Chapter 45

"How is it you know about this Judith?" Ioan asked looking up at the abandoned house.

"It looks like a house the Mystery Machine should be investigating." Harry already had his wand out, he was taking no chances with this place.

"An associate of mine with connections to the police informed me of it," she replied as they looked around carefully. "Which one of you is Scooby?" She asked looking over at Harry, who didn't seem to notice.

"I feel like I should just leave this alone," Harry muttered as they approached the house. "Being stuck in the past once was bad, twice is just bad form. A third time may be pushing it."

"There's nothing around here to stop us apparating out," Ioan said and then added. "Taking Judith with us of course."

"Yes, don't forget about me; the innocent damsel to your heroic muscles," she snarked.

"Well," Harry said as he aimed his wand and blew the door off its hinges and lead the way in and through to the front room where the message was said to lie.

-/

"Interesting," Harry said looking at the wall, Judith was watching the door and Ioan the window, though there was no sign of any forced time travel Angels.

"Interesting," Harry repeated and then read off the wall. "'Beware the weeping angels. Oh and duck! No really duck! Sally Sparrow. Duck, now. Love from The Doctor (1969)'." Harry stepped back and read the message again silently and then turned around.

Harry then took Ioan's place looking out the window as Ioan looked at and read the message. There didn't appear to be any sign of the time travelling statues in the garden.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to find them. Finding them would be…worrying at best.

"I suppose we should search the house," Harry finally said after a while. Though he didn't really want to search the house, he didn't want to find what might be lurking.

They searched all the above ground floors first until they were left with only one other choice

"The cellar," Ioan said shining a torch, though he didn't move.

"A friend once commented that cellars were a good place to put things. Usually," Harry commented as he stood at the top of the stairs and broke and shook some glowsticks and tossed them down the stairs.

"Didn't take you for a raver Harry," Ioan smirked.

"Wrong decade, that's more your sort of thing I'd have thought Ioan," Harry replied as the stair well was bathed in a green glow.

"Down into the cellar," Judith muttered as she led the way, with Harry and Ioan following behind wands glowing adding to the luminescence.

"Oh," Judith said as Harry and Ioan rushed to her side.

"Fuck," Harry said a chill coming across his entire body.

"Shouldn't they have come after us by now?" Ioan asked.

"Perhaps," Harry mused, neither of them had moved beyond the entry into the cellar. Harry grabbed several more of the glowsticks and threw them further into the cellar, bathing them in a green light.

"Oh that's made them much more appealing, glowy green, very soothing," her voice tight, Judith commented.

"I think we should test them," Harry put his hand on Judith's shoulder. "We should all blink."

"Is that wise?" Ioan asked.

Harry shrugged. "No, quite stupid probably."

"On three then?" Judith asked.

"One, two, three." Harry counted and closed his eyes and then opened them again.

The statues, the angels had remained where they were in a circle.

"Safe?" Judith asked.

"I don't think we're safe around them ever, but safer," Harry said, walking into the room more.

Up close they further unnerved him.

Judith went to walk under their arms. Harry took hold of her shoulder gently. "I don't think so, let's not tempt fate."

She nodded.

They searched the rest of the cellar without finding anything useful.

"Time to leave I think," Harry said as they finished.

"What should we do about them?" Ioan asked as they exited the building. "UNIT, the security services, the military or…?"

Harry leaned against the Defender. "I think 'or'. Firstly and then we can decide what next."

-/

Harry pulled the invisibility cloak over himself and walked towards the house.

He'd suspected things were complicated, more so when he, Judith and Ioan had looked into things.

1969 and the Doctor weren't exactly enough to narrow it down there were still a few mentions of various Doctors present in England at the time.

Though he'd narrowed it down to two and then one. One that had been a possibility was the riot group 'Revolution Man' that had congregated at Wembley Stadium. Though through the photos he'd been able to identify Fitz Kreiner whom he'd met in San Francisco several years ago and therefore the Doctor he'd been travelling with then, the same Doctor who had been travelling with Charley Pollard whom he'd met after all that time turner stuff with Hermione, Sirius and Buckbeak. It seemed like such a long time ago.

That only left the Doctor who had rescued him with Martha Jones from Voldemort. From the graveyard where Cedric had died that night. There were only a few references and photos of him and a film producer whose history read like someone who had future knowledge. He seemed like he'd managed to predict the VHS and DVD revolutions with surprising accuracy. It wouldn't be obvious to anyone, unless you were looking for it, and knew that time travel was a possibility.

Harry had decided to err on the side of caution with regard to Sally Sparrow because he didn't know her. The Doctor hadn't mentioned her and hadn't mentioned that Harry might encounter her and the results of his message from the past.

That Sally Sparrow was also involved with the Weeping Angels, things that he'd encountered and met River Song, someone who had first met himself and Draco before in the past, which was their future.

He was a little bit worried, given the angels, the Doctor, time travel and Sally Sparrow that if the Doctor had written the name of this woman's name on a wall of a house from potentially the 60s and he interfered with that or her interaction with his future it might all unravel. Or he might find himself in a paradox. He wasn't sure.

That's why he was sneaking into the shop to have a nosy around whilst Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale were out at the shop that Nightingale owned and Sparrow worked in alongside him.

-/

"Oh." Harry had found what he'd wanted surprisingly easily, which was either a setup or Sparrow was obsessing over things and hadn't moved on. Considering it had only been a few weeks since her friend and Larry's sister Kathy had disappeared without a trace – likely taken by the angels, that wasn't surprising.

There seemed to be some evidence of a conversation and notes about DVDs. It all seemed to be getting more and more complicated.

He left the house and returned to his car, parked several streets away, just in case.

Judith was waiting leaning against the Jag, which was interesting as he hadn't told her when he was going to the house. "Find anything interesting?"

"Complications," he said shaking his head. "Far too many. I feel like I've walked into someone else's paradox."

"There's people who can help with that," Judith tried as Harry unlocked the doors.

"I'm not involving the little brothers, sisters or cousins in this," Harry cautioned. "It was bad enough the last time," he said as he started the engine.

"What are you going to do?" Judith asked. "Right here, there's council works up the road," she gestured idly.

Harry mused silently for a short moment. For starters he wanted to get the DVDs that were on the list he'd taken a photo of. Not from Nightingale's shop.

Other than that. "Nothing. Maybe keep an eye on Wester Drummlins just in case. The angels can stay where they are for now. If they haven't moved since we came upon them."

"Then they're not going to move?" Judith quizzed.

"Maybe." Harry exhaled. "I'm not comfortable with trying to move them or interfere with their placement."

"No concrete then?" Judith asked repeating Ioan's suggestion of pumping the whole cellar with concrete.

"Maybe not," he paused. "Though we should keep it on the table."

"Now?" Judith looked over to him.

"Now for some DVDs," Harry replied.

-/

It was the Doctor and Martha Jones, having a conversation with it seemed Sally Sparrow.

Harry put his head down and groaned. He wished he'd not found out about this one.

He decided to put it in the 'too hard and leave alone' box for now.

There was nothing world ending and nothing involving magic. It could keep.

The worst that could happen was a cousin with a mask made of bone would turn up at his doorstep wanting to chat over tea.

It had been bad enough the last time that happened.

-/ - \\-

Christmas 2007. Harry really, really thought that just maybe it'd be fine. 2007, Christmas. Nothing would explode, nothing terrible would happen. He'd again been invited to spend his Christmas with Daphne's family, her sister was even in attendance this year. Though Daphne had cautioned him about mentioning her international love life.

It however didn't seemed meant to be.

Just as he was getting ready to wake up in the early hours of the morning his phone rang and as he was wandering outside to take it in a more clear area he heard the floo firecall gong announce itself.

"Don't you ever have a day off Pearce?" Harry asked with a sigh and looked out at the sky. There didn't appear to be any spaceships hanging over London and said so.

"I take it you were somewhere in a media blackout then Potter?"

"Of course, it's where I go at Christmas," Harry said, which was mostly true and a honest response. Sort of.

"Your assistance is required at the Thames flood barrier. It appears we have something of an incident."

"Something that could have terrorist potential if you're there and are worried," Harry commented.

"This could have all manner of potential problems Potter." Harry looked back into the house as Pearce spoke and could see Osric, Agave and Daphne in conversation and Daphne looked out at him and raised an eyebrow in curiosity at him and beckoned him inside. He held up a finger to signal her to hold a moment.

"I'll be there shortly," Harry said.

"Good, the relevant authorities have been made aware of the situation."

"By relevant we're not talking UNIT are we and you don't want to say what has happened at the flood barrier?" Harry asked.

There was a pause of silence. "Some defence communication systems have been compromised, it's being investigated," was all Pearce said before the call ended.

"See you soon," Harry said to himself.

"Harry. Something's happened," Daphne began.

"I know. Something near the Thames flood barrier," Harry said without preamble.

"Yes, I expect our calls were of the same subject," Osric paused and then explained what exactly had happened at the Thames.

"I see." Harry said. "This is complicated." The draining of the Thames was more than complicated but that was all he could think to say at the moment. "I suspect it's only the tip of the iceberg," Harry mused.

"How so?" Agave asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but it's something I need to go and deal with. I'll contact you when I know more," he said quickly. "I do need to sort this out though."

Osric nodded. "Of course, of course. We have two ships moored, it is something I will need to investigate also. If it is safe?" He asked this question to Harry focusing on him.

Harry gazed back and shrugged. "My contact didn't infer any danger, though that is not anything. I would advise caution. It's not like last year," he said looking out the window reminding everyone of the events of last year.

"Of course Harry, yes," he said.

-/

10 minutes later, a blue spinner on the top of the Jag he sped through the police cars that were guarding the entrance to the flood barriers, which at the moment were quite unneeded.

"What's this? Hardly low key." Jo Portman looked at him as he got out.

"Stylish. I think is the word. Classic," Harry said as he locked the door and walked around to the boot and paused. "Will I be needing anything for-" He was cut off.

"I don't think so Mr Potter," said Pearce who beckoned him over to the edge.

"Yes," Harry said as he arrived at the river's edge. "This is a problem."

The Thames was muddy. Like a particularly bad tide had gone out and decided not to come back in. Making the flood barrier somewhat redundant at the moment.

"There's also what appears to be a base under the barrier that's not on any plans," Pearce dropped idly into their conversation.

Harry sighed heavily. "UNIT, Torchwood, the British Government or another organisation?" Harry paused. "Or another megalomaniacal maniac?"

"Should I ask how many of those you reguarly encounter Mr Potter?" Pearce asked.

"Enough," Harry answered. "Some are so mad not even decapitation ends them." Portman walked up as he finished speaking.

"I'm not sure if you're joking," Portman commented.

"I'm not," Harry replied coolly. "You get surprisingly competent at finding other means of dispatching someone when decapitation doesn't work."

The two MI5 officers looked at him. Harry nodded. "Over sharing," Harry nodded to himself again.

"Jo, will you accompany Mr Potter down to the lower reaches?" Pearce motioned towards the open inspection hatch.

"Harry," Portman answered Pearce with a nod.

"I haven't got any easy solutions for that," Harry said to Pearce gesturing at the river. "A cover story will be needed and the estuary will have to tell you when the water will be back along from further upstream," Harry guessed.

"As much as I thought. No magical solutions." Pearce fixed Harry with a look.

"No easy ones. Just ones that would involve more people and bigger security issues," Harry answered. Osric and Agave had mused on something similar, even just to generate a enough water to float his ships out of the river would take some serious spell casting. While it would be possible to summon and move the volume of water…it would actually be very likely easier to hire a crane and truck the ships to the sea.

Harry had already admitted to Osric he didn't know enough about fluid dynamics, the movement of the estuary and the tides to be able to help with things like that.

-/

"Aren't you mature enough to have minions so you're not climbing down into the depths of the Thames?" Harry asked as he followed Jo Portman down the metal stairs having left Pearce on the surface to make various calls for a cover story or to confirm it wasn't magic.

Everything was still dripping wet and warm. Almost uncomfortably so, the result of whatever had happened down here or whatever engineering moved the flood barriers or whoever it is' secret base. Maybe there was another nuclear power plant down here.

"Zaf's already down there securing the base."

"Zaf?" Harry asked looking around at the thoroughly drenched area. "Another of your officers?"

"Yes," Portman asked.

As they made their way down various noises, like rough breathing or maybe machinery echoed around the wet walls and also a noise like a midge or something.

"What is that noise?" Harry asked.

"Some sort of machinery that was damaged in the flood perhaps?" She offered. "The onsite barrier management and maintenance crew's been out of contact since the…" She paused. "Flood and other damage." She finally settled on after less than a second's pause.

"I see." Harry said. "Any bodies?"

"None so far. We're assuming they washed down one of the output pipes," Jo answered.

"Yes," Harry muttered. "Very probably."

As they reached the bottom of the stairs Jo motioned towards an entrance and down a corridor past several closed bulkheads.

"There's sections that shut after the water rushed in. We need to take the long way around," Portman explained as she lead the way.

"We never got around to answering whose secret base this is," Harry said as Portman lead him towards a smaller steel bulkhead door, with radiation symbols on it no less. Though any other markings had been burned off.

"We didn't?" Portman asked amused. "You were too busy talking about the megalomaniacs you deal with."

"That's true. But you must have some-" Harry stopped and groaned a sigh.

"Torchwood," Portman smirked.

"They keep turning up like a psychopathic ex-girlfriend," Harry muttered.

"Got many of those?" Asked Portman in a curious sarcastic tone.

"Just one," Harry answered. "Very psychopathic."

"What'd you do?" Portman asked jokingly.

"Tried to stop time unraveling from her temporal machinations," Harry answered.

"I see," Portman said as she followed him through, closing the door behind her.

They were in another corridor. "Very corridory."

Portman didn't reply to him. As they walked, their feet splashing on the wet corridor there was the noise of machinery or breathing or something and another noise. The midge had developed into sort of wailing, very soft. "Can you hear that?" Harry asked softly.

"What?" Portman turned around a looked at him.

"That noise? Unsettling," Harry said.

"No," she said. "Too many explosions given you tinnitus?" Portman asked though she seemed to be speaking from experience.

"Maybe," Harry said. But he'd gotten himself checkout after every bad explosion. He and LPI now had a medical professional to call upon courtesy of Porton Down and the British military, one who was cleared about all the wacky stuff they got up to.

"Let's keep going, Zaf should be waiting up ahead."

"Good. Let's go towards the wailing screaming noise. Better that than run away from it," he muttered to himself.

-/

"Zafar Youis, Harry Potter, he's" she paused. "An expert with these things."

"UNIT?" The tall man held out his hand.

Harry grabbed it. "No. LPI. Similar but differ-" Harry's eye was drawn to the hole that was further into the room. "ent. Okay, so not a nuclear reactor."

"League of Paranormal Investigations. He deals with other things," Harry heard Portman explain to Younis.

"Magic and whatever right?" Younis asked.

"Zaf used to be in Six," Portman said as Harry looked back briefly.

"I see. I've probably met your boss on more than one occasion, during the whole ghost shift debacle," Harry explained distractedly.

Looking past the various bits of ruined technology on one side of the chamber he focused on the large perfectly cut hole, it was as though someone had cut it with a biscuit cutter or a laser. Probably the latter unless this was an invasion of the biscuit men, Harry smiled lightly to himself.

The hole had been sealed up in a hurry, probably as a result of the contents of the Thames being dumped down here.

There was still what looked like magma setting in a rough pattern about half a metre down. Jagged edges were all around.

As he got closer to see what was bubbling up he heard it; with a smell of sulfur and ancient death hitting his nostrils.

"Oh shit," Harry said pushing himself away from the hole as he realised he knew what that sound was.

"Yeah, that noise it gets into you. They said it was just the sound of water settling."

"Who's they?" Harry asked carefully.

Younis looked at him. "That backup crew who came to asses the structural integrity, they wanted to check to make sure whatever that was had settled. But he burnt his hand, I've just been trying to find him and the rest of his crew." Younis said but he slowed down as Harry became more and more concerned.

"Potter?" Portman had noticed his change in disposition.

'A world destroyed in flames. A world screaming out its rage. Inferno Project Report Dr John Smith, UNIT' It had been one of many reports he'd had a look through during his time in 1970s UNIT. The Brigadier had been mostly happy for him to have a look through them. It was certainly easier to get the reports then than now. It was something the Doctor hadn't talked to him in much detail before.

"You should contact the surface, we need to have armed police to stand watch on the exits, get the army involved if need be."

As if on cue a noise echoed throughout the chamber.

"What was that?" Younis looked towards one of the corridory corridors.

"Make the call," Harry ordered.

As Portman dialled Harry looked to Younis. "Are you and Portman armed?" He nodded. "Good, now look for a fire extinguisher, C02 and shoot anything that looks rabid. With both."

"What do you mean the hatches are locked?" Portman was saying into her phone.

"They've trapped us in here." Harry looked around and removed his wand 'testing the air'; a method for testing the viability of an area for apparition. It didn't look good. All the technology, possibly alien sitting wrecked to one side. There were some odd energies showing up as he waved his wand through the air, some things that he couldn't identify in the spell that just showed up as a series of twirling colourful patterns that either meant 'don't know' or 'dangerous'. The spell's creators likely didn't have these sorts of situations in mind.

"Harry says they think the doors have been welded closed." Portman looked at him. "Is this one of your lot?"

"No, something much worse." Harry stood back from the hole that he'd been looking at. "I only know this from reports, but if this is what I think it is. We can't let that," he waved his wand idly at the ooze coming out of the hole. "Touch us."

"Why not?" Younis asked he walked over holding a fire extinguisher as another noise echoed around the chamber.

"Because it's 'hyper-mutagenic' I think is how C19 described it," Harry explained with a grim face. "An aggressive meta-biological mutagenic agent. Or something like that." Harry shook his head as he checked for his own handgun and wished he'd brought more heavy artillery from the back of the Jag.

"They don't like the cold, according to the scientific advisor on site at the time," Harry said, pulling the pin on the fire extinguisher. "We'll need to kill all those who transformed."

"There's no cure?" Portman asked, her voice tight.

"None was ever considered. It was an isolated incident. Or at least they hoped it was." He looked around the chamber, the lights were still in a mess as a result of the water that had flushed through. It meant there were shadows playing against all the walls. "Depending on the situation, and what intelligence has survived they'll try to turn us."

"Into what?" Portman asked and Harry could have punched her, that was not what you asked in situations like this.

"I expect, that," Younis said and Harry heard the click of a safety coming off as he held up his gun. "Stop. Security Services. I said stop."

The noise the thing, the former human made, the reports didn't do it justice. It was rough, animalistic, dangerous.

It was like the man, had grown a lot of facial hair and teeth overnight. If he'd not seen the transformation of a werewolf, or read any texts about it, it might be what he'd imagine the transformation to be.

Harry shoved his wand into a pocket and withdrew his own weapon. He didn't want to throw magic into this. These creatures were primordial, that's even what the report, or rather the Doctor named them as 'Primords'. It was also how the UNIT and C19 reports named them.

Harry didn't bother to identify himself or warn the creature. He just carefully opened fire; downing the creature.

"Come on," Harry said picking up the fire extinguisher and walking towards the creature. He'd put three bullets through its heart and it was still twitching and trying to get up.

"That's impossible," Younis exclaimed.

"No," Harry squeezed the trigger on the fire extinguisher covering the creature in a C02 mist. It made an unearthly noise, not exactly a death rattle more a clawing fighting wheeze.

Eventually it seemed to die.

"How many in the backup crew?" He asked.

"Three. And four in the original," Younis answered after a moment.

"Let's hope the originals died and ended up stuck in the output pipe," Harry paused. "Can we get out through those output pipes?"

Younis shook his head. "They said the number two output pipe was blown, it took out number three with it."

"Maybe we can reverse the systems or something?" Harry tried but neither of the two security officers seemed to have much knowledge of large engineering projects. He had to admit that he didn't have a gigantic understanding of these things. That was why he'd contracted out with Ioan's help his project with Osric.

Harry looked back at the hole. They could stay here, but that would mean being near the dangerous ooze.

"If either of you suggests we split up I'm going to stun you unconscious," Harry warned. Younis opened his mouth and seemed like he was about to suggest just a thing.

"Potter," Portman started in her reasonable shitty voice.

"We're trapped in here, there is no reason to split up except to get ourselves killed or converted faster."

-/

15 minutes later they'd split up.

Harry sighed, Portman hadn't wanted to listen. She'd obviously been on a 'management of resources' course or something. Three people hunting mutated humans in the tunnels under the Thames was a bad use of resources. As they could be getting up to nefarious actions during the time it would take them to hunt them out together. Best they split up.

He'd argued against it.

20 minutes after that the shouting started, echoing down the corridors. As Harry turned and ran towards the sounds he briefly mused that they deserved it, in a very cynical sort of way.

Running through the corridors he arrived to find three Primords approaching Portman and Younis.

Each of them appeared to have bullets through them. Which was worrying.

"Still sure we should have split up?" Harry called as he fired his weapon felling one of the Primords and making the others angry. Harry squeezed the trigger on the fire extinguisher releasing large clouds of C02 making them grunt and retreat back towards the two MI5 officers.

"Oops," Harry said as Portman and Younis rushed towards him.

"Good plan Potter," commented sarcastically.

"I'm just making it up as I go along Portman," he said handing her his weapon. "You shoot and I'll try something dangerous." He said and before Portman could ask what he levelled his wand and in a simple tone said "Avada Kedavra."

Which of course felled the creature for a moment and then made it angry. "Of course." Harry said as Younis gave another blast of the fire extinguisher. "Freezing charms," Harry muttered to himself as Portman took careful aim. He only had the clip that was in the weapon.

He again cursed having not grabbed his bag before going down into the depths of the world below the river.

"Immobulus!" Harry said as it came to him in a wash of memory. That didn't really stop the creature. Portman had however managed to fell the Primord with a bang and a click.

"Out of bullets?" Harry asked as they continued to back away.

"Yes," Portman said simply.

"Marvellous," Harry muttered. Then took a breath and took careful aim, striking his wand down in measured directed swipes, each time he concentrated and said. "Diffindo." It was harder that he thought and had been tempted to use Sectumsempra instead, but he wanted to make sure the Primord would die and cut into very precise bits.

"Spray it with the fire extinguisher," Harry ordered.

"How are the bits still…" Portman started.

"Moving?" Harry asked. Breathing in a lungful of the warm wet air. "I don't know."

As it died they were plunged into silence.

"Let's make our way back up to the surface," Harry paused and fixed Portman with a stare, gazing into her eyes for the briefest of moments. "Together. We'll make our way back up to the surface, together."

"Together," she repeated.

Younis stared at him.

"Come on Zafar, we can have a chat as we go. And you Jo come on," Harry said and snapped his fingers Jo blinked at stared at them.

"Make our way back up to the surface," she began in a neutral slow tone and began off towards the stairwell.

-/ - \\-

Later Harry sat, hands around a cup of tea watching the bodies be removed by a specialist team that had choppered in from Porton Down. Which is where the bodies would be going; into secure frozen lock up. They'd also be sealing up the hole.

"So what's the Home Secretary saying?" Harry asked as Harry Pearce walked over.

"The government is currently attempting to manage why it authorised tank shelling in inner London."

Harry had heard something of this. "D Notices not ready? Thought they'd have them sitting in a pile given what's happening and my," he paused and nodded to Pearce. "Our warnings."

"They're preparing for an election, bloody minded and narrow vision is the standard for them. Even Saxon's deferring responsibility saying it was the Prime Minister who ordered him."

"And who authorised tanks in central London?" Harry asked.

Pearce held up his hands. "Who knows with this government."

"And our other major problem?" Harry jabbed a thumb back to the Thames which was still muddy and waterless.

"Environmental action. The Environment minister is going to spin something. God knows what. Some cleanup campaign for Christmas, they're bringing in some hovercraft and are doing an emergency survey of the Thames," Pearce explained. "While it's empty." He added shaking his head.

Harry was astounded and said so. "And they really think they can spin this as a good thing?"

"After that alien war earlier and the asteroid last year?" Pearce countered.

"Fair point." Harry stood up as the last of the specialists cleared the bodies and drained his tea, cringing slightly it had far too much milk in it. "I'll just sign off these boys and then I think I'll depart unless there's something else? Zafar will need to sign all the additional things," Harry mentioned as Pearce walked with him over to the men and women who were loading the bodies into a van.

"More paperwork." Pearce shook his head.

Harry offered his hand to Pearce as he finished his own paperwork with the people with the bodies. "Hopefully nothing else will draw us together," he said as they shook. "At least this year." Harry added, hoping nothing would happen between now and the end of the year.

-/

A/N:

This chapter covers the events of Blink, though only up to the bit before the "1 year later" obviously. I decided to not have Harry interfere just because if he does it would mean what we see in the "1 year later" bit would change or would mean that Sally would possibly know more about the Doctor than she does/would come to know.

I did consider having Harry meet Sally and be very oblique about the Doctor, but it would have just ruined the "1 year later" section a little bit. Harry might meet her later, maybe.

The rest of the chapter takes place immediately after The Runaway Bride, heavily inspired by Inferno.