Not a field. The were out somewhere with no boundaries and a little bit of a mountain. More of a hill.
As he looked around something caught his eye some ways beyond Draco and Daphne and he felt another sudden gust of adrenaline. It wasn't quite the full in rush he was used to, but it did awaken himself even more and he felt his fight or flight response kick up another gear with overdrive.
There was a grey statue, broken, but it seemed recovering.
Or something. He wasn't sure. But it was there.
Whatever had happened, whatever temporal transference if that was what had happened, if they weren't in some alternate universe or shared delusion then it had gone through with them.
Harry Pearce's friend hadn't said anything about...well anything, but if these things grabbed you once they could again.
Though it wasn't moving, hadn't moved, even as he blinked and there'd been enough time for it to attack while they'd been unconscious.
Harry tried to say something, but his voice caught in his throat, it had just become not all that painful to breathe. Speaking, except for screaming or croaking in agony he knew from experience was something you had to wait and recover through.
Harry forced himself to step forward, his muscles, despite the effects of adrenalin screaming at him in pain.
-/
Draco watched as Potter tried to step forward.
Idiot. Draco thought to himself.
After whatever torture they'd been through you shouldn't be doing any extreme movements like walking yet.
You had to allow the body time to recover. Draco had thought himself good for kneeling, having the stamina to be upright.
Potter displaying his experience with being tortured no doubt. Though there was a distinctly pained expression on his face.
Which served him right for not waiting like a sane intelligent person would.
-/
Daphne watched, unable to stand, her legs still cramping as Harry, obviously in great pain walked forward to them.
At first she thought it was to assist them, but the pain that he was moving through was unlike anything.
As Draco was still kneeling she suspected it was causing Harry a large amount of pain to move when he should be remaining still.
She watched as he, with great effort raised his arm to gesture behind herself and Draco.
-/
Harry almost cried out, lifting his arm to gesture behind Daphne and Draco, the effort was utter agony, he could almost feel his muscles spasm through the effort to just lift enough to gesture.
-/
Draco watched with a small amount of amusement as Potter put himself through a great deal of pain to lift his arm.
But then a chill passed down his back, Potter had a look of terror on his face, intermixed with the pain.
There was something that clearly worried Potter that he could see but was behind them.
Draco craned his neck around to look. It was just within his vision.
A grey statue.
The grey statue, broken but it seemed still alive or something.
Draco felt his heart increase beating as he focused his efforts on standing.
-/
Daphne watched as Draco craned to look around and she also mirrored his movements and realised what had made Draco suddenly double his efforts to stand.
The statue. The angel, whatever it was, it was here. Where ever here was.
She forced herself to focus on that fact and not the bleak pain that was cutting through her body as she pushed herself up.
-/
Harry forced large steps as Draco and Daphne seemed to understand what they were still facing.
By the time he had slowly reached them Daphne was very weakly standing and Draco was still moving through the efforts of it.
He took Daphne in one arm linking arms with her tightly.
She looked at him panicked as she realised what he was about to do.
Then he took Draco, gently but firmly and pulled him up.
Draco didn't quite fight, he didn't have the energy to it seemed and then he concentrated and there was a loud POP and an inrush of air as he side-along apparated both of them.
-/
Draco watched as he, like Potter grit his teeth, his father had said this was not good method, but better than grinding ones teeth which was not something one should do. Excessive grinding effected one's ability to chew and speak, if one did so for long enough, and service to the Dark Lord was a decidedly long affair.
Draco watched as Potter took Daphne into his arm in a locked embrace, and then he realised what Potter was doing.
He tried to object when Potter took him, rather gently, though firmly. Both were surprising.
But Potter was insane if he thought he had the energy or ability to apparate both–
His thought was cut off.
Them.
Draco's body shuddered, though not as much as it should have done given that one person had side along apparated two people. And also the effects on individuals following side along apparating.
Though it was usually far worse for the person instigating the apparition.
Potter gently lowered him, and Daphne to the ground. Potter smiled reassuringly at him and then seemed to remember who he was smiling at.
Potter's discomfort made him smirk, just slightly and mostly to himself as he sat gently onto the grass.
-/
Harry felt amazingly not too bad. It seemed the apparating of the three of them had loosened his muscles, which was something of a change. While he had become better at side along apparating it was still a little bit of effort.
Maybe it was something to do with the excess energy they were carrying from the time transference.
That was part of the reason why he'd chosen here. He'd apparated them to Victoria Embankment Gardens, next to the statue of Robert Burns. From here they were some ways from the path and he would be able to see the river and from there, the Eye. Hoping against hope they'd not travelled very far, temporally wise.
-/
Daphne tried smiled at Harry as he lowered her and Draco onto the grass. She was feeling a lot better than she thought she should, given whatever it was they had been through.
She could feel her arms and legs tingling as feeling returned and the knots and pain eased out of them.
Harry had completed something of a feat apparating all three of them, something not many wizards attempted.
Side along was performed, for people some people who could not apparate like young children and those who had not passed any assessment.
There was also group apparition; together aiming for the same location, but that used one's own abilities.
She had not apparated and she did not believe Draco had been a participant in the apparition. Harry had completed the process on his own, and seemed not much worse from it.
Looking around she instantly knew where she was; Victoria Embankment Gardens. The statue of the muggle poet Robert Burns was beside them. She had met certain individuals in this park on occasion. To meet to discuss terms, sometimes to receive information and other things.
It was far better to meet in a muggle park or other open space and discuss things rather than any wizarding environment. Muggles very rarely listened to any conversation around them. Too busy with things in their ears or their mobile communication phones or other things, their muggle lives.
-/
Harry was feeling decidedly more chipper as he walked slowly down towards the road where he could see along the river.
The chipper feeling did not last as he came to the road and could see the Hungerford Bridge and beyond it...no London Eye.
Then there were the cars on the road.
He recognised the styles and not because he coveted them, not because he'd seen them in magazines.
He'd seen those styles, those mixes of cars before.
"Oh fuck. Oh fuckity fuck," Harry said to no one in particular as a dawning realisation came to him.
He started to look around for a bin, or a stray newspaper or something.
He didn't need convincing, but he knew the two who were resting would.
"Oh Merlin...buggering Dalek bumps," he said again to himself, he was after all the only one who realised how much shit they were in. Especially how much shit he was in.
Harry drew a breath of the fresher than 21st century air, air he'd breathed before. Air that he was breathing at this moment and tried to compose himself.
That failed miserably, so he swore a bit more until he was out of breath again and took another composing breath of air, trying not to think about where else he could be taking that breath.
-/
Draco watched as Greengrass withdrew a silver flask from inside a small purse and unscrewed the cap taking what appeared to be a relieving drink. Then she cleared her throat and offered him the flask.
"Here, if your throat feels like mine Draco," she said still sounding relatively calm despite the events of the past few...it felt like hours but mentally he knew that barely an hour had passed, if that.
Sipping the flask carefully revealed it contained chilled rainwater, from the Greengrass estate's collection tanks if he wasn't mistaken, he had come to know the distinct flavour profile to their estate during his brief association with that family, seemingly they preferred to gather water from the sky. Unlike the Malfoy estate's aquifer and spring that had been held by his family since the construction of his family estate.
"Thank you Greengrass," he said as soon as he was able, passing the flask back to her.
As she took it he looked around, taking in their surroundings more closely than before.
"Robert Burns," she observed.
"I'm sorry?" Draco looked over to Greengrass.
"That statue, the river Thames is down there." She motioned away from them.
"A site of one of your fascinating business deals?" He enquired.
Greengrass smiled at him. "It is far easier to meet in a muggle park and discuss wizarding affairs than to meet in a wizarding location and set up any number of spells in order to discuss matters of the day."
Draco accepted that justification, the muggles were so obsessed with their lives they barely noticed anything magic. Only those seeking to find things were the ones that saw magic, others however did not.
Not that he found himself wandering the muggle streets very often, their modes of transport, their seemingly constant talk into their communication devices their decision to eat while they walked. It was all too much to bare, the incivility of it all.
"Where do you think Potter's gone to?" He wondered.
Daphne looked down towards the river and pointed. "Down there. I wonder why."
"Shouldn't you know Daphne? You are sharing his bed" He watched her. "Or he yours?" He wondered aloud and smirked. "No, you his." Her sister had been averse to him sharing her bed, but not the reverse.
"Harry and I may have sex Draco," she said casually. "that does not allow me an insight into everything Harry is thinking."
"It seems he's decided to return to us," Draco said as they saw a figure walking back up towards them.
"Something's wrong," an alarmed tone was in Greengrass's voice.
Draco watched how Potter was walking and his face, both his stance and his facial expression pointed towards something that had disturbed him greatly.
-/
Harry sat down between the two, Draco didn't seem to be annoyed to be sitting on the grass, which was interesting, but probably pointed towards tiredness rather than his poncy attitudes. Harry pushed the thought out of his mind and he pushed his coat out the way, the newspaper that he'd tucked into a pocket had been poking him in the leg.
He tried to look positive but the two people that he was sitting opposite were probably not the best people to try to reassure. They didn't know anything yet and didn't know how far up the creek they were without a paddle.
"So what's the matter Potter you look like you've just discovered Weasley's head on a pike," Draco drawled.
Harry raised an eyebrow and before he could stop himself said. "If it was the mad cow Wealsey I'd be applauding."
Draco's eyes widened. "You are full of surprises Potter."
Daphne however was watching him closely. "You're worried about something."
"Yes," Harry exhaled. "I need you two" he paused and looked directly at Draco, holding his gaze for a moment. "You especially, to listen and believe me and what I'm telling you is the absolute truth."
Daphne nodded. Draco watched him for several moments before nodding.
"We're in the past," Harry said and removed a newspaper he'd found in a bin.
-/
Draco picked up the newspaper with shaking hands.
-/
Daphne looked over as Draco picked up the muggle paper, it was, judging by the quality and condition of the paper only a day if that old. But it was quite clearly not something transfigured, nor something mocked up, it was real, they were in the past. Their past, Harry's past, quite literally in his case.
There were minor changes in his body language, he had become far more alert, worry, concern, something else were playing across his face. It was worrisome to see him this alert.
-/
Draco felt his heart rate jump several beats. A great uncle of his father's had died in such a way, upon finding muggles had purchased land bordering on one of his estates. His accountant informed him.
Draco chuckled. He'd never thought that funny until now, death by accountant.
Someone grabbed his arm and he realised it was Potter who was doing it.
"Draco." Potter was using his name and was speaking calmly, the bastard, to be calm at a moment like this.
-/
"Draco," Harry repeated. It looked like Malfoy was having some sort of breakdown or hysteria. Malfoy'd probably call it a momentary lapse or something.
"You're touching me Potter," Malfoy said in deathly calm voice.
"I need you to stay calm, don't go anywhere so I can explain why we're in a lot more dragon shit than you think we are," Harry said looking at Malfoy's face, not really trying to hypnotise him, only because Malfoy was possibly ready to trust him and hypnotising people didn't really endear trust in you once you did things like that.
"Where would I have to go?" Malfoy muttered to himself and then looked at Harry and to Daphne.
"You know something, you're not reacting, even you Greengrass should be disturbed by this," he paused. "You are," he sneered. "Not as much as I am."
Daphne just looked over at Harry.
-/
Both pure blood wizards looked at Harry, who sighed.
"I need to give you the background before you'll understand," he paused looking at Draco. "Please let me finish, then you can start," Harry said in a tired voice looking at Malfoy.
Malfoy looked at him carefully. "Very well Potter. I'm sure this is all your fault."
"Very probably, but it's probably for the best," Harry kept his tone calm and friendly, although he was simultaneously thinking things through, working through why they had ended up here.
"I'm sure you're aware that a couple of years ago my brief relationship with Ginny the-" Harry stopped himself from finishing the sentence, then shrugged and said it anyway. "Mad cow Weasley."
Draco's face briefly brightened and seemed genuinely amused by his turn of phrase.
"Are you aware she formed a group with other disassociated groups?"
Draco nodded slowly. "There was mention of a dragon and some village or something. I don't follow cultists and groups like that Potter," he threw Harry an odd slightly knowing look.
Harry nodded quickly. "That group was something of a hard line wizarding cultural group."
"Beliefs?" Malfoy asked, seemingly interested.
"Aliens, or the denial thereof," Harry answered watching Malfoy, he had a mostly neutral expression.
"Aliens," Malfoy repeated in a flat tone, rubbing his arms as though he were cold.
"Extraterrestrial beings, those not of this Earth etc," Harry said with a dismissive wave, though still watching Malfoy.
Malfoy looked at him. "There have been rumours that you had gone totally mad, indulging in deviant experiences Potter. Not that I followed your boring life much since our parting at Hogwarts."
"Of course not. Just asking about him all night," Daphne commented, seemingly enjoying Malfoy's comments.
Harry looked over at Daphne and then looked back to Malfoy.
"Aliens do exist Draco." Malfoy just watched him.
-/
Potter didn't look like he was insane, more versed in the dark arts, more violent and far calmer than he had known him to be at Hogwarts.
But not insane.
Everyone knew of the 'aliens' perpetrated by the Ministry.
The muggles would believe anything put into their stupid little heads, so they could continue on with their lives.
But Potter's statement, and more to the point Greengrass' lack of reaction to this revelation was interesting. Or it could be that Greengrass was sharing more than Potter's bed, perhaps she was buying into his delusions.
Malfoy discounted that possibility. Her family and she herself were strong minded. During the last war and the war before that, one that seemingly he was now in the middle of they had not been moved by the Dark Lord's ministrations.
That made them powerful. It was part of the reason he had been drawn to her sister, her playful attitude and the power she wielded.
They were also not a family to move on something like this quickly.
"You've seen something," he finally said to Greengrass after what he considered the briefest consideration of the situation, and Potter's character.
-/
Daphne raised an eyebrow, it had taken Draco longer than she'd thought to reach that conclusion.
"Yes," she said simply.
-/
"Might I continue Draco, now that you've ascertained that I'm not just a deviant?" Harry asked leaning back putting his hands behind him onto the soft grass before sitting up straight again.
Malfoy nodded slowly.
"A year or two ago Ginny gathered her group and they were flying over Cardiff," Harry paused as Malfoy and Daphne's body language shifted, he'd not told Daphne precisely where the temporal transference had occurred, but thought he'd better give a more detailed explanation of some things given where they were.
"Cardiff?" Malfoy asked slowly.
"Yes, there's a space-time rift there," Harry explained simply.
"The Blaidd Drwg Rift," Malfoy said.
"Blaidd Drwg," Harry repeated. He'd heard that before.
"It's Bad Wolf in Welsh," Daphne explained, her voice cool.
"Yes," Harry acknowledged, pondering to himself. It probably meant something.
"So the 'Mad Cow'" Malfoy started seemingly relishing and being amused by his nickname for the psychotic bitch of the Weasley family. "Flew into the Blaidd Drwg Rift. She's not the first to lead a suicide cult."
"Really?" Harry asked, surprised, he'd not heard of any wizarding suicide cults.
"Harry focus," Daphne said lightly, somewhat amused.
"Ginny and her followers didn't die, they ended up here in the 1970s, bent on committing cultural terrorism attempting to alter wizarding society to be even more against the idea of aliens than it is at the moment," Malfoy was watching him, but he pressed on. "Whilst looking through some files I discovered proof that I had gone back in time. I followed her back here and..." Harry trailed off for a moment.
Malfoy was watching him.
Harry breathed in. "I followed her back to this period to eliminate all of the people whom she'd brought from the future."
-/
Malfoy listened as Potter finished. There was no need to explain what eliminate meant, and Potter meant every word of it, and it was spoken in such a casual way, not something he expected of Potter.
It was a side he'd not seen to Potter, although he did seem to wield the killing curse with much ease.
He snorted. "What must Weasley and Granger think of you Potter."
-/
Harry shrugged. "Hermione knows the basics, Ron..." He shrugged again. In some ways he now had a more honest relationship with Malfoy than he did Ron, what an amazingly strange world he lived in. Maybe there really was a world that existed where, he suppressed a shudder, Malfoy and he were in a relationship. Suddenly he felt a bit sick.
"Harry are you alright?" Daphne asked.
He nodded. "I just had a disturbing thought. Unrelated to this situation."
The two wizards looked at him oddly. "Nothing to worry about, just a friend of mine's disturbing sense of humour intruding into reality."
-/
"If this is reality Potter," Draco commented as he plucked the grass before him rubbing it between his fingers.
Potter just watched him.
"So what Potter, how did you return to our 'present' when you came here before?" He asked watching Potter he now seemed uncomfortable, which he still enjoyed to see, even if they were here and now.
-/
Harry shifted. "I had assistance from an associate who has temporal abilities far in advance of what wizards can achieve." Harry said carefully and then added before Malfoy could say anything. "Abilities that won't be returned to him for some time," Malfoy looked at him. "It's complicated."
"Complications are something that we seem to abound in today Harry." Daphne commented.
"Yes," Harry muttered.
-/
Draco picked up the muggle newspaper again, feeling the paper between his fingers once more and studying the date, there was another trickle of sweat down his back. He felt it trickle down his spine and his somewhere lower down in his pants, the calm, panicked sweat one felt when the facts were laid before one. It was interesting to feel such experiences, he had thought they were beyond him. Taking a breath he questioned Potter, as much of an impudent individual that he was, he was more knowledgeable it seemed in this situation than himself or Greengrass so not even the woman he was bedding seemed to know all the details of his elimination of the 'Mad Cow', though he did have to hand it to Potter, some names were appropriate. "So Potter, what are we to do now?" He watched Potter's expression, it seemed he had been thinking to himself about this situation and his question had interrupted him. Draco did not presume to think that Potter's mind was as empty as the Weasley who had become enamored with Granger, but he did seem to have some flights of fancy in his mind. That at least could be placed down to rushes induced by uses of power or possibly, slightly more vulgar, the adrenaline rush of danger that they had all experienced thus far.
-/
Harry looked up, somewhat surprised that Draco...he cursed himself, mentally. Malfoy had asked him that question. But it was one that he had been thinking about since he had worked out where, or more to the point when they had arrived.
The list of where they couldn't go was a lot longer than where they could.
UNIT was out.
He couldn't really remember the details of exactly what would happen if he met himself, the Doctor had a fairly casual attitude to him meeting himself 'in the direst of circumstances', but he was a Time Lord, the temporal energies and whatever involved wouldn't harm him much. But Harry wasn't a Time Lord and he was sort of sure meeting himself would rip a hole in the universe, or in space-time or something. At the least it'd probably wipe out his timeline around this point a bit.
Aside from meeting himself he couldn't call in the Brigadier, mostly because he was quite sure he'd mention it to his younger self.
Even though he didn't remember it, it could still happen. Probably.
Nor could he meet Jo especially after he'd gone to such lengths not to meet her the first time around.
And then...it was buggering annoying that the Doctor had travelled with so many people, and so many of them were from a point after the 1970s.
Sarah he wouldn't meet until the probably the late 70s or the 80s for her and the 90s for him and then again the 2000s again for both of them.
"Time travel is complicated," he muttered to himself. "No, that wasn't my answer Draco," he said as Malfoy looked at him. "Just thinking to myself who I can call on."
Malfoy at least looked surprise at this suggestion. "It is interesting Potter that you think there is anyone in this era of our history that you would know and that might assist us in this devil of a situation."
Harry smiled darkly. "You would be surprised who I know at this moment," he paused. "Just no one I know who's not met me yet..." He trailed off as an idea came to him. Two people whom he had been meaning to meet once more, in the present, or rather the future.
Their days of TARDIS travel would be behind them now, according to the Doctor they had returned in 1965.
-/
Daphne watched as Harry started to smile, seemingly he had uncovered an idea from his memories, if it were extra-temporal in nature it was likely that it was something, or perhaps someone related to the mysterious Doctor, whose face and manner changed throughout his knowing of Harry.
-/
"I think we'll need to find a phone box so I can get an address. I think I've thought of someone who can render us assistance, and an idea of where to get further help to get us to our own time," Harry said with a grin, pushing himself up into a standing position and offering his hands to both herself and Draco.
-/ - \\-
Barbara turned the envelope over in her hands again.
The paper was rough and old, it had been made rather than manufactured. The envelope was folded and it was sealed with a wax seal, the emblem on the seal she could not understand, it seemed to be a series of circles, though it meant nothing to her. She had wanted to open it, except for the note that said in stylish hand writing
Open today 2:47 pm.
Ian had said she was being superstitious and silly.
But here they were both sitting her waiting, tea standing in their cups steam coming out as they waiting, looking at the clock.
Ian leaned back, his work at the RAF's technical collage had ended early in the week, some disturbance had meant they were all on a break for the rest of this week.
It was, though, strange to be in the house without John. He was barely 15 minutes down the road with Barbara's parents, he liked to visit and they liked having him. He'd joked they were worried that he and Barbara were going to disappear again and take their grandson with them this time.
But there'd be none of that, they'd not seen hide nor hair of the Doctor since their departure, outside of the little things that had happened; his tax disc being paid, his car having been towed, the rents on their flats also paid.
It had to have been the Doctor, they didn't know anyone else who would have done that. Investigating just showed that a Dr John Smith, who may have worked for something related to the Royal Scientific Club. But that was it, that and the money; a bank account had been left in his and Barbara's name, not a large amount, but enough, another gift from the Doctor they assumed.
It hadn't been enough to buy this somewhat large, sometimes he thought too large house, but it had been enough to wisely invest, based on the knowledge he and Barbara had encountered when they were in the 1980s with the Doctor and Susan.
Barbara had worried about them using their foreknowledge but, it was their knowledge, gained through time travel yes, but he wasn't about to try and invent the Sinclair C5 or anything like that.
"You know this is silly," Ian said taking the envelope out of Barbara's hands and looked at it closely again. And then lifting it to his nose to sniff it.
"It smells ancient doesn't it?" Barbara said with a knowing smile he nodded. It took him back, far back to their days of TARDIS travel.
"You know we could just open in, ignore what it says one the back," he passed it back to her. "It could be someone messing around."
"Look where thoughts like that got us," she warned with a smile.
"One of the best mistakes I've made in my life that junkyard," he chuckled looking across at her making her smile.
"We've waited this long," she looked over at the clock. There were only about 10 more minutes to go.
"Yes. We can wait," Ian said as he took a sip of tea.
Then the door bell rang, making them both jump.
They looked at one another and then looked at the envelope as though it was to blame.
"I'd better go and see who that is," Barbara said rising from the table.
"I can-" But Barbara silenced him with a look, she liked to answer the door.
-/
They'd apparated to the street, not side-along apparition, though Potter seemed capable of it, merely holding one another's hand to ensure they arrived at the same spot.
One might think Potter didn't trust him. Draco thought with a smirk. Were he in Potter's position he would likely not be trusting.
The house was appreciable for muggles, a good-sized house. Not as large or as fitting as any wizarding household. But a well sized retreat in rather small village. It was set on sizeable grounds.
"Well, well, well," was all Potter said as they walked up the drive way. There were two muggle cars sitting under shelter to one side. They all looked like boxes on wheels compared to carriages.
Ringing the bell he asked Potter again how he knew these people.
"In my childhood," he said again.
"Which is in the future," he said needlessly, they were all desperately aware of their situation.
"Yes, but it's also in their past," he looking back from the door.
Then the door opened to reveal a woman standing there, surprised to find three people standing at her doorway.
"Hello Barbara, it's been a long time," Potter said warmly, and with affection.
-/
Barbara opened the door, having heard voices talking behind it to find two young men and a young woman standing there before her.
The lead man had deep green eyes and black hair, the second man had amazing blonde almost white hair and the woman brown and cautious eyes.
"Hello Barbara" said the man with green eyes. "It's been a long time," the voice and the eyes set off memories in the back of her mind.
"Ian!" She shouted, not quite in a panic, but in just surprise.
-/
Ian watched as Barbra sat their three guests down. It was, though he couldn't believe it. Harry Potter.
A boy who wouldn't be born for more than 10 years, a boy whom both he and Barbara had, would know in the future. A boy, now a man who should be in the future.
-/
"I suppose this is all a bit of a shock to you," Harry said looking between the two former school teachers who were looking very well, and hadn't changed since he'd met them all those years ago.
"Just a bit Harry, how-" Ian was cut off.
"That's a little bit complicated," he said.
-/
Draco listened as he looked around the room that they were in, this drawing room or library was filled with books, and trinkets and a muggle television plus some other things that he didn't recognise. It was however respectable for a muggle, nothing too untoward.
Potter gave a quick explanation of how they were rendered here, omitting almost everything concerning the Mad Cow and his other existence here, something, while he was not having trouble fathoming was somewhat troubled by it. He had knowledge of time turner use, and it was something not to be trifled with, it was according to his father extremely dangerous, something even the Dark Lord did not use.
While Potter was talking the muggle woman Barbra was playing around with an envelope in her hands. It was almost wizarding in its construction. A properly constructed envelope and a seal made of a rich blue wax with a seal pressed into it.
She seemed to be waiting for something, a time to open the letter.
As Potter finished telling his edited highlights of what had befallen him he spoke.
"What is that letter that seems to have you so preoccupied?" He asked, trying to prevent himself from sounding too curious, though Greengrass noticed and seemed most amused that he was so annoyed by it.
"Just a letter, with instructions to open it after a time," Ian said offhandedly.
"Which has passed." Ian said raising an eyebrow towards Barbara.
"If you don't mind." Barbara said as she rose from the chair she was sitting on retrieving a letter opener for a small side table.
Barbra pulled out the folded piece of paper. There were only seven words and signed with initials. All in the same hand writing as the writing on the back.
"Well?" Ian asked. Barbra passed it to him.
Don't blink at the angels.
Remember Hyspero. RS.
Flashback...some time ago...
He and Barbara were relaxing in their separate TARDIS sleeping quarters after the particularly harrowing series of what Ian had termed in his mind as 'adventures', though Barbara called what happened outside of the TARDIS doors as something somewhat more dramatic.
The dangers and delights thus far experienced were beyond his wildest dreams, he had in fact never thought of any of the things he had seen. How could he?
Yet he still longed for the human contact, the human things, it had been a great relief to be on Earth, seeing that young man Harry Potter, being able to have a pint of beer even.
Then they were away from there, places anew, experiences, danger, history. Relaxing here in the TARDIS was good, easy, the noise of the ship gently coaxing him to rest, he did sleep in the ship, though it seemed sleep came easier to Barbara than for him. Although they could both catch sleep where ever it might be, beside a lake of mutations, around caravans the noise of the desert and the horses the only noises around them.
Or in an Aztec barracks, pondering the battles to be fought in the morning the dangers, the bruises to avoid the next day.
Secretly he enjoyed it, he did long for home, his home, of the 1960s England, but this was an adventure beyond anything, above and beyond any human could experience. Sometimes Barbara wanted to talk about it, and sometimes not.
He was just drifting towards the edge of sleep when the whole ship seemed to jump, like hitting a pothole in a road, but magnified thousands of times, for several moments he thought he was weightless, gravity seemingly had nothing on him and the other items within his room and then it returned slamming him back to the ground and to the day bed he used to catch some sleep on.
And then the lights in the ship flicked off, to be returned by what he imagined was 'emergency lighting', everything was lit in a poor version of the previous bright light.
He also became aware of a bell tolling throughout the ship, it seemed sad, like a single church bell tolling throughout the ship; echoing.
Rushing over to the door his first thought was Barbara, they had rooms that were opposite each other, this was in addition to the common sleep area they sometimes used that was closer to the controls.
He must have opened his door at the exact same time as Barbra did.
"Ian?" She asked clearly terrified. Nothing like this even at the worst moments in the ship had anything happened that was comparable before.
"I know. Let's look for the Doctor," he said closing the door to his room only to see the Doctor walking swiftly down the corridor.
"Ah, Chesterton, Barbara, come along quickly now," he said barely slowing down, his face concerned, though not as worried as Susan, who was trailing him appeared.
"What's going on Doctor?" Ian said as he and Barbara fell in behind him.
"Hmm? Oh Chesterton you must ask the obvious questions. Come along," he said, looking up as the bell continued to toll.
"What's going on Susan?" Barbara asked trying to sound calm.
"The controls have gone, there's been a disturbance in space" she paused. "And time, it's affected the ship," she said, her voice and in fact whole body full of worry.
"Disturbance?" Ian asked.
"Nothing to be too concerned with dear boy, this" the Doctor motioned around the walls which Ian had not noticed before had started to loose their definition become fuzzy and other points blocky, as though they were starting the shift from reality. "Is a result of a dark matter event we've flown too close to."
"Dark matter?" Ian asked puzzled.
"It's destabilising the dimensions of the ship. The controls were the first to be affected," Susan replied, still worry present throughout her voice.
"Are we safe?" Barbara asked now seemingly obsessed with the declining definition of the walls.
"The ship will keep us safe," Susan said, of this she sounded confident.
Ian realised they had walked, quite fast too, further than neither he nor Barbara had ventured, they had long passed the infernal food machine and even past wherever the Doctor disappeared off to when he wasn't in the control room. "Where are we going Doctor?"
"Hmm, oh do be quiet Chesterton, I have some thinking to perform," he said annoyed.
"What's that bell Susan?" Barbra asked after several moments, it had been something that had been bugging Ian as well.
Susan seemed distracted as she listened to her grandfather. "The cloisters," she said, pausing. "They warn of imminent catastrophe."
"To us or the ship?" Ian mused aloud.
Then the Doctor came to a stop in front a door that was completely unlike the other doors in the ship, it seemed almost wooden, it was inset with a leadlight window. So sudden was his stop he nearly walked into the back of the Doctor.
"Here we are Susan, I think this will do child, now, the door should just open..." He said, mostly to himself, though from what Ian could tell there was no door, yet he was sure there had been a handle when he'd first looked.
"Grandfather I can..." Susan started but it seemed the Doctor was in deep though, and then the door swung open.
"Come on, inside Chesterton, Miss Wright," the Doctor said quickly as he motioned them inside.
Ian followed Barbara inside along with Susan before shutting the door quickly.
Inside Ian was surprised in the dim light it looked light some university professor's study, with wood panelling everywhere.
There was a desk-like arrangement atop a small dais in the room, it was to this which the Doctor walked over to and pushed a series of buttons on it tutting to himself as he did so.
Then the lights came on and Ian could see the room in all its, albeit small glory. There was a small set of stairs that lead up to a black void on one side of the room, a light above it was off but everything in the room suggested that one should walk through it.
"What is this place Doctor?" Barbara asked.
"Oh?" The Doctor asked distracted as he opened another panel on the desk and continued to push buttons. "Susan could you..." The Doctor trailed off seemingly asking for an assistant.
Susan walked over and pushed several buttons. To one side Ian noticed a wall he thought was blank had shutters on it, which had opened to reveal a very large screen.
On it seemed to be equations that were scrolling through with immense speed. After a minute or two of the Doctor and Susan watching the screen the Doctor seemed to realise Barbara had asked a question, Ian was too caught trying to decipher the equations which seemed to be gibberish.
"This Barbara is the secondary control room," he said with some disdain sniffing as he looked around.
"Secondary?" Barbara asked.
"In times of emergency the ship can be controlled from here. The collapse of the dimensions has made this necessary," the Doctor explained.
"Collapse?" Ian looked over at the Doctor worried.
"Are we trapped in here Doctor?"
The Doctor seemed amused by Barbara's question. "Of course not my dear." He motioned the void Ian had noticed.
"But how if the doors are..." She trailed off, the Doctor again seemed amused by the question.
"This is not some simple human house my dear, there are many ways of entering and exiting. Now you two, come and stand here, and hold on, the ship's landing mechanisms are compromised," he said being far more serious he motioned them up around the small desk which now Ian was closer to it he realised it was a smaller version and missing the dials and moving centre of the main controls.
"Rematerialsing in 10 seconds," Susan said, her focus was completely on the numbers on the screen.
"Nine, eight, seven," she continued to count as the Doctor also seemed to concentrate. Ian felt his body being pushed and pulled, it was worse than their first trip in the ship, but this time he was prepared and ready to hang on, however it was still intense pressure on his body.
The noise of the ship landing formed all around them and then with a thump he felt the ship hitting the ground.
Everyone seemingly exhaled at this point. The Doctor pressed a button and the image scrolling equations were replaced with a vision of tents, sand and people.
"Ha ha...hmm very good." The Doctor said, Ian realised the large screen must function in a similar way to the television screen in the real control room. "Just a moment," the Doctor said as he walked up the stairs calmly. Then they saw the Doctor standing looking at them smiling broadly and then he re-entered the ship.
"Is it grandfather?" Susan appeared to know something.
"Yes my child," the Doctor smiled broadly as he walked over to a cupboard in the corner of the room that Ian had not noticed and brought out a stamp of sorts, stamping his hand and smiling, doing the same to Susan and then to Ian and Barbrara'a hand before they knew what he was doing.
"What-" Ian started.
"Simple diplomatic status," he said, "Come along." He pushed a series of buttons on the desk and motioning them quickly out of the room.
Later...
Ian looked around the large room.
According to the Doctor they were on the planet Hyspero, a planet of markets, of wonder, of tales of mystery, of history and culture. Where adventurers travelled to and where wanderers ventured. It was also somewhere the Doctor and Susan had been before.
The Doctor had told them that they would need to stay out of the TARDIS for several weeks for the internal dimensions to reassert themselves. Ian fleetingly thought it was because the Doctor wanted to have a wander around, but he seemed genuine about what he had told them and more to the point Susan also agreed with him, it seemed whatever had happened to the ship it was bad and they needed to stay away.
In the mean time the Doctor had booked them all into something like a villa or a hotel and given him 'card of credit' which bore the words 'New Galactic Bank'.
It was rather unusual, considering the danger, disaster and everything that befell them. He wondered if this was what the Doctor did when the ship worked.
The room he was standing in was inside a multi-domed building that looked like something out of Arabia, but it actually seemed to be some sort of conference centre.
He had declined Barbara's earlier suggestion to go shopping and exploring with Susan, the Doctor had merely said he'd probably see them at dinner and also wandered off.
Ian had just felt like looking around, there was also the promise of beer, something that was noted in the 'tablet' device that they all had in their rooms Hyspero supposedly had a range of drinking establishments.
It was a silly thing Ian thought, but beer, the English pint was something that the TARDIS was sorely lacking, the food machine with all its wonders could not produce a pint, unless it was a pint of water or milk.
But in looking around for such establishment he had found this auditorium space, it seemed there was a conference that was going on, an archaeology conference it seemed.
The sign at the door stated that the talk was 'Advanced Technological Species and their impact on less-advanced civilisation.'
Ian sat down in the auditorium and flipped through the notes that he'd found at the door the flyer noted at the bottom 'Presented on genuine paper!'.
This was more Barbara's sort of thing, but it was something he rarely got to do, sit and listen (unless it was the Doctor) to a lecture. It seemed this was a multi-university presentation with doctors and professors and also students from many universities. Almost none of them he recognised, unless Luna University referred to Earth's moon, the University of Rago Rago 56, Rago sounded positively not from Earth, but then there were also people speaking from Aberystwyth University and University of Cambridge both of which were on Earth and also St Oscar's University which sounded like it was on Earth, though he'd not heard of it.
But, Ian mused as he stood up to let a being that looked like a giant hamster pass along the isle he had to be many centuries from the Earth he knew.
-/
Ian looked along the bar, they had been told at the end of the speeches that there was to be a soiree following. A chance to mingle and talk and the like.
There were beer taps, or things that resembled beer taps there but no one to serve the drinks.
"What're drinking?" Asked a female voice, Ian recognised her as one of the speakers during the conference.
"Uh," Ian started. "Beer though I'm not sure."
"A man after my own heart!" She beamed at him. "Oi! Two pints of Arcadian Ale." The woman shouted at the bar.
Ian watched as a robot popped up from the bar and then dispensed two pints of beer. Ian was still fumbling with his 'card of credit' when the woman waved her card at the robot.
"Expense account," she explained. Ian had barely taken a sip of his pint when the woman spoke again. "So you're a time traveller."
Ian did his best not to splutter into his pint. But the woman grinned delighted at him. "I enjoyed your presentation on" he paused "Osirain influences of Martian culture," he said recalling her lecture, it had been quite fascinating. He didn't even know there was a civilisation on Mars.
"Thanks, you should buy my book," she motioned towards some comfortable chairs and a table between them. Once seated she was watching him again. "20th century was always a favourite of mine," she said after a moment of watching him.
Ian wasn't sure what to say, in all his travels with the Doctor he'd not met anyone who'd been able to tell he was a time traveller. It was a description he'd not even considered himself if he was honest.
"How did you know Professor Summerfield?" He asked as he placed his drink on the table in front of them.
She beamed at him. "You're doing better than some of my students who can't remember my name, let alone the difference between the Sumaran and Sensorian eras."
Ian had never heard of either of those eras. "They're not from Earth are they by any chance?"
Professor Summerfield laughed. "No. You're a long way from Earth now, so when did you leave?" She asked curiously.
Ian was thrown for a moment, it was the first time anyone had been frank about time travel to ask when he was from. "Kidnapped more like it," he muttered to himself, but by Professor Summerfield's expression she heard it. "1963."
"And by the accent English," then she muttered something to herself. "Same year as the Shoreditch Incident."
"I'm sorry?" He asked.
"Nothing, just remembering," she paused and took a long gulp of the ale. "So where's the operator of your time machine, it's always fun to meet others."
"You're a time traveller?" He asked curiously.
"I was," she replied.
Ian nodded. "He's off wandering around."
"Scheming and playing chess with the universe?" Professor Summerfield queried cynically.
This time Ian laughed, he doubted the Doctor could ever do anything like that. "I'm not sure what he's up to. Off sitting in cafés or visiting libraries or something I'd imagine."
"Probably not the man I knew, though he did have many faces." She seemed to be watching his face for a reaction. He didn't know what she meant, if something was to be meant.
"So, anyone else's lecture you enjoyed?" She asked curiously.
"Aside from yours?" He asked drinking more of his ale, Professor Summerfield was right, it was good, though he could not match her rate of consumption.
"Professor..." Ian paused and couldn't remember the name, only how the 'person' looked, it made him smile thinking. "From the Santa Diana University...uh"
Professor Summerfield smiled. "She's a Pakhar, they don't like" she paused and leaned in towards him "being compared to giant hamsters."
Ian chuckled. "I'd imagine not. The woman who was on near the end River Song."
"'Post-deity myths in transient counter cultural societies and their effect on the technological revolutions.'" Professor Summerfield recalled.
Ian nodded. "It was interesting, but she didn't seem focused, there was a man who was watching her."
"Observant." Professor Summerfield raised her glass to him. "The man in the fez," Ian nodded. "I don't think he's dangerous."
"Do we even know who's dangerous and who isn't?" Ian mused taking a large swig of the ale.
"They're usually the ones pointing guns at you," Professor Summerfield noted.
-/
Much later and several pints of ale later Ian made what he thought was a dignified walk into dinner with the Doctor, Barbara and Susan.
The Doctor was laughing. "You've been drinking Chesterton."
Ian dropped into a chair. "I went to a lecture today Doctor and met some professors."
"Oh? That's not like you Ian," Barbara observed curiously.
Ian accepted the glass the Doctor pushed into his hand. "This will replenish your fluids and speed the flushing of alcohol from your system dear boy."
Ian did have to admit that he had gotten into something of discussion with Professor Summerfield that had involved several pints, and while he'd valiantly tried to match her intake he hadn't been able to.
He wasn't used to drinking in the early afternoon till night, not since his early years.
"How was your day Doctor?" He asked across the table, trying to be bright. "Spent the day playing chess with planets?" He asked in an amused tone. The Doctor seemed genuinely baffled by the question.
"Strange question Chesterton," he seemed genuinely annoyed by even the proposition that he might do so.
"How many drinks did you have Ian?" Barbara asked as she moved around and sat next to him, loosening his tie.
"A few," Ian admitted as he accepted a jug of something luridly coloured that smelled like fruit from Susan to fill the goblet in front of him.
"It looks like more than a few Chesterton," the Doctor chuckled as he gestured a bowl full of something. "Eat, Chesterton, some of this, the lipids in the dish will absorb your day's indulgences," the Doctor smiled at him again, seemingly greatly amused by his plight.
-/
A few days later the Doctor had announced he'd organised a special trip of sorts.
Like a camping trip, without the travelling, he'd handed them bracelets "teleport bracelets, like on Marinus" and that they could use between outposts.
It had been interesting to get away from the city.
The conference he'd been to had seemingly departed the following day, along with most of the educators who had been presenting at the conference.
Now they were sitting, literally in the middle of the desert, there had been a market they'd been to earlier in the day. But that was all but gone, all evidence of it had disappeared, there was but a single lamp post-like structure signifying the teleport field.
-/
Ian, Susan and Barbara were sat around a fire, waiting for a kettle above it to boil, having polished off some fish earlier in the night. According to Barbara they all had names, the fishmonger she'd bought them from had been most insistent that they remember that when it was cooked.
Ian had spent the day wandering around with Susan, it had been interesting to spend time with her as opposed to Barbara and the Doctor. The Doctor had been off on his own again, seemingly enjoying this detour.
Susan had even bought him a book from one of the market stalls that seemed almost TARDIS like, their tent slash caravan arrangement almost seemed bigger within than without.
The book; the Aja'ib was all about strange tales, about an evil rogue that summoned the devil, and brought forth sea monsters, who summoned djinn and tries and fails to kill his brother. There was another story about iron autonmata, people in purple fur coats and a white bird of temporal inclination dividing a city lost beneath something. It was quite strange but Susan had seemingly plucked it from a table full of books and said with a strange smile that she thought he'd enjoy it.
It was now tucked into his pocket, its stories seemed to grow as he read them, he'd been tempted to flip to the end and see if 'The end' was written somewhere. Susan had looked shocked. "Knowing the ending Ian isn't what it's about, it's the journey. Even with time travel, we explore and experience. Knowing how things end isn't the purpose, it is experiencing them." And then they were off buying a sorbet from a purple horse with yellow spots.
The kettle seemed to be taking a long time to boil.
"It's the air pressure here, the fire carriers protect their fires during the night. It takes longer to boil water at night on Hyspero," Susan said as they watched the kettle.
Amazingly Barbara had managed to find tea, actual black tea. Ian had spent a few minutes just smelling the container of it that Barbara had procured. It was those little things, tea and ale that made him wish for home, for Earth. And yet staring up at the sky he felt chills run down his spine as he looked up seeing the multitude of stars and the small moving things in the sky; spaceships, hundreds of them in orbit. They were, according to the Doctor too big to land, so sent smaller craft to land or used the teleport systems.
Thinking of the Doctor, Ian looked across past their unfeasibly large tents that were the size of a tent he'd used as a boy and yet were like a cabin within. Away from their camp site a good couple of hundred yards away was another smaller camp fire, with two figures sitting in front of it, and behind them, a red double decker bus.
"Should we have saved something for the Doctor?" Ian asked again watching the two figures, in the pitch dark that was around them he could see two pricks of light; from the cigarette of one figure and the Doctor's pipe.
Susan followed his gaze, her expression unreadable, though Ian suspected sometimes that her expression was only readable when she wanted it to be readable. "No. Grandfather knows what he's doing. That woman would have provided something."
"Probably gin from the smell of her," Barbara commented. They had been briefly introduced to Miss Iris Wildthyme earlier in the day. It seemed she knew the Doctor, and even knew, how he couldn't fathom, of their time on Skaro.
He must be getting used to the strange happenings with the Doctor, because upon seeing a red London double decker; the number 22 to Putney Common he didn't think it very out of the ordinary at all.
The sound of the Doctor's laughter wafted across the distance between them.
"We'll let the old boy have his fun." Ian said turning back to the two women.
"So what should we do to pass the time?" Barbara asked.
"We could tell ghost stories." Ian offered. "That's what we'd do in my scout group. Gather around the fire and tell stories while we warmed our hands on hot cocoa."
"Should I have found some cocoa while I was out Ian?" Barbara asked amused.
"Not with that green ooze." Ian shuddered.
"Skarasen milk, it's quite desirable to some species," Susan added helpfully. "Especially from non-bioengineered varieties."
"So who goes first? I'm afraid my ghost stories pale some what compared to what I've seen with the Doctor." Ian said as he added another log to the fire, it cracked and spluttered before the flames surged up, feeding on whatever sap was within it, then it settled down.
"I can, if you'd like," Susan said, drawing their attention after a minute of silence.
They both nodded.
"In the dark days, when the universe was but a still idea in the maelstrom of reality," Susan paused looking between the two human teachers. "When the Old Ones" she spoke the name with reverence and power. "Roamed seeking a way into the forming universe. The Intelligence binding its web seeking out form. Shub-Niggurath taking her traumatic birth on Polymos. Elements of Chaos taking their lead from Azathoth, even the Shobogans saw his light." She said with a smile. "Hastur the Unspeakable rose from the depths of the ocean of space and time, their wolves seeking out across the universe changing and altering events, Hastur's power could alter manipulate time itself," she paused, breath caught in her chest. "And then came the birth of the universe when the old ones cried out, and grappled forth into our universe, a single Lloigor, the Nestene birthed on Polymos, the Mandragora spiralling through the universe seeking a form. The Carrionites speaking their ways into the universe from beyond the fold," Susan paused "Then, as wars were almost won, the bowships screaming across space to defeat the Great Vampires, with them being destroyed, new beings were discovered.
The Pantheon of Discord coming forth, bringing chaos in new forms and new iterations, the Trickster creating chaos in ways beyond Hastur and Azathoth's imaginings." One of the logs cracked, making Ian and Barbara jump, but Susan merely looked at them curiously. "Then, we met the Angels, they spread their wings out into the universe. The kindly assassin, some have called them. Faces of stone, bodies of stone, they are without time," she paused, this sentence seemed weighted. "But they could steal, thieving the timeline. They hide their faces while being the most vicious of creature, frozen when viewed, they are locked, unmoving in the gaze. Watching them brings them into existence, but watching them is the only way to save yourself. They can take your life, your potential throwing you to the oceans of time herself, washing you along a timeline. Death in the most gruesome of sorts, at the hands of time herself far from your beginnings, forcing a life upon you, whilst scraping, gnawing at the meat of your timeline until you are but a forgotten husk."
Ian became aware after an indeterminate amount of time that the kettle was boiling, steam jutting into the cold night air. His mind was alight with imaginations, of angels of stone, of monsters from before the beginning of the universe. He looked over at Barbara who seemed to be equally troubled and trying to decipher the story that Susan had told them.
"I'll make the tea shall I?" Susan asked brightly, seemingly unaware of her story's affect on her two human companions.
Present...
Ian had skipped through the events on Hyspero waiting as Harry listened, he was having some trouble getting his head around this young man was the little boy, Harry Potter, a boy who wouldn't be born for another 10 years at least.
-/
"Those angels," Harry said as Ian recalled the story Susan had told him.
"The angels?" Ian repeated. Susan's ghost story had remained with him for some time. It seemed more scary to Susan than it had been to himself and Barbara, the content of it had weight with Susan, far more than with himself and Barbara.
"They sound to be an apt description of the things that attacked us," the younger woman, Daphne Greengrass, Ian thought to himself commented.
"They match the description of your story quite well." the blond man said.
But Harry seemed troubled. "They do, but, from what I know, we should have gone back a lot further."
This attracted attention from his two companions. "What? Potter?"
"If it is what my contact's information provided, he was sent from our time back to Henry the Eighth. I wonder why we ended up here," Harry said musing to himself. To Ian's ears he sounded almost like the Doctor in that moment. "But it's a good thing we're here and not then, we'd be royally buggered if we ended up then."
"As opposed to now when there's," the blond man, Draco, was his name started and then seemed to remember his place. "Events happening that these muggles wouldn't know about," he finished.
-/
Ian had put them up in set of rooms close to the top of the house; the collection of rooms had a small drawing room that was near by them.
It was here that Harry was sat much later into the night thinking, after a meal and a chat, whereupon Daphne and Draco had gone upstairs to do whatever, he'd had a real chat with Ian and Barbara, and now here he was, thinking, a pen and pad in hand, considering their options.
Hanging around for a lift wasn't an option, especially considering he was already here, not to mention the other two.
He had one thing written at the top of the note pad 'Call the Doctor' and underneath it 'How?' with lines scribbled under it. Leaning back in the old arm chair he stared at the ceiling, in thought.
He didn't know how long he'd been staring at the ceiling, maybe he'd fallen asleep, but the door creaked open and he looked down from the ceiling to see Draco Malfoy walking in as though he owned the place, though seeming somewhat surprised to see him sitting here.
"Potter," he said in a short tone.
"Draco," Harry greeted him with not much of a smile.
"You've finished speaking with your muggle friends," Malfoy said with some distaste.
"For now," Harry said. "There's some tea and an electric kettle there if you'd like a cup," Harry motioned by the window.
Malfoy shook his head, touching his arm as he did, Harry had noticed it much earlier in the day, and he'd been meaning to address it with Malfoy.
Malfoy sat down opposite him. "So have you worked out, Potter, how to remove us from this time period?"
"Not yet," Harry admitted then added. "It is complicated."
"As complicated for us as for you?" Malfoy said, though Harry wasn't quite sure what he meant.
"I don't really care what your family gets up to during this time Draco, I've been here once and been tempted, been tempted to see my parents," Harry said his voice rising. "But I didn't, I followed my mission, and met people whom I knew died. Most of the people I met here from the wizarding world are dead in our time," Harry briefly paused. "I could have prevented those."
"But you didn't, the saviour in you Potter must have been burning," Malfoy challenged.
"The sanctity of the timeline is more important," Harry nodded to Malfoy's arm. "You needn't worry about that."
Malfoy wrenched his hand away from his arm. "What?! Potter how can you know!?"
"I know because of what I've suffered against him," Harry said darkly. "The scars we carry are from another time, another world. That's where they're connected. Not here."
Malfoy seemed to relax a little bit. "And what if you fail to come up with an idea to save us all Potter? What then?"
Harry smiled. "Draco" this focused his attention. "I'm Harry Potter, when have you known me to fail?" Harry asked with a slight chuckle.
"Multiple times Potter," Malfoy answered instantly.
"I meant when you're not at the foot of the stairs, mocking," Harry continued.
"I would never watch from the foot of the stairs," Malfoy continued.
"No a Slytherin sneaks around," Harry smirked.
"We are long beyond that Potter," then Malfoy stood up and left.
Once the door closed another person spoke. "It's good to see you're getting along so well," Harry almost jumped, he twitched a bit and he could feel his heart racing somewhat as Daphne sat down into the chair. "How long have you been in here Daphne?"
"Long enough," she smiled mysteriously. "Do you believe what you told him?"
"Which part?" Harry asked distractedly as he tried to slow his heart beat down.
"The connection across time shouldn't reassert itself, you are right in your observation, even if your knowledge of magical theory may be lacking," Daphne analysed watching him.
"Isn't that what I said?" Harry asked watching Daphne who was wrapped in a night gown that knowing her she had prepared in her bag just in case. It accentuated her body in just the right way. Harry chastised himself. He had more important things to consider at this moment.
Although it was tempting as she turned and left the room to follow her. But instead he exercised some self control and picked the notepad back up to resume his brain-storming.
-/ - \\-
Ian stopped at the top of the stairs, in thought, Barbara was still in bed, not quite asleep, not quite awake, the in-between time. The time that used to make him twitch awake if he was bedded down in some inhospitable environment on an alien world somewhere.
Now there was someone who came from that time, a boy, a man now, who wouldn't be born, a boy who wouldn't encounter him for more than 10 years.
It was Harry Potter though, that he and Barbara were sure of, the way he moved and spoke, his enthusiasm and his knowledge of them, their encounters, it brought back many memories of their time with the Doctor.
Barbara also noted that Harry knew the Doctor far better than they did, although he hadn't said so, it was the way he spoke with such enthusiasm, yet holding back a certain amount of knowledge, consciously.
His dreams had been filled of things from Hyspero, of tales and stories, he'd even found the Aja'ib, it was something he'd had in his pocket, he'd stuffed it in when they'd left the TARDIS on Mechanus and he'd not taken it out. It was, aside from the mud and sand on their clothes the only memento from their TARDIS travelling days.
Walking down the stairs he tensed, he could see a figure standing in the kitchen.
"I thought about cooking breakfast for you all, but it seemed a bit presumptuous, and a bit of a cliché," Harry said as he walked into the room, in response to his quizzical look.
"Clichéd?" Ian repeated looking around the kitchen. Nothing had been touched, aside from the kettle which had been moved and a tea pot had been taken out.
Harry smiled wryly. "Guests arrive randomly and one of them gets up and cooks a wondrous breakfast for their guests that they've imposed upon."
Ian nodded along with Harry's odd logic, delivered in such a cynical tone. That was something that he had not encountered in the young man he had met in the past, his past. This man, this younger man than himself, had far more of a sarcastic and cynical streak through him. His companions were also much like him in some ways. "Your companions?"
Harry shrugged. "I'd imagine still asleep, well, Malfoy" He shook his head seemingly correcting himself. "Draco is probably asleep. Daphne's probably awake. A journey through time like that unprotected leaves you a bit out of sorts."
"We never had any trouble in the TARDIS, I got more jet lag flying to America," he said as he filled up the kettle once more.
"The TARDIS..." Harry paused, seemingly trying to think of the right word. "Compensates, I think for the time differences," he said as he sipped his tea.
As Ian set the kettle going once again he looked over to the table where a note pad sat, it was covered in notes. Without thinking he walked over picking it up.
It was only as he flipped over the second page that he'd realised what he'd done.
"I-"
Harry chuckled to himself. "What do you think?"
"What is it Harry?" Ian asked looking at the notes, there were words with circles drawn around it in forms of creative diagrams and thought analysis.
"Notes on what to do, to get away from this time," Harry sighed iin frustration.
"Because you're still here," Ian replied.
Harry nodded.
It was somewhat confusing, even talking with Barbara late into the night last night. There had been that incident on Xeros when they'd jumped a time track. But he'd never faced the possibility of meeting himself. As in actually running into himself. But he did know he would, in the future, he would have to stay away from Little Whinging.
It was strange to think that when he and Barbara had been there, they would be here also. Or rather the reverse.
Harry had, while Ian had been thinking to himself indicated the affirmative. "This is also a very dangerous time for my associates to be here."
"The war that the Doctor talked of," again Harry indicated an affirmative but didn't elaborate.
"What happened to Dalek time ship?" Harry asked suddenly.
Ian was thrown for a moment. "The Daleks' time machine?" He asked. "We set the self destruct."
"Which would have left parts, nothing's 100 percent effective," Harry mused.
-/ - \\-
"What are we doing here Potter?" Draco asked in a disgusted tone having accompanied himself and Daphne in apparition to the same location, guided by Harry.
"The muggle stored the parts from an alien time machine that he destroyed several years ago upon returning to Earth. Or weren't you listening to Harry Draco?" Daphne explained casually.
"I was listening thank you Greengrass, why did we have to attend your scavenger hunt?" He commented.
"Did you really want to hang around Barbara and Ian's house all day? A muggle's house?" Harry asked as they walked along a row of storage units.
Malfoy was silent. Harry came to a stop in front of a door and withdrew some keys from his pocket.
Ian had said that Barbara hadn't wanted this stuff stored at their house, but if need be he could construct his mechanism there or somewhere on the grounds.
There was just a single bulb above to illuminate the space and what was within.
It was a pile of white panels, some Dalek controls. No pieces of Dalek though, disappointingly.
Some clear broken tubes, some round controls that matched the sucker arm of a dead Dalek or two he had at his house in 2005. There were also a few screens, also round and all mostly broken.
"Rather thorough," he muttered to himself as he made his way around the room.
He had a very vague idea of what he needed, he had begun to mess around with some of the temporal technology that had been left on Earth, mostly as a defence system, and he'd listened to the Doctor enough to build a beacon of some sort...Hopefully.
"What is all this junk Potter?" Harry resisted the urge to punch Draco Malfoy and briefly pondered what it would've been like if instead of Malfoy here he had Ron.
"No, that's actually worse," he muttered to himself.
Malfoy looked sharply at him. "What was that Potter?"
"Just pondering to myself, what this would be like if you weren't here."
Malfoy sniffed. "I have been thinking that since I met you Potter, I think my world would be immensely better if you were not around."
Harry turned around to look at Malfoy who had picked up piece of what was probably a wall. "I very much doubt that Malfoy I-" Harry stopped as he saw what he'd been looking for, well not exactly looking for, but what he had assumed he'd find. A temporal stabiliser element was a function of all time machines, or so the Doctor had said in the past, which was probably the present at the moment.
Harry didn't quite shove Malfoy out of the way, but he did move to within quite closer quarters of the other man.
Malfoy made an annoyed noise as he did so. "Don't mind me Potter, just shove yourself around like any commoner."
"I trust your rush means you've located something that will assist in rendering us assistance?" Daphne asked curiously, she had followed him into the storage area but had restrained herself from actually touching anything, unlike Draco.
At least, Harry reflected he hadn't had the Mad Cow's reaction to the idea of aliens, or perhaps Malfoy had just taken his indifferent approach to this and put it down to Harry's madness and love for muggles.
Harry didn't really want to question Malfoy's motives, he was here, he hadn't apparated off, so that was okay. He didn't want to have to worry about him going off and trying to change history.
He wasn't sure his other friends would show the same restraint. Harry cursed himself silently and hated himself for a moment for comparing Ron and Malfoy.
Pulling out a simple canvas bag that Barbara had provided him and that he'd subsequently charmed to be larger within he slipped the temporal stabiliser into it along with several of the screens and controls, just in case.
"If you're done fondling the alien technology Draco." Harry asked in a tone similar to Malfoy's, who just glared at him and gently placed the piece of wall he had been fondling back where he had found it.
-/
"So that's it, you use this piece of technology and you can have us removed from this area of history that you forced us into?"
They were in a stable on the edge of Ian and Barbara's property. There were places closer to the house, but Harry had just a very slight concern in the back of his mind that if he plugged up this Dalek technology they might turn up to pick it up.
Though the Doctor had said something about these Daleks, or this era's Daleks being tied up with Taranium and master plans or something.
But he still didn't think that Ian and Barbara would appreciate elements of their past; Daleks, turning up and wanting to kill them, or serve them tea, the latter was more disturbing to his mind and was only there because Draco was currently lounging in a chair drinking a mug.
Why Draco was here was a wholly other question, he could have remained in his room at the house, but both he and Daphne were here in this stable.
Harry dragged another hand through his hair as he attached the volt meter to another part of the Dalek equipment, the screens he'd managed to get the smallest amount of flicker out of them by wiring them up to the power that was in here, nearly electrocuting himself, but it seemed they were far more thirsty than 230 or so volts that the mains power could supply.
"This is not going to be a simple solution is it Harry?" Daphne asked watching him, having put down the book she was reading; Death in the Clouds, she'd found it in Ian's library.
"There's nothing in the stabiliser…" Harry leaned back in the chair thinking to himself. "Or any way to power it when…" Harry felt the chill of realisation trickle down his back as a dangerous idea formed in his mind.
-/ - \\-
The following day he was dressed approximately as he'd be when he was last here. With Daphne and Draco in tow they'd apparated to a base that he'd thought he'd try his best to avoid.
UNIT HQ.
As far as he knew the Brigadier had ordered the machine the Doctor had Osgood construct to be reconstructed, just in case. Now he had to go and ask the Brigadier where it was.
With Daphne and Draco keeping watch for his earlier self.
How did his life end up this complicated? Harry asked himself they walked towards UNIT HQ.
-/
Earlier…
"Potter, this is Weasley levels of stupidity, you were the one warning us of this kind of interference." Was Draco's reaction when Harry had explained what they needed to do.
"What of a source of…" Daphne waved her hands around. "Energy, time turners require specific energies to function, it is in part what makes them so expensive."
"Yet the muggle could use one for school," Malfoy commented.
"Let's keep the ludicrousness of letting Hermione use a time turner to take extra classes out of the conversation Draco," Harry said quickly and wondered if Ian would mind if he poured himself a double scotch and looked up at the ceiling. He wished the Doctor was here, wished he could go and see his friend and ask for help. But this all was getting too complicated already.
"It will be simpler to borrow the equipment than for me to try and make it myself, I don't think I'd know how," he admitted.
"How do you know that you in the past won't be there tomorrow?" Daphne inquired.
"I'm off tracking down and k-" Harry stopped himself but both Daphne and Draco already knew what the rest of that word was, he corrected himself nonetheless. "Disposing of one of Ginny's supporters tomorrow, I think," he said as he realised he had the attention of both of the pair in the room.
Draco was looking at him again with a look of, something unreadable about the man. Every time he spoke of the…the removal of Ginny's supporters it seemed to grab both their attentions.
Present…
Daphne trailed behind Harry with Draco in tow, they'd all three visited a muggle emporium to gather some clothing for this outing, Harry being particular about the clothing he needed to wear. To wear something as close to his 'earlier self' as he referred with such casualness that revealed his ease with the concept of temporal transference.
Now, here at this muggle facility, dedicated to the combatting of aliens it was clear that Harry had indeed resided here. The muggle soldiers that they passed recognised him, addressed him as someone who had spent time in their company.
She and Draco had cast some minor spells to ensure they would not be noticed, though nothing drastic, she had assured Harry that it would not be noticeable to his earlier self. While Harry was far more than capable, he was not as an expert in some of the magic that she and Draco had knowledge of. It was not a judgment on him, merely a statement on their pureblood upbringings.
-/
Potter wasn't deluded, he hadn't been making this up. Draco was realising, he had entertained the possibility that this was some mass group delusion between the three of them, perhaps something psychotropical, that he might snap back from and into the world of the waking.
But this, the people who addressed Potter, the ease and casualness that he addressed these muggles and they him, was beyond a construction of his mind.
He had agreed with Daphne's decision to cast a series of charms to prevent their presence being discovered, temporal excursions such as this were worse than dangerous. If Potter was to be believed, and he, by his standing here it was very obvious that Potter was not being deceptive, that he was honest in his assertion that he had spent considerable time here, it meant that they were in the past.
He touched his arm again.
Potter had also assured him that that would not be an issue either. Everything Potter had said so far had been true.
Draco was ambivalent about how he should react to this. It was a state he had been in since they had arrived here and he had been able to take in Potter's state.
-/
They'd made it up to the Brigadier's office without running into anyone too important, plenty of the lads whom he'd had many a drink with, but no one like the Doctor, or Jo, whom he'd managed to avoid all the time he'd been here, and it would be in amazingly bad form to run into her in the here and now.
Knocking gently on the door to the Brigadier's office he almost jumped out of his skin when the Brigadier came up behind him.
"I thought you were out today Mr Potter, running an 'errand' of yours?" Harry turned around and saw the Brigadier standing there smirking at having caught him out.
Further back into the offices around the Brigadier's office he could see Daphne and Draco, hand at wands, waiting.
"Brigadier, I thought you were at a meeting at well," Harry said casually as his heart rate returned to normal and tried not to smile, seeing his friend again, despite being able to see him in his present and all.
"I was, it finished early, have you changed clothes Mr Potter?" The Brigadier asked.
Harry raised an eyebrow. "You never comment on Jo's outfit or Corporal Bell's hair, yet Brigadier you mention my clothes, will the Doctor be jealous?" Harry mocked, this rustled the Brigadier.
"Really Mr Potter, now" he walked past unlocking the door to the office. "What had you sneaking around my offices?"
-/
Draco looked over at Greengrass, she had been as reserved as she always was since they had arrived here. Her family had not been directly involved with the war, with the Dark Lord, or with Dumbledore. Neutral.
The man whom Potter was caught by seemed to be associates, even friends with Potter by the way they bantered.
-/
Daphne watched, this was the Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart that Harry had said that he'd like her to meet at some point. The man he'd talked of that he'd met during this time and rekindled his association with in their own time. They clearly had a banter, a relationship here. But there was also a deference, a mutual respect present in how Harry referred to him, not just in title, but in body language, his whole stance changed both obviously and subtly when he spoke with him.
She could also see Draco studying her, when she was watching Harry. She shared Harry's feelings that it was preferable that Draco was present here and not his friend Ronald. Draco was far more predictable than Ronald Weasley, and more tolerable to have in her presence.
-/
Harry had managed to give the Brigadier a convincing if convoluted argument why he should be able to take a look at the diaphermic resonance generator and that the Brigadier shouldn't ask him about it and should wait for him to bring it up.
He wasn't quite sure how he'd managed to make it sound so convincing but he'd left with some signed papers from the Brigadier for permission to take the mostly rebuilt generator and the Land Rover that it was being built on.
He'd collected Daphne and Draco who had been patiently waiting and they'd managed to make it almost all the way across the UNIT base until he ran into someone he was hoping he wouldn't, even though a part of him secretly wished he did. He quickly motioned with his hands behind his back to Draco and Daphne, who hopefully found refuge between the vehicles they were walking between.
"Harry! Old chap, I thought you were out today, running errands as the Brigadier likes to say." The Doctor was in his overalls, obviously playing around with Bessie.
"He's back from his meeting," Harry said noncommittally.
"Playing around being soldier and politician, poor old chap," he chuckled.
"He did look relieved to be back at HQ when I saw him," Harry said as he tried to act as he did, had or whatever when he'd been here previously.
"Is something wrong Harry?" The Doctor was watching him closely now.
Harry shook his head. "Nothing more than usual, the pressures of concerns about the web of time and everything," Harry dragged a hand through his hair.
"Yes, it is a lot to concern yourself with. If the Time Lords hadn't…" Harry gave him a look and he chuckled. "Something we both know about, more and less so in our cases Harry."
"Yes, hopefully my mission and your time will be dealt with at some point soon Doctor," Harry said casually.
The Doctor watched him and smiled. "Yes, now I think I'll go and see if the Brigadier has got his funding and I can finally get my extra lab."
"Or at least the Brigadier can get some nicer scotch for his office," the Doctor chuckled at Harry's comment.
"Now don't get yourself injured again Harry," he said seriously as they parted.
"I've got some people to watch my back. This time," Harry said to himself as the Doctor walked away.
-/
There was something powerful about the man in the grease stained clothes. Draco thought as he watched the…man walk away. There was something distinctly un-muggle-like. Potter also related to the man unlike the military muggle or anyone else he'd thus far spoke with.
But this man, he carried himself with such power, and yet there was something else so him as well.
-/
Another facet of the Doctor, and once more another aspect of a power being. Harry was very casual and friendly with this man and they seemed on even terms. It was intriguing to see him interact with this man who existed without the shackles of time.
Yet there was also a youngness to him, despite appearances which was somewhat lacking in the man she'd seen on the riverbank.
Later…
"Should I ask what a Land Rover is doing in my shed?" Ian asked as he joined Harry in the library. Harry was musing about how to do something even more dangerous than going to UNIT HQ.
"I borrowed it," Harry said simply.
"One part of your plan finished Harry?" Ian asked watching him.
"It just gets more complicated from here," Harry said with a sigh.
"Is there anything Barbara and I can do to help?" Ian asked.
Harry smiled at the older man and shook his head. "You've done plenty, I know this would have been far harder had you not been here."
Ian shook his head. "You're a resourceful young man Harry, the Doctor thought so too."
Harry smiled. "It's seems such a long time ago."
"In the future and the past," Ian chuckled.
"Time travel." Harry shook his head.
-/ - \\-
This was dangerous.
They'd arrived early, this was down to his not perfect memory for things like when he met people in pubs for casual drinks.
There was also a possibility that Moody and Dumbledore were still keeping an eye on him, him in the past that was.
Draco and Daphne were checking out the surrounds just in case, and they'd be joining him inside, once he, his earlier self had left.
Harry wondered to himself why he didn't notice all this when he was here the first time.
Although, it never would have crossed his mind that he'd be back here, within spitting distance of himself.
He was vaguely sure he was close to breaking one of the laws of time.
-/
It was Harry's conveyance, here and now, this is when he had come to own it. Daphne mused to herself as she cast detection spells.
For Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody and anyone else who was in the Order of the Phoenix, whom Harry had somehow managed to meet and not cause a magical schism.
Now they were here, at a pub to meet, Harry hadn't said, some people who would help.
He seemed pained and happy to be here more so than at UNIT or with Ian and Barbara.
The two muggles intrigued her, and she'd spent some time speaking with Barbara. After she had revealed she knew of the Doctor and time travel, though she didn't reveal how much or little she knew, Barbara was more forthcoming about her tales with the mysterious Doctor.
-/
Potter was taking a risk, being so close to his earlier temporal self. Draco cast a series of spells around him, rubbing his arm again. Being this close, potentially to Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore, who was alive and possibly trailing Harry Potter, and not even this Harry Potter a younger earlier Potter.
His continued existence, in a life he knew relied on Harry Potter.
Draco swore under his breath, such a concept would have worried him greatly in the past. But now, having been around him his opinion had shifted somewhat.
From his vantage point he could see Potter waiting and watching for himself to leave the bar. It was one that seemingly was frequented by wizards but had ample muggle access and even it seemed muggle patrons oblivious to the wizarding population there.
Then the door opened and he could see both Potters.
It was strange, Draco had never used a time turner, but had read of the inexplicable sensation of observing two versions of oneself or another person. It was unlike use of a Polyjuice Potion. The earlier Potter was still very much Harry Potter.
That Potter was speaking into a muggle communication device and then climbed into his conveyance and drove away.
Then Potter motioned to them to follow him into the establishment.
-/
Daphne was annoyed with herself that she had not realised sooner, that Harry was here to see Gideon and Fabian Prewett. By the bar was a man with a camera, who it seemed had just finished taking some photos.
-/
"Friend Harry," said one of the men, Draco didn't recognise them, but they were clearly wizards, and had a similar head of hair to the Weasleys.
"I thought you said you had to deal with something, with your muggle friends," said the other younger man.
"I did, it's…complicated."
-/
Harry was very proficient at explaining complicated concepts such as the predicament they were in at this moment Daphne mused. She and Draco were sitting close enough to Harry to hear yet still watch the bar.
It still pained him, though he hid it well to ask his friends for assistance. Especially these friends who would not survive the war.
He showed great restraint in not revealing their fates despite their friendship, even though the method of time travel was not magical, and therefore the repercussions could not be magical, he was still seemingly aware of the greater implications.
-/
"Who are your associates friend Harry?" Gideon asked looking over to Draco and Daphne, paying attention it seemed to Draco.
"Two others who were flung back with me." Harry said casually. Draco wasn't the most subtle looking of wizards. Striking was a word that came to mind, along with several other less flattering terms.
"I know it's something massive to request of you, but…" Harry trailed off. The alternative was attempt to break into the Ministry and steal a time turner himself.
There were too many ifs in that scenario, what if he or the others got caught, what if they were identified, what if they had to disable someone in the Ministry? There were too many variables. Even just going to Diagon, even though he'd wandered around there himself in his past, going there now with Draco and Daphne…triple the dangers.
This had its dangers, but Gideon and Fabian were, Harry mentally corrected himself are, and then swapped back to the past tense once again; were his friends and he knew he could trust them.
-/
"You recognise those two and this place," Draco said, surprising Daphne somewhat with his observational skills. He was not as unsubtle as his aspect suggested to people who did not know nor understand him.
Daphne swirled the drink in her glass, they were sat a short distance away from Harry and the Prewett brothers, placed so they could watch for anyone entering the establishment. Just in case someone who knew the brothers entered and came upon this meeting.
She didn't acknowledge him, but this seemed to give him cause to continue.
"Those two, they look familiar, they're purebloods," Draco mused. "But obviously don't care about the subtler elements."
Which meant, in the world of Draco Malfoy, Daphne mused that they were not dressed in the finest clothing. She allowed herself a small smile, it was Harry's cynicism that made her think that, a few years ago the thought mightn't have occurred to her, or she might have thought as Draco did, and a few years ago she suspected the thought would not have amused her, yet now it did, despite where and more importantly when she was.
"Something amusing Greeengrass?" Draco asked, seemingly annoyed she had not responded to his musing.
"Nothing that would interest your view of the world Draco." She paused sipping her drink. "They are Gideon and Fabian Prewett," she said answering his earlier implied question.
"Prewett?" Draco Malfoy frowned in thought.
Most pureblood families knew other pureblood families, it was something they learnt, who the were related to, who they weren't directly, who had affronted whom and how long ago that was.
"The-" Draco said but Daphne fixed him with a hard look, shifting her eye over to the brothers and Harry.
"Quietly Draco," Daphne softly reminded the wizard opposite "remember where we are."
"Weasleys? Potter's friends with them and he's off trying to kill their relations?" Draco snorted, amused, then he chuckled. He seemed almost ready to break into laughter.
Daphne inclined an eyebrow, she hadn't considered the amusing elements of their and Harry's predicament, both here and now and when he was here in the past. Although, she did not have Draco's sense of humour when it came to such things.
-/
It was much later into the afternoon when they decided to leave, Harry admitted to himself and apologised to Daphne and Draco that they had gotten carried away with their conversations.
Not that the pair seemed to care much, they had seemingly discovered that the pub served meals, something about pre-war wizarding food. He made a note, though he'd probably forget to ask Daphne about it later.
Then as they were exiting the pub someone grabbed him in a headlock, jabbing a wand into his kidneys.
He was surprised more than anything else, and somewhat excited as one did when adrenaline flowed in times like this.
"Hello Potter," his attacker whispered into his ear.
"And Greengrass and Malfoy, how far have you fallen, associating with the deviant Harry Potter. Ginny will be pleased to hear that you…you who have been removing our brethren."
"Oh buggering hell." Harry sighed, he hadn't gone for his wand though it was nice that both Draco and Daphne had drawn theirs.
"Harry?" Daphne queried as he struggled, the man's grip was quite tight on his throat.
"Might I introduce you to one of the nutters from Ginny's little group," Harry said as casually as one could with his head held by said nutter.
"The cultural terrorists, so they exist Potter," Malfoy seemed amused.
"I would think you Malfoy would support us in our crusade against Potter's deviance and malfeasance. She and the Patron will hear of this. Not just Potter, but his cohorts, whom he has brought into the fore," the man began to rant.
Harry sighed again, though he was worried about mention of 'The Patron', not many of Ginny's madmen had mentioned him. And he, his earlier self didn't even know who he was and what they were doing, and which organisation they were working for. Yet.
"Don't do anything or Potter's guts will be over the ground," the man spat at Draco and Daphne.
Harry felt the man's grip tighten along with his body, the telltale signs of preparing for side-along apparition.
"You make the mistake of thinking," Harry said carefully tilting his head forward and to the side, as far away from the man's head as possible. "That Draco Malfoy gives a shit if my guts are on the ground or not," Harry said slowly and then with one move brought his head back. Backwards headbutting the man.
"Stun him!" He bit out as he stumbled. Two stunners hit the man as he tried to move.
"Thank you," Harry said as he reached down and picked up the man's wand and looked between the two wizards who had their wands out offering it to both of them. Malfoy took it.
"Used often, looks like" Malfoy paused and looked at Harry. "Yew."
"How fitting considering he's following a mad woman," Harry said as he pushed the man over with his foot and started to search his pockets, but then stopped himself, looking back to the two others as he realised he didn't know the man.
Which meant that he'd have to deal with the man. He said as much to the pair watching him.
"So?" Malfoy asked confused and annoyed with his statement.
"So, I dealt with all of the Mad Cow's followers while I was here, if he knew we're here, then he might have told others, which means I need to control this," Harry paused, this time his heart heavy. "I'll need to extract any information and deal with him."
Harry paused his voice softer. "Draco, I'd like you to come with me," then he looked to Daphne. "It'd be safer to be together. But you might see a side to me that changes your opinion of me. I'll understand if you want to go back to Ian and Barbara's."
-/
"I'll understand if you want to go back to Ian and Barbara's." Harry was looking at her calmly now, and worried. He would be carrying through with actions he had done when he was previously here. Without a second thought Daphne took his hand, with Draco's also.
-/
Potter was somewhat adept at apparating with an unconscious body, though he did not seem to care if the man splinched or was injured in transit. There was something of a cold, calmness to the man, dangerous even.
They had apparated into a seemingly abandoned muggle factory.
There was a metal chair, and some tools on a bench, further in was the unmistakable smell of burnt ashes.
"You've been here before Potter," Draco observed.
Potter dragged the man over and hauled him into the chair.
"Grab that rope could you Draco?" He asked, still very calmly as he searched the man.
Draco looked around and saw some dirty rope. As he picked it up he realised it wasn't just dirt, but blood. He heard Potter remove a money bag from the man's robes.
"No where else he'd be hiding anything, I don't think," Potter muttered to himself taking the rope from Draco and expertly took the man's hands, binding them each individually before tying them around the chair and then the rope together.
-/
"Daphne, can you cast some anti-apparition wards that he can't get through," Harry said, the adrenaline rush had faded, and now replaced with the realisation of what he would need to do again. He hated that he knew in detail what would needed to be done. He knew he had to do it as well, their presence here had the possibility to severally disrupt the time stream and his own personal timeline.
But and crucially to his prior mission here, this man, he didn't recognise, which meant if they'd not found themselves back here he might have wreaked havoc. Or perhaps he had dealt with him and he didn't remember it, because now he'd seen Harry and his cohorts and thus his past had changed.
Harry didn't know which it was, but either way, past or present he would have to deal with this.
"It's done," Daphne said calmly, she was standing a short way back from where he was standing. Malfoy also, was standing, watching and waiting.
"Wake him," he said to either of them.
-/
"Wake him," Potter said, it sounded like an order, though not one he'd ever heard before, not in that tone. Draco levelled his wand at the man, countering the spell, it was both his and Greengrass' spell, so he was slow to come around.
"Now we begin," he heard Potter say, though it seemed he was talking to himself rather than speaking directly at him.
Then Potter, with what looked like great practice and no hesitation cast the Cruciatus cruse at the man; holding it for several seconds.
Draco found himself wincing at Potter's choice, his directness, and even his ability to hold the curse for so long. He did know of many other wizards who could do likewise, but none who had been associated with such light wizards as Dumbledore.
"Oh good," Potter's voice was steely, showing almost no ill effects from holding the curse for so long. "You're awake."
The man had been shouting, screaming even, this was something Draco Malfoy had learned to ignore.
"You're awake," Potter repeated more firmly.
"Potter."
The man's anger was palpable, though Potter seemed entirely unfazed by this, even as the man attempted to spit at Potter he seemed unimpressed. Although, spitting was something of an uncouth response to a situation, it was however to be expected of someone of a stature that would follow the Mad Cow, Ginny Weasley. A title, Draco still found amusing.
"And your friends, deviants, mad men as well, like your own, fondling your own insanity together in the orgy of-"
Then Potter aimed a reducto curse at the man's foot, a bloody mess splattering onto the ground.
"I've heard it all before and worse, I've met your Patron and Miss Weasley." Potter commented in a casual bored tone.
"You-You…" He was stuttering and dribbling. Draco recognised it as shock.
"So, have you told anyone about me and my associates here?" Potter asked softly, muttering a numbing spell at the man's damaged foot.
Potter was adept at these intelligence-gathering techniques. Very adept in fact.
Draco had witnessed many fellow wizards and witches torture, some uncontrollable like dear departed Aunt Bellatrix while some were restrained yet gleefully utilizing all forms of torture as the Carrows did.
Potter though was different.
It was curious to watch him, all the while his own wand was out, pointing at the man in the chair who continued to struggle against Potter's…attention.
Draco chanced a look to Greengrass who was, as was often the case had an almost unreadable expression on her face.
-/
Daphne watched Harry with a closed expression.
Harry had talked of his time, including events such as this, but watching her…watching the man she…Daphne cursed herself. Watching the man she had come to love interrogating one of Ginny Weasley's associates was curious.
It was a brutality and coldness that she had not witnessed in Harry. Though their business paths had not intersected till this point in time, so there was no chance that she could have witnessed his practices.
Draco seemed also surprised that Harry could wield such precision. Harry might have been amused at that fact, but he was almost entirely focused on the man.
She didn't even know his name, though to Harry the gathering of intelligence seemed to be all that mattered.
Although, if their presence here in this time had been discovered by anyone outside those whom they'd initiated contact with, then they would need to be controlled. The three of them knew the dangers of time travel, perhaps not as in much detail as Harry, but she knew that Draco as much as herself knew the dangers of time turners. She however still did not know how that Granger woman had been allowed access to a time turner.
The expense and danger of them, and she utilised one for extra classes, a muggle born would not have had the requisite knowledge of the dangers involved. Her mother and father had oft told her of wizards who abused them, tales of warning, based in fact. They left scars on their histories, eaten by the majesty of time.
Her attention was dragged back to the reality of the present as the man let out another scream as Harry shattered a portion of the man's leg.
-/
"I'd usually threaten at this point to shoot you, with a muggle weapon, one that's used to fight aliens," Harry mused, stepping away from the man, weighing his wand in his hand, patting it against his other hand. Draco was watching him, and aside from using his wand to tighten the ropes that the man, though seemingly sweat alone had managed to loosen, aside from that he had watched in silence. Though he did seem perplexed, even curious at times.
"You've done this before," the man said in a voice of calm realisation.
"Yes," Harry said looking the man in his blood shot eyes. "And I am here with full permission of the Ministry," Harry paused, it wasn't quite a lie, just not really the truth, he had been here with the Ministry's permission, just not this time.
"I…I haven't reported in, Ginny contacts us when we need to," he said between sobs, looking down at the ground, but then he tensed, finding strength from somewhere. Harry knew the feeling very well. "And she will defeat you, spread your remains for all to see, how deviants like you and your concubines will be dealt with."
Draco choked at this point. "I am not sleeping with Potter."
Harry had to chuckle, despite the situation. "Your leader will be dealt with. Both the Patron and the Mad Cow Weasley."
"What are you going to-" Harry didn't let him finish. "Avada Kedavra."
-/
Draco was shocked at the casual way Potter cast the killing curse. The man whom Potter had interrogated for…Draco wasn't sure, interrogations and torture was something that seemed to affect his sense of time.
Potter was seemingly unaffected by his actions, calmly untying the body and dragging him over to a muggle furnace.
It was something he had quite clearly done before.
If someone had told him that this is what Potter did he mightn't have believed them. The only thing that could surprise him more was that if Ronald Weasley was secretly a genius.
-/
Daphne didn't move to assist Harry, but walked over closer to Draco.
"Are you alright Draco?" She asked calmly, she, they had just bore witness to Harry interrogate, kill and now dispose of a body, a wizard.
"I've seen plenty of people tortured and murdered Greengrass."
But it wasn't an answer.
"It is not a side of Harry I knew much of," she offered honestly.
Malfoy snorted. "I don't think anyone thinks this is a side of Potter. Goody wizard of the light until a few days ago."
The smell of smoke and the sensation of heat made them walk further out of the area into the darkness, each of them illuminating their way with their wands.
"Potter was controlled," Malfoy spoke again, looking back toward the building they had been in.
Daphne remained silent, she was some what practiced in information extraction techniques, though her knowledge tended towards a far different form of information gathering and a different form of information than Harry had needed to extract. Less temporally pressing that what he had needed the information for.
"More controlled?" She asked, only subtlety upwards inflecting her statement so it formed a question.
Draco looked at her as though she knew what he was talking about, she did of course, but it seemed that Draco Malfoy was shocked beyond that which he'd been already concerning her boyfr-…concerning Harry's conduct this evening.
Before he could continue Harry walked out of the building, his expression softened just slightly upon seeing her.
"Thank you for staying around," he said looking to both of them. Draco just nodded, watching Harry curiously.
"Is there anything-" She started.
"His wand," Harry said, his hand out.
Draco gave it to him. "What will you do with it Potter?"
"Dispose of it."
Draco looked as though he was going to say something, deliberately burning a wizard's wand was something that was something of a taboo. Wands were far more useful and could still fetch a considerable amount, even though they were another's at some point. "It's an anachronism, something I should have dealt with when I was last here." Harry said tucking it into a pocket.
"If we take it back-" She started but Harry was shaking his head.
"I closed this mission when I was here, it stays here," he said before turning and walking back into the building.
Daphne listened and fancied she might hear the wand going up in flames.
"Ever the business woman Greengrass," Draco commented in a cynical tone once Harry was away from hearing distance.
She was annoyed with herself that she had been that obvious with her intentions. "As you well know, wands from before" she paused. "the war. Are valuable." Some wizards thought that Ollivander had been affected by his contact and hostage by Voldemort. Though she had heard several testaments that the man's skills were unaffected, even heightened by his experiences.
Draco merely regarded her curiously.
Then they both turned at the sound of hissing of water against hot coals and steel.
-/
Harry walked out of the building, having obviously cleansed himself of his earlier actions, at least physically he had. Though his expression was more controlled than his usual comparative openness.
"Time to go, to leave I think," he muttered.
"Back to Ian and Barbara's?" Draco asked. He had quite quickly stopped calling them 'the muggles'. Harry nodded.
-/
Later in the evening Ian found Harry standing at the window sipping his scotch. Something was up with the young man, even though he had brightened considerably upon meeting John, who had returned from his grandparents surprised to see the house full of visitors. Barbara had told him not to disturb their guests but Harry seemed most pleased to talk to his son.
But there was something resting below the surface of Harry's body language, like the Doctor brooding over something, or Susan when she had one of her 'feelings' it was something that suggested he was disturbed by something.
Barbara had noticed it too, but he had wanted to talk to him about it, this had pleased his loving wife, in one expression she had said that the two men would have a better chance at talking.
"I hope you don't mind," Harry gestured with the glass.
"Of course not, though it's still hard sometimes, knowing you're not born yet, and when I met you not old enough to drink it." Ian poured himself a small dram into the glass, settling himself into a chair. Harry followed after a moment.
"You're worried," Ian said straight away.
Harry smiled. "I'm introspective," he countered.
Ian chuckled. "Introspective enough to drink Harry."
"I'd often go out with the guys after an operation," Harry replied without thinking.
"With the soldiers you worked with, working with," Ian shook his head.
Harry smiled. "Time travel, there are no tenses. It's in the past, for me."
Ian swirled the liquid around in his glass. Harry's friends had already surmised that Harry had spoken with some associates of his, that he knew from before, in order to get the last pieces to make the device functional.
He'd been out to the barn today, while they were out to look at it, it looked nothing like the TARDIS, or the Daleks' time ship. But it also had an air of functionality and a heavy smell of static and things shorting out.
"You did something similar today then?" He asked.
"Something I thought I'd put behind me. Something I've become quite proficient in. Much to my own disappointment," Harry continued.
Ian remained quiet, Harry had not said what they had done, merely that they'd had a confrontation upon finishing their meeting, hence their lateness returning this evening, but none of the three had elaborated beyond that.
"I have seen and experienced a great many things through my life so far Harry, and I know you and I knew the Doctor." Harry was watching him now. "I know that you would not do something outside of your character or to a detriment of it."
This seemed to slightly amuse Harry. "Someone once said something similar;" he paused and Ian leaned forward slightly. "that I had a great capacity within myself and my being and that I shouldn't be limited by paltry people around me'."
"Who said that?" Ian asked curiously.
Harry paused and then answered. "Someone who visited the school, a friend who I've know as long as the Doctor."
"He sounds like a sensible person," Ian said.
"He would think so, the Doctor wouldn't," Harry exhaled. "But while the Doctor remains the same in many ways he, has changed far more than the Doctor." There was great sadness in Harry's voice.
"Everyone changes, grows older, matures, look at yourself," Ian smiled.
Harry nodded finishing his glass. "I suppose."
-/ - \\-
The second meeting was far less eventful than their previous, though given what they were carrying Gideon and Fabian did not wish to hang around chatting.
It was only when they had returned to the barn that he found a letter inside.
Gideon and Fabian told me this would assist travellers lost against the tide on the sea of time.
I hope to make your acquaintance in the future or the past.
Good travels.
Albus Dumbledore
"Do you think he knows?" Daphne asked.
Harry shrugged. "He's a sly bastard, I wouldn't put it past him."
"So this is everything you need Potter?" Malfoy walked into the barn, closing the door against the whine of bulk of the resonance generator outside. The generator he'd managed to attach to power lines without electrocuting himself, something he'd been quite pleased with. Though neither of the two wizards really understood the dangers of messing around with that amount of electricity.
Though what he was about to do was more a case of guessing. He hadn't told Malfoy and Daphne how much he was guessing his way through on memories and half discovered technologies in their own time.
He didn't want them to know how much he was just guessing his way through with this alien temporal technology.
He'd managed to connect what was left of the Dalek temporal stabiliser together to what he assumed was a communications link of the Dalek's time ship. With that was a connection plate for the stabiliser that would take in temporal energy, which would happen when he wound the time turner, as he'd been trying just sitting it on top of it for the last 15 minutes and he'd only got a baseline response.
"You might want to stand back," he said and then added. "With your wands out."
"Why Potter? It's not dangerous is it?" Draco sounded somewhat panicked.
"Yes it's bloody dangerous M-" Harry stopped himself, he was forcing himself from now on to call the not so much as git by his first name. "Draco, it might bring forth unforeseen elements," he said diplomatically, he didn't feel he needed to add that if some things that looked like pepper pots screaming 'EXTERMINATE' appeared they should follow the maxim of 'shoot first interrogate the remains later'.
Carefully Harry wrapped the chain around the plate, balancing the time turner on its side like a spinning top, then careful not to be touching any main parts of it, he spun it. Grabbing his hand back in doing so.
For a moment nothing happened and then all the surviving screens and monitors came to life showing swirling patters, including one of his own design, a simple coded message to the Doctor.
And then…it continued.
There was no immediate appearance of a blue box, or even a computer bank or horse box.
"For a time traveller your friend is not very punctual," Draco said after an hour.
Harry snorted. "He doesn't know the meaning of the word, we can wait in the house."
Daphne hesitated. "Will he know to look, I don't want to miss him."
Harry shook his head. "We'll be lucky if he gets the right house."
-/
Harry and Draco were sat opposite a few hours later playing chess. Waiting.
Ian and Barbara had been informed of what they were waiting for, they too were sitting, reading, with John on the floor playing with his toys. Daphne seemed to be studying the newspaper. Something Harry thought was somewhat odd.
Harry was just about to get Draco into check for the third time when there was a loud flash outside the front door, making Ian and Barbara jump. Everyone else just looked up, except John who seemed in his own world. Which Harry reflected was fitting for someone whose full name was John Alydon Ganatus Chesterton, no wonder he'd adopt a stage name in the future.
-/
"I'll see who that is." Barbara said rising from her chair when no one immediately rose to get the door.
Though Ian noted that all three of their guests had put a hand into their clothing, for their wands, an unconscious move he thought interesting.
"Hello darling, well, well, well, you have aged well. Mind if I come in?" Said a female voice. Ian frowned, a chill running down his back, he'd heard that voice before.
"Did someone call for a doctor?"
-/
Harry had his wand out, with Daphne and Draco following suit.
"Hello sweeties," said the woman who walked into the living room. Harry noted several things in quick succession, a gun in her holster, wrist strap on her wrist and a confident expression. Far, far too confident.
"Accio." Harry motioned thinking of the weapon, but didn't quite say it. The gun flew out of her holster but she caught it, mid flight, placing it and clipping it back into its holster.
"Now sweetie, stealing a girl's weapon isn't at all sporting," she beamed at them.
"Harry, this is River Song," Ian said trying to stop the magic in the room.
"RS," Daphne said in sudden realisation.
"We've met?" She said looking to Ian.
"You've met?" Barbara looked to her husband.
"Daddy, Mummy what's happening with Harry?" Suddenly all attention was directed at John who had stood up between the stand off of magic and the mystery woman.
"Johnny Chess, I'm a great fan of yours," said Song.
"Johnny?" Said Ian and Barbara quizzically.
"Future," Harry said a little bit too loudly.
"John could you go and play in the other room?" Barbara asked her son looking between the three people still holding wands and the woman whom her husband claimed to know. She walked John into the other room, shielding him from the woman, River Song. Something about the woman screamed at her senses danger, though she could not fathom why.
"The Doctor sends his love," River said as Barbara returned to the group who had not changed positions.
"The Doctor?" Asked Ian and Daphne.
"His love?" Asked Harry, almost at the same time as Ian and Daphne.
"On Hyspero," Ian said catching up and changing the subject, hopeful that Harry and his friends would stop pointing their wands at their house guest.
"Hyspero…" She smiled. "That was a long time ago."
"Could you stop pointing things at one another?" Barbara asked as she returned to the room,
"Very phallic all this gesturing with wands," she beamed at them. "Reveals something of your personality I would think."
Harry narrowed his eyes, something about the woman was…off, he wasn't sure what it was though.
Harry lowered his wand. "How come the Doctor didn't come?"
"Busy, busy, busy and he's already here, a few times over," she said simply.
Daphne looked to Harry who seemed to be debating in his mind.
"When the Doctor came and visited me the first time, who did he speak of?"
River beamed at him. "A hermit, on a mountain side, the Cadonwood trees in full bloom."
Harry smiled, and relaxed. "They were dropping their leaves."
"Depends what mood he's in." she countered and looked over to Ian. "I remember now, you spent all of your time talking to that Professor, Summerfield," River said still smiling. "I obviously wasn't interesting enough at the time. Prefer a mature woman. I'm younger now than I was then," she turned back to Harry, Draco and Daphne. "I've dealt with your equipment, very advanced for this point."
"This point?" Harry quizzed. "In time or" he paused.
"Or?" River looked and him with a challenging smile.
"Or in my personal timeline?" Harry asked her. She replied with a smile.
"Touch the wrist strap and we'll get going." She held out her arm.
"That's your time machine?" Ian stared.
River flashed a smile at him. "It's not polite to stare at a girl's assets sweetie."
Harry nodded to his associates. "It's relatively safe."
"How do you know Potter, you've not seen this person before?" Malfoy challenged.
"A friend of mine has one, it even worked at one point." Harry said and to demonstrate put his hand on River's wrist which then arched and sparked.
River whistled. "Temporal differential, are you carrying an extra timeline in your pocket?" She asked, batting her eyelids at Harry.
Harry stared back at her as he rubbed his fingers together, he, for a moment felt older. "What?"
"You are," River gave him a look "or were carrying extra temporal energy, another frequency with you, would have dissipated in time."
"But I hastened matters by earthing myself to a temporal field," Harry mused.
"What have you been up to that would have forced you along your own timeline to restrict" She paused looking at her wrist strap. "almost a year of temporal energy."
"Harry it must have been the statues," Daphne spoke up stepping forward, eyeing River.
"Angels?" River looked at them.
Harry stepped away from here. "The note you sent, to remind Ian about it."
"Should I get it?" Ian asked.
"Spoilers, I don't want to miss the best part," she smiled at him gently.
Daphne looked oddly at Harry and mouthed 'Spoilers?'. "I'll explain later." Harry said in response to her question.
"How close are you to your timeline?" River asked as she offered her arm out again.
Harry shrugged. "A year and a bit, I'm wandering around out there."
River nodded. "And you don't want to meet yourself," she smiled. "I know all about it. You will too," she smiled mysteriously at him.
"Come on Draco, it probably won't smash our atoms across the time lines," Harry offered in a friendly tone.
"What are you driveling about Potter, what're atoms?" Draco looked at him as though he was mad and stepped forward. "Draco Malfoy."
"I know sweeties, now, let's get you back to the future!" River grinned.
Harry just shook his head and looked around, no one else got the joke. "We'll have to get the DVD," he said putting his hand on River's arm, with Daphne and Draco following suit.
"Thank you Ian, Barbara, I'll be back in about 30 years," Harry said.
"Yes, thank you." Daphne added. Draco just nodded.
And then…Harry was sure he saw the vortex, it was…an experience he couldn't really place what had happened.
Then all his skin was tingling and he could hear a voice, a Dalek voice in a very bored tone.
"Temporal activity detected, alert, temporal activity detected alert, temporal-" It was, he realised blinking against the sun coming from his workshop.
"Where…?"
Then Judith and Ioan came rushing out from his house wand and weapons pointing at them.
"Don't worry." Harry said with a smile. "They're with me." Then he turned back to River Song. "Thank you River."
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "We'll have great fun Harry James Potter." Then she looked at Draco. "You too Mr Malfoy."
"What?" Harry looked at her quizzically.
"You'll find out soon sweetie, enjoy yourself," she winked at him and then disappeared in a flash of non-lightning.
-/
A/N:
This is by far the longest chapter so far at 21 and a half thousand words. That's longer than some of my other stories.
I did contemplate splitting this chapter in half, or into thirds, but it plays for me as one long (fine extra long) chapter. I didn't want this to become another arc-long visit, so instead it's a brief interlude.
The 'Remember Hyspero' part takes place after The Keys of Marinus for the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan.
For Bernice Summerfield it is sometime after The Dying Days while she's teaching at St Oscar's and has stopped travelling with the Doctor.
I didn't mention it too much but during the UNIT arc, it was stated by the Doctor off handedly, or mentioned somewhere, that because Harry travelled there through a time field he didn't age because he was away from his normal time. Which meant he was the same age he was when he returned from the past to the present, despite spending about a year in the 70s. In travelling back again and encountering the Angels Harry and they shorted out this difference. I'll probably explain it further at some point hopefully.
I had considered having Ian meet River whilst on Hyspero, but in planning it out I couldn't quite make it work and found having him meet Bernice a better fit for their characters.
At some point I intend to write a full length 'Remember Hypsero' story that shows everything else that happened during their visit to Hyspero as I quite enjoyed writing this little interlude into the past.
Harry and Draco will meet River Song for the 'first time' (for her) in a future chapter.
Update A/N: February 2019 edit. There used to be a couple of paragraphs in these author notes about where events took place in relation to River Song's timeline, which in hindsight was a mistake. I've not really changed much, just tidied things up a little bit.
