Chapter 46
"Gwen Cooper. Hello," Harry smiled in greeting at the former police officer now Torchwood Officer. He'd read of her joining Torchwood, he also knew more than the reports and files that got passed to LPI through the normal procedures. He now had far more data on the Torchwood Institute.
Though still only a little bit on its wizarding arm – Cohort Dow. It was an arm that he was determined to find and hack off. There had been too many projects of theirs he and LPI had had to clean up, plus those that he'd confirmed they'd had an interest in, and those he suspected they had their protuberances all over.
"Harry Potter, League of Paranormal Investigations?" she asked, making it sound like a question but Harry wasn't so sure. Very police like in her inquiry.
"I could have come down and met you in the bowels of Torchwood Three if you'd wanted," Harry offered jabbing a thumb backwards to where the secret lift was.
Despite being February the sun was trying to poke its way through the clouds. There wasn't a lot of wind, which was fortunate as having a conversation out in the middle of Cardiff about secret stuff on a windy day was trying.
"I wanted to meet you first," she gazed at him seemingly sizing him up and then nodded towards the entry to Torchwood down by the pier.
"It's interesting that Jack has my organisation as the emergency contact," Harry mused.
"You, not LPI. Tosh explained you and your group," she commented as they made their way into Torchwood.
"I see," Harry said.
"You and Jack have history?" She asked curiously.
"We haven't slept together if that's what you're asking," Harry countered. "Although he's proposed it many times. I don't ride that way."
Gwen Cooper laughed. "That sounds like him."
Gwen guided him into the hub of Torchwood to where Toshiko Sato was sitting and waiting.
"Toshiko," Harry smiled. "So what is it that's got you all worried then?"
"We're not worried, we just want answers. Play it." Gwen ordered.
It was some footage from a CCTV camera and showed Jack Harkness running past it, the vision switched to another angle, this time obscured and the figure of Jack running past it, a square/rectangular shadow obscured some of the view.
"Jack's comm signal dropped out immediately after this noise," Sato explained.
Harry had never been able to think of an adequate way to describe what the TARDIS sounded like. It wasn't something he routinely needed to describe.
Various UNIT reports alternated between a 'wheeze-groaning' to the rather imaginative 'unfathomable vworping noise'.
It was this noise that he heard.
"I ran that noise through our linked databases." Sato explained. "It said anything concerning it had to be passed up to Torchwood One."
Cooper looked at him. "And anything concerning Torchwood One is under your purview now." Now her tone was definitely accusatory.
Harry corrected her. "It's under the joint jurisdiction of the British Armed Forces and LPI with some assistance from the security services," he paused. "Torchwood One allowed Daleks and Cybermen to wreak havoc on London," Harry continued explaining calmly to the Torchwood officer. "Your recent business with Abbadon didn't go unnoticed either. You're in a fortunate position that the government seems to care about nothing except the election and that other organisations are on the ball."
"Just wait a –" Harry cut her off.
"The noise means Jack has gone somewhere," Harry said explaining "If he didn't return shortly after he left I don't know when he'll be back.
"Where did he go?" Sato asked.
"Jack and I stopped having a temporal relationship some time ago. So I don't know." Harry dragged a hand through his hair and sighed, thinking he'd need to give them some information. "He's been taken by a time traveller."
"A time traveller," Cooper repeated.
"You're familiar with the concept I hope." Harry raised an eyebrow looking at the rift manipulator.
"Yes!" Cooper bit back at him in an annoyed tone.
"If he didn't leave a note then he might be gone for good, his temporal device I know didn't work, so he might have got a lift," Harry paused. "Or maybe he's been kidnapped away."
"Kidnapped?" Toshiko looked up at him.
"Time travellers do that," Harry commented casually. Not that the Doctor would call it kidnapping. Just 'accidental travel' or something like that.
"Jack might have gotten accidentally" Harry paused. "Or deliberately caught up in things. So-" He paused again.
"So?" Cooper asked after a moment or two.
"Get on with your business. I don't think I can promote you." Harry mused as he leaned against the decidedly rickety bits of the hub. "Do what you do." He shrugged. "If he comes back then deal with him and ask him why he left and why he's back," Harry explained. "He's your commander, flying officer or whatever," Harry continued. He wasn't really sure what to say more than that. He didn't have any way of telling which Doctor had taken Jack, it could have been the one whom Jack had travelled with or another, he wasn't sure, but this was Jack's group. "Keep me in mind if you come across anything my organisation deals with," Harry said nodding to Toshiko Sato. "You know what I do. But I think Gwen Cooper," Harry paused. "Do what you do, Torchwood Three is different from those guys in London, or elsewhere. Sit on the rift and make sure it doesn't buck too hard."
Cooper looked at him. "You really know him don't you?" She asked after a while.
"Jack?" Harry grinned. "Of course. I haven't died as many times as him. But we're both a little bit magic, in our own ways." Harry smirked. "I'll show myself out." Harry said as he walked away from the two women.
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Much later that night, after the two women he'd already met, Ianto Jones a former Torchwood One employee, now here and Owen Harper had left Harry returned, invisibility cloak on to the Torchwood Hub.
He'd not brought the cloak with him with the intention of sneaking back into the Hub.
But there were some errors and missing pieces from the data that he'd got from Torchwood One, and the Torchwoods did like their data.
Also, while Jack wasn't here and following Torchwood Three's issues with Abbadon it was the perfect time for a little bit of espionage and piracy.
He could actually do all of this remotely, but it would have been much harder and possibly even beyond his computer skills, which were good, but patchy in places. Being here in person made things much easier, he could also have a nosy around the rest of the Hub.
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Harry wondered if Pearce knew about this and what he'd do.
Not panic.
"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."
That's the thing not to do. Panic.
At least it didn't happen on New Year's Eve, that went off without a hitch. Mostly. The defence minister did some politicking during the final moments. A 'Big Saxon Launch'. Supposedly he was running to be the next PM. He'd only read about it, didn't watch. He and Daphne enjoyed a private night here at his house, alone watching the stars. He'd also tapped into the various deep space monitors and along with his own system managed to make a guess that nothing big and ugly would ruin New Year's Eve. Even if his and everyone else's monitoring systems had managed to miss the 'Christmas star'.
Then the phone rang, in fact two calls from his associates, he hit some buttons putting them together.
"Don't panic," Harry said, he mused he could hear Judith's look that she'd give him.
"Why would we do that?" Ioan asked in an amused tone.
"Why indeed." Judith responded.
Harry shrugged. "Buggered if I know. Not sure if there's anything to be done. Jodrell Bank, NASA, the Tokyo Space Centre, ESA, CSIRO and Patrick Moore appear to be on a conference call," Harry reported. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do at the moment." He said and then added. "You can come around if you want."
"But you're not sure what's going on." Judith asked.
"They're in orbit and there's some form of force field around the planet, so the ISS and Moonbase report. Nothing in or out," he continued.
"So we're buggered, another day on Earth then. I'll bring something for afternoon tea," Ioan said. "See you in a bit." Then he ended the call.
Harry raised an eyebrow. "And let me guess Judith you're knocking on the door. Please come in." Harry pushed himself around and looked for Judith, who wasn't there.
"Please," she said. "I am close to Jodrell Bank, I'll see what they have to say," she said before ending the call.
Harry cursed at the phone, he thought he'd managed to actually read Judith, through a phone call with some accuracy. He wondered if he'd actually managed to work out where she was but she'd just gone to Jodrell Bank to spite him.
No matter. Hopefully 'the human residence' didn't get incinerated.
He'd just got his Lotus back from all the fixes and repairs and everything else they'd done to it.
Plus Daphne and he had dinner plans together for later in the week.
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Leadworth.
"This is different." Judith looked around.
"It's a nice town, my wife and I thought about moving somewhere like this," Ioan said breathing in deeply.
"Devil's End is nice, no church, they've got a nice graveyard," Harry said looking around. "Minus a few bullet and bazooka hits."
Someone had given Jodrell Bank, NASA, the Tokyo Space Centre, ESA, CSIRO and Patrick Moore a variety of concepts. Another take on Fermat's last theorem, a formula that was currently being picked apart and added to the pile of faster than light theories, from what he'd heard this one might actually help the work that was being done. They'd also got something about electrons and mass, supposedly CERN were looking at that one.
That someone had also managed to speak and not appear on any of the teleconferencing calls.
Yet it had been tracked here.
To Leadworth. Thirty minutes from Gloucester.
Royal Leadworth Hospital had also been the location where the 'Atraxi' had landed.
That someone had been the Doctor, at least that's who Harry suspected had been here, he hadn't managed to find any proof as yet.
He'd told Pearce and his superiors that LPI would investigate this one. Strictly speaking UNIT would want to take charge of this, but they were still reeling from the force field thing around the globe.
"No sign of ducks in the duck pond," Judith mused.
"Is it important?" Ioan asked.
Harry shrugged. "Could be," Harry said as he rummaged around in his bag for his temporal scanner, finding it he clipped in the extra battery packs making it heavy and more unwieldy than the portable energy scanner that Judith was holding.
"You really need to fix that," she commented.
"You find me batteries that'll replace a Dalek and I will." Switching it on the batteries immediately felt hot, though did give him a vague sense of where they should be heading.
"Ioan go and check in with the fire brigade, maybe they've got something," Harry said looking around the village green.
"Right," Ioan nodded.
"Judith-"
She cut him off. "I'll come with you."
Harry exhaled. "Fine. I doubt it'll be as bad as last time."
She shook her head. "Last time you were strung up by people eating soufflés and talking about bending the end of time itself."
"Drugs do that."
Party drugs enhanced with what at first glance seemed to be magical ingredients but upon closer inspection appeared to be something magical mixed with an alien plant. It seemed to Harry people were ready to smoke, sniff or whatever they came across to achieve whatever it was they were looking for. The magical ingredients were as hard to track as…as actually anything in the magical world. He'd thought about asking Daphne about it, but had decided instead to ask Draco to see if he knew of anything. Draco could be a useful alternate information source, if he asked Daphne he'd be mixing his personal and professional life together, something he didn't really wish to do. Plus Draco knew far more less-salubrious characters than he suspected Daphne did.
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The source of the temporal energy was a large house in the village, standing alone. No one seemed to be home.
"Should we break in?" Judith asked.
Harry shook his head. "Let's look around first. We don't need to walk into trouble." Judith snorted. "All of the time," Harry finished.
The temporal trace seemed strongest at the back of the house.
"He's been here," Harry called out to Judith who was looking in through the windows. "Batteries are about to fry as well," Harry muttered and turned off his device. The Doctor never had problems with batteries. The Doctor never worked with Dalek technology for that matter, probably, not at any length, it wasn't as though he was off doing things for them. Not that he knew of, but the Doctor was full of surprises.
"Indentation of a police box in the ground." Harry gestured, though didn't move to stand within the indentation. Nor did Judith.
"Indeed," she said. She was walking around the edges of the indentation. "Powerful," she said in a soft voice.
Harry looked at Judith. "Anything else?"
"Restlessness," she whispered. "Definitely some change."
"Interesting." Harry looked back toward the house. "And the house?" Harry asked. Judith often surprised him, mostly by pre-empting what he was thinking, though when she got into the groove of the location there was something else to her observations.
Judith shrugged. "Nothing much, things of note. We could wait around an interrogate them." She quirked a smirk.
Harry nodded. "We could or they could be off with the Doctor."
Then the phone range. Interrupting his musings. "Oh good. You have?" Harry looked over at Judith. "Can we take a copy?" Harry paused and listened. "New system, right, we'll come up."
"Something interesting?"
"Video from inside the stolen fire truck," Harry said ending the call.
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There was no sound, which was disappointing. But a look at the man who'd stolen the fire truck was still useful.
He looked bedraggled. Almost raggedy. Yet manic and talking on a phone.
"That's a lot of points off your licence already that is," said the fire chief of that act.
"In addition to stealing a fire truck no doubt," Ioan mused from beside the computer screen.
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"So is it him?" Ioan asked once they were outside the fire station.
"The Doctor? Not sure? Fits his profile," Harry said in thought as they went back to the Defender. "Not one I've met."
"You've not met him?" Judith asked curiously.
"No," Harry said shaking his head. "As far as I can tell the last co-temporal Doctor I've met was the Doctor who travelled, or will travel with Martha Jones."
"The student doctor?" Ioan asked.
"The one whose cousin died in Torchwood One?" Judith asked. The casualty list for Torchwood One had been significantly easier to get than records of who worked there, those were still being decoded by GCHQ and other departments of the security services. LPI had partial lists of their own, but with the dead being easiest to identify they'd gone through that to try and find any links to the wizarding world, or the regular world.
Adeola Oshodi had been one person whose name had jumped out as having some links to people Harry had or would have dealings with.
Plenty of the Torchwood personnel had gone to ground and disappeared, he suspected they'd never find all of them even when they did unlock all the files. He knew the British security services had some plans to recruit some of those that were in Torchwood and had even begun with those that had remained. If you worked for one secret intelligence gathering organisation why not another? The home secretary had given his approval, supposedly. He was one of a handful of the government who seemed still capable of making decisions for the country. A lot of politicians seemed caught in a trance of election fervour.
"Indeed," he replied. "Hospital now I think, see if they've got any footage remaining, unless a spaceship landing on your roof wipes video recording of the place."
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It didn't, and there was audio.
"That's not a regulation skirt," Judith commented in a professional tone.
There wasn't any footage of the roof, but they already knew what the Atraxi spaceships looked like.
"Is it him?" Ioan asked.
"Face is different, his manner is the same," Harry said watching the black and white footage.
He leaned around and pulled out a USB drive out of the back of the computer. Then looked back to the hospital security manager who was standing in the corner of the room staring off into space. He'd been particularly difficult, hadn't cared about their security clearances or anything.
"I could have knocked him out," Judith said and looked at Ioan and Harry. "You two could have waved your wands and pulled a rabbit out of his arse."
"Which of course would have had the effect of subduing him and letting us through," Ioan deadpanned.
"My way is much more subtle I think. And less effects," Harry said and snapped his fingers at the man, though didn't enlighten further.
"As I was saying sir, whoever you are I can't let you through without-" Harry cut him off.
"You're quite right, we're sorry for taking up so much of your valuable time. Now old chap we'll get out of your way," Harry said with a short smile and followed the other two out of the room.
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"Are you going to explain your being mysterious Harry?" Ioan asked as they walked back to the Land Rover.
"Something about what that alien woman-" He was cut off.
"The mighty morphing alien woman child person?" Judith asked, even without looking Harry knew she was raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, like jelly," he replied. "'The universe is cracked, The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.'" Harry repeated from the security video. Hearing and seeing the Doctor had been enlightening. Hearing that had been worrying.
"You're thinking prophecy?" Ioan asked with a tone of dread as they reached the Land Rover. They'd been tempted to park in the ambulance parking, though the regular car park wasn't much of a walk away.
"I'm not sure what I think. This town…" Harry shook his head as he got behind the wheel.
"Something about it. No ducks in the duck pond," Judith commented in a calm, far off voice.
"…Yes," Harry pondered. "It's something odd about this town."
"Another Aidensfield perhaps? No one seemed particularly psychotic," Ioan commented as Harry drove slowly away from the hospital. "We're going back?" He asked as he turned back toward the town centre.
"Just to see if there's anything we missed, we can use the bigger energy scanner in here to get a feel of things. Just in case," Harry replied. "Nothing in Torchwood's files indicated Leadworth is anything but a little town where nothing happens."
"No nursery rhyme named power plants, humps hiding devilled spaceships or ancient sigils to elder gods hidden in plain sight and no penis waving mages trying to bring about the next genocidal revolution through the power of their mighty cock?" Judith asked, her tone of amusement.
Ioan snorted. "If only. Instead we have a pond without ducks," then added more seriously. "And a proclamation by an alien."
"To an alien," Judith added.
"Yes." Harry commented. "Though the Doctor was here, and Earth is his favourite planet, sometimes. I wonder what the Pandorica is."
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Draco Malfoy removed the letter from the envelope that was typical of Harry Potter's missives. Typical of a wizard who was either paranoid or untrusting it had the marks of a letter processed through a mail forwarding service.
Draco could appreciate that priority level of security. Although it was not practical for the businesses that he conducted. He knew that Potter had more unique muggle forms of instant communication that replaced the requirement for a floo system.
Harry Potter's home and whatever infernal happenings had occurred there also provided a level of security, and that was of some interest. Harry had mentioned he fancied that should any wizard attempt to breach the house and the lands surrounding it that the results would be 'interesting'. There was much spoken in those few words of what might happen.
Draco had mused on it and decided that it was likely not a survivable apparition, from the energies present there, and it removed any possibility of a simple splinching. Not that there was anything such as a 'simple' splinch. Unless it was done by a simpleton.
Draco smirked at his own joke and returned to Harry Potter's letter.
It began informally, although Harry had noted the informal nature of the letter.
'If you wanted someone to write a stuffy lead-in to these communiqués Draco I'm not it'.
The letter went on to explain what Potter had encountered recently.
It did intrigue him, as much as these things did. Potter's world of investigations and everything else was interesting from afar. Not something he wished to be involved in.
Draco removed a small notebook from the desk and made a note of the salient details of Harry's letter.
He would look into what Harry had raised in his letter upon his next visit to London when he had some of his 'art' ready from his work here.
Rising from his desk he summoned a house elf informing it he would be in his workshop should his mother or anyone require him.
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Stepping outside to the rear of his manor he began walking down the path to his workshop.
He had discovered the folly to one side of the grounds of Malfoy Manor during the renovation and cleansing. He had also engaged several specialists to manicure and cleanse the grounds of any spells and traps that might have been laid or left waiting.
From the records in the library within the manor the folly had been the creation of a great-great-grand-uncle.
It had been left to become somewhat decrepit over the years, though his researches did reveal that his grandfather Abraxas had restored it as a retreat from the manor. Why Draco did not know. His father had spoken sporadically of his father and even less of Draco's grandmother.
He had had the folly restored to a shell, at the time he had only a vague idea of what to use it for. The full use of it had only come later when witches and wizards had come seeking his skill at his 'art'.
Tapping his wand on the door he walked in, closing and locking it himself and hanging his cloak on the hook by the door. He slipped on a practical, though not common coat.
There were no house elves in here, he had banned them from the folly, he did not need any magic other than his own whilst working on his 'art'.
That was the way he described the work he performed in here.
It would not do for a Malfoy to be doing physical labour, but this art was a rare one and one that, to be skilled at commanded a high price.
And money was something he enjoyed, and the witches and wizards who engaged his services knew and understood his work required that high price.
It had come as something as a surprise that anyone would seek his skills at repair.
But understandable, it had taken him much study through many ancient and unfathomable texts to repair the Vanishing Cabinet at Hogwarts.
But it had been revealed to him that his skills at his 'art' were in somewhat demand, and for the right price, a high one for his high quality skills he would repair cabinets for witches or wizards.
Through repairing them he hoped to fully understand the spell craft that created them.
Exactly how still eluded him, although he was in no rush to begin creating such complicated pieces. From what he understood thus far the Vanishing Cabinets had been incredibly expensive items to construct when they had first been crafted. There were multiple elements to each cabinet, not just timbers, but the stains and waxes on them, the hinges of the doors, the handles, the ornamentation. It all added towards the cabinets' expense and craft.
For now, just repairing the cabinets kept him well enough busy. He prided himself on repairing them with much more precision than the one he had fixed at Hogwarts. Based on what work he had performed thus far he know realised how fraught his work on that cabinet had been and the potential for danger.
Looking at the floor Draco cursed to himself, he should have swept last time he was in here. Though he wished to begin his work today.
Yet, he knew he would have to do it at some point, or allow the house elves in here, something he did not wish to do.
Only the magic he controlled he would allow to be cast within these walls, and that imbued into the cabinets themselves.
Harry had said the disc shaped thing within his house cleaned his house, an automaton for cleaning the floors. Like a mechanical house elf with one function. It had amused him, and seeing it functioning there was something fascinating with the muggle device that appeared to have an intelligence of its own.
Though such a device would likely not function in this environment, while Harry had commented on his devices that he had forced to function in magical environments, Draco suspected floor cleaning automata were not part of that group.
Perhaps he could enquire with Harry concerning it, Draco mused and shook his head, still amused that he and Harry Potter had an association close enough to be on first name terms.
To think when he had discovered his skill at this 'art' they were on opposite sides, now they socialised together, Harry and Daphne dined with him. They had shared experiences, of shared terror at the hands of angels.
It also had been an enlightening insight into Harry Potter's work, his steel in the face of those foreign statues and his calm when they had been flung back through time.
Walking through to the middle of the folly where, when he had last been within its walls he had left two pairs of cabinets to dry, their finish needed to dry evenly and carefully. The spells and potions layered within he had found needed to evaporate slowly with exposure to the sun, protected from the elements. The middle of the folly had a long window that allowed the sun's light and heat to pass in warming the building evenly in the winter. It meant the folly required few fireplaces for it to be warmed efficiently.
That was especially useful given there were no elves to stoke the fires.
Draco had mused on employing servants; squibs and the like to perform the jobs that the house elves did.
He knew of several families who did so. House elves were bound to the family, witches and wizards, even squibs were still fallible. Although money bought loyalty, though only to a point. No amount of money could save one from one who was truly insane and there was always the possibility in squibs that their lack of magical capabilities manifested in an instability of the mind.
The cabinets appeared in good condition, opening the doors he sniffed, not deeply, something he had learnt early in his potion making lessons. There was still some lingering smells of the potions.
"Still some time," he muttered to himself. Harry had mentioned during one of their dinners with Daphne that he occasionally talked to himself. 'Sometimes there's no one intelligent to talk to', he'd said with a laugh.
Often there were no intelligent people to speak to, though Draco usually refrained from speaking to himself, he kept his thoughts hidden and close. Except when he knew he was alone, and then only as a reminder, an action to fix a note within his mind.
-/
Continuing through the folly he made his way to the rear where a project of his was waiting. He had purchased the Vanishing Cabinet at auction, via proxy as most witches and wizards did. Unless you were making a statement concerning your purchases or did not care, most bought and sold via a proxy. No one need know who was selling what for whom. The cabinet's history was almost non-existent, it had come from the New World, a wizard who found his fortune by marrying and murdering wealthy witches had met his end at the hands of the United States' wizarding authority. Draco didn't know the specifics of how. But most of his assets had been returned to the families that he'd swindled, others items had been sold.
This cabinet as far as he could ascertain had been passed around Europe during most of the 20th century but had likely originated in what was now Russia or possibly Kazakhstan.
It was a 'curiosity' known to spit treasures never before seen in the world from within itself.
Draco had monitored it for several weeks after obtaining it, but it had done nothing. Nor had it shown any signs of magical activity while it was held by the auction house.
It was, however in good condition. There had been some minor work, to fix its doors, locks and feet. But nothing that would prevent it from functioning.
All his spells to test its viability suggested that it was not damaged, nor was the cabinet it was paired with.
That he was most certain, the cabinet that it was connected to was also viable and in a condition that meant things could travel through.
This cabinet intrigued him, it was a mystery that intrigued him.
Through all his researches of it he had been able to find nothing that related to this cabinet.
Though there were hundreds of thousands of tales of mysterious cabinets recorded throughout the ages. Blue cabinets that appeared in times of pain and need, during battles and in great sorrow. But those appeared and disappeared like one would apparate and disapparate.
There were writings out of China of Weng-Chiang and the cabinet he sought, that he could make things grow and with the cabinet would rule all throughout time.
He'd not found much of the history of that particular cabinet, although he knew finding any information was difficult about these cabinets.
But this one still intrigued him, occasionally when working on it he fancied he could hear noises through the cabinet, smells and other such sensations.
These things he expected from older cabinets. Some had absorbed the sensations and memories of their surroundings and those they transported, like ghosts in the wood and stonework of ancient buildings.
It had taken many expensive and specialised potions and spells to cleanse Malfoy Manor of its past indiscretions. Draco had thought at the time he had been too over zealous with those he'd employed to cleanse the building, but at the end of their work he had been more than impressed, the pains of the past had been wiped clean, scorched away right down to the foundations and the lands below.
Yet, sometimes as he'd worked to clean away the past minor damages and repairs of this cabinet he suspected that the echoes of its past lives were not what he was hearing. What he was hearing was, rather where its pair was located. The other cabinet that was paired to this one he stood before.
Now standing before it, his wand in his hand he thought quietly to himself and listened. There were few sounds within the folly, but there seemed like there were many sounds coming from one location.
The cabinet before him. Sounds of people shouting, of footsteps, of noises he couldn't identify. Shouts, maybe screams of terror.
Opening the door to the cabinet, as he had done many times before he sniffed the air, breathing it in and tasting it as one would taste a fine wine.
It tasted of something ancient. Like ancient texts multiplied a thousand times and of mystery, if one could taste that.
Draco told himself that he shouldn't, he wasn't Harry Potter or someone reckless like that.
He was from a noble house and someone who wasn't insane enough to go sticking his nose into danger like this.
But it intrigued him, enough that he pushed all those ideas aside and allowed his curiosity to come to the fore; with one fluid motion performed several times he walked into the cabinet.
The door shut with nothing more than a light click and he found himself in darkness.
Then, then the sensation changed and Draco felt his heart quicken, this was not the normal sensation of travelling through the Vanishing Cabinets, this was something…something else.
He felt his body compress and expand, like he was forced through a hole that was unlike apparating or portkey. It was something different, yet, at the back of his memories he felt as though he'd experienced it before. Time seemed to stretch out and in the darkness he became unaware of its passing for several moments. But then, aside form the falling, sliding sensation he suddenly became aware of something that was both darker and lighter than the space around him and realised with a sudden intake of air that it was the door to the other side of the cabinet.
Withdrawing his wand he aimed a spell at it, forcing it open. Draco wasn't sure how fast he was travelling but to slide into the door at speed would not be pleasant.
The door shifted with some ease, though from the shouts its opening must have impacted with someone.
As he flew out onto what appeared to be sandstone he laid close to the ground ignoring for a moment a scream that seemed to be continuing over a long gully or something nearby.
"Thank you sweetie," said a voice as arms pulled him up. "I had a rather better method of dealing with them," she smiled wickedly at him. "But hitting them with a door is almost something my other half would do," she grinned.
Draco stared at the woman who was holding a weapon of some kind, muggle-like though not. "River Song?" He stumbled the words out, coughing in the dusty atmosphere.
It was then that an explosion occurred somewhere above.
"You know me, how darling of you," then she fired the her weapon over his shoulder. "Best you don't turn around," she said grabbing his shoulder with one hand. She was, Draco was surprised to note very strong. "Don't shoot or I'll kill your little specimen here."
Draco wondered for a split second what she meant and then realised.
"Ms Song I am not…" But he was cut off.
"Don't Ms Song me. You're a sweet little thing but" she pulled him forwards towards her. "You know what they say. No good deed goes-" She didn't finish what she was saying because at that moment another explosion echoed throughout the space and the cabinet and several items beside it disappeared in a swirl of light and sound. Those sounds were mixed together with more sounds, violent ones; the unmistakeable sound of violence, weapons and danger.
"Now the party's really getting started," River Song giggled.
A/N:
This is obviously River's first meeting with Draco. As mentioned when Harry, Draco and Daphne meet River for the first time her first meeting with them is in their future and her past and this is part of that meeting.
Timeline wise things also get a little complicated from here on in.
Harry meets Gwen Cooper after Jack goes off with the Tenth Doctor and Martha which leads into Utopia. Harry's (and the rest of the world's) timeline wise however Martha and the Doctor haven't yet met, the opening TARDIS fill up with fuel sequence of Utopia actually happens beforeSmith and Jones.
There's also Amy and the Doctor (and Rory). I've deliberately not had Amy and Rory meet Harry in this chapter, they will meet in a future chapter. As with last chapter with Blink their meeting needs to happen the way it does and inserting Harry with his better knowledge of the Doctor would mess things up in subtle ways.
Harry will meet the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory at a future point.
Thanks for reading.
