Chapter 47

Harry Potter was rather relaxed, which was different because he wasn't being pursued by anyone trying to kill him, attempt to murder him or generally destroy reality. Those sorts of things relaxed him in an odd sort of way.

He was wandering around looking at things, cars mostly.

There were other things he could be doing. Research into Cohort Dow specifically.

The things that they'd been up to, or rather the things they'd been getting up to that had brought their actions up on LPI's radar had dropped off. Harry mused likely because of the fall of Torchwood One.

Cohort Dow were still a group he wanted to shut down, which ultimately he thought would mean sneaking into the Ministry to have a good root around and interrogate some people. But Torchwood One's collapse was still fairly fresh and he didn't want anyone to be on their guard when he came knocking.

So in this lull in events he'd decided to go car shopping.

His Lotus Exige was back from being fixed and had a few extras fitted, nothing that it seemed had affected the driving quality.

He wasn't really sure what he was looking for but he wanted something that was between the extremes that was his Land Rover Defender that was used primarily for LPI's work and his McLaren F1 that he mostly used to runs up to Wales and occasionally into London. Now that Jack had resumed his travels with the Doctor Harry assumed he'd be spending less time in Wales, if Gwen Cooper didn't keep trying to annihilate the place with spawn of the ancient evils.

There was also his E-Type, which was parked outside where he was currently browsing.

He'd already been shown an Aston Martin or two, reminding him of Ron, whom he hadn't seen in any meaningful way since before the whole ghost shift thing.

Plus some other larger vehicles like Bentley and Rolls Royce. None were exactly making him excited the way his current cars had and still did.

He was contemplating an American car, he had rather enjoyed driving around San Francisco all those years ago.

"Mr Potter, we also have this, it came in from Japan very recently and we're…"

"Interesting," Harry began. As he was about to ask to go for a test drive his phone rang. He sighed and looked at the car once more before looking at the phone. It was Daphne, whom he'd given one of his adapted satellite phones it was lighter than the brick he gave the Ministry. The thing he'd had to sacrifice was battery and magic had an affect on battery life. Reducing the usability of the phone down to less than a day, so he'd warned her only to turn it on when it was really necessary.

"Daphne," he smiled, the man assisting him politely walked a polite distance away. "This isn't a social call then?" Harry said as he walked further away from the man. "Is something…?" Harry paused as Daphne explained. "Narcissa?" Harry nodded. "I see. She's aware I'll need to bring LPI and our gear along, as I assume she's tried to find him by conventional means?" Harry asked. "I see. Well, I guess it's time to return to Malfoy Manor."

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"He's done it up since I was last here," Harry mused as he drove up the drive way, Daphne had asked if he needed her to accompany or meet with them there. He'd said no.

"That was your running around getting captured phase was it?" Judith asked.

"Yes. How times change," Harry replied dreamily.

Narcissa was waiting for them as they pulled up. "Mr Potter, my son hasn't spoken much of your association. But Ms Greengrass' father and I have in passing spoken…"

Harry smiled quickly as he got out of the Land Rover Defender. "Draco and I have a," he paused. "Developed an association, a friendship even."

Narcissa revealed very little; tightly controlled expressions. "I was due to meet my son yesterday night. The house elves inform me he departed for the folly that morning."

Harry nodded. Which meant that Draco Malfoy had been missing for at least 24 hours. His mother was wary and worried, rightly so. Draco had mentioned that while the war was over there were still people who would like his head mounted on a wall. He'd helpfully added that Harry was in the same position for pretty much the same reasons, but on the opposite side of the fence.

"The folly?" Harry asked.

"There is a path that should accommodate your…" she paused looking at the Defender. "Conveyance."

Harry nodded. "I'll walk with you. Ioan," Harry called out and gestured the path that Narcissa had gestured to in a quick small motion.

In a grunt of diesel fumes the Defender drove off towards the folly.

"Daphne said you've searched all the normal places, and that he'd definitely not left the estate," Harry asked looking around.

"No. Unless he walked to the very edge of the estate and then continued walking there would be some trace that he had departed," she explained and then continued. "The folly was locked from within. But upon entering I felt something…" She trailed off. "Unearthly," she added after a while.

"Unearthly," Harry repeated as they came upon the folly.

"If you require any further assistance," she began, still with a tight tone of worry to her voice.

"We shouldn't, but if need be I'm sure if I come to the doors of the manor an elf will be able to help me," Harry said, then thought to add some words of assurance but decided against it.

"So what'd she say?" Ioan asked as he and Judith unpacked some of their equipment.

"That he's not left the estate, that she and the elves can't locate him and that he was last known to go in here." Harry gestured towards the large double doors and then added. "And that she felt something 'unearthly' within."

"Lovely," Ioan said as he removed his wand and Judith checked her pistol.

"Brain suckers or magical demons from the underworld?" She wondered.

"Hopefully neither, hopefully he's just in there getting pissed," Harry said. "Well, let's have a wander before we break out the big guns."

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They were assisted by the fact that Draco didn't keep his floors very clean. There was dust and wood shavings and other bits of detritus on the floors that allowed them fairly easily to judge where Draco Malfoy had walked when he'd come in here.

"You know what these are Harry?" Ioan asked in awe of the things in the room.

"Cupboards?" Judith asked. "Is this where wizards are born? Bursting out of them? With rainbows and streamers thrusting their wand outwards?"

Harry snorted. "No, these are Vanishing Cabinets. Rare, expensive and it looks like Draco's actually been getting his hands dirty."

"There's not many people who know how to fix these. A friend of a friend had trouble focusing for apparition; a bludger to the head, but he was still a good player. The team he played for moved a cabinet to the grounds so he could just step in and go and play," Ioan explained. "It cost the team a lot of Galleons."

"And now your mate Draco is repairing them, it's a bit outside his league isn't it?" Judith asked.

"Draco's always projected an air that would suggest he's not into getting his hands dirty," Harry mused. "But he did fix one when we were at Hogwarts."

"Your tone suggests not for a hilarious outcome," Judith asked looking to him.

"No," Harry replied in a darker tone. "Let's continue."

It didn't take them long to find their way to the rear workshop.

"There is something about this one. That isn't present with the others," Judith said softly as she moved her hands around the cabinet, just above it, not touching the surface.

"Anything…?" Harry began but wasn't sure what to say.

"It goes a long way, far off and away," she almost whispered.

"How far?" Ioan asked in an equally soft voice.

"Further than your friend expected," Judith said as she stepped away from the cabinet abruptly.

"Of course it does." Harry glared at the box. "What do you think about setting up all the scanners we've got in here?" Harry directed the question at Ioan as he took out his wand and Ioan raised his own casting some diagnostic spells, Harry mirrored him with similar spells.

"The folly's been isolated from the manor's wards and there's not a lot of ambient magic. Still…there's a bit, but we should be good," Ioan paused. "You don't think the land lady would let us move it?"

Harry paused for a moment's thought. "She might, but, I doubt it, the more time we spend moving the more time Draco's going to have to get himself lost or killed."

"He's already lost," Judith commented looking at the cabinet.

"And dead?" Harry asked.

Judith glared at him. "I'm not a crystal ball Harry, as much all men are obsessed with round bosom shaped things, get your head back on that dick," she looked to his wand with a smirk.

Harry snorted a small laugh. "Do you want to tidy away some of his things while we grab the heavy gear?" Harry asked Ioan. "Or do you want me to do-"

"I'll do it. I've always been curious about these things," he said pocketing his wand again and removing from his pocket a pair of gloves.

Walking outside Harry once more looked around him at the grounds and the house, now taking it in afresh; it was different in sunshine when not as distracted by running for his life or chatting to the Narcissa Malfoy.

"Memories distracting you Harry?" Judith asked curiously.

Harry shook his head. "Just thinking."

"That you could have all this?" Judith asked, now a touch of amusement in her voice.

"With enormous power, to set myself up above the lords and ladies?" He asked.

"Indeed, set yourself up as a megalomaniac," she joked as she opened up the back of the Defender which was filled with magical bags each filled with different gear. They'd packed everything they could possibly need, hopefully.

"Megalomania is a bit boring. At least all the ones I and we have met. Davros sounds an interesting mix of megalomania and genius though," Harry mused to himself. "A genius and insane." He clarified.

"Voldemort wasn't?" She asked.

"Insane yes. Megalomaniac probably, genius…" Harry shrugged. "I don't know."

"Davros, you're curious to meet someone who's genuinely insane?" She gave him a look. "Because you're curious?"

"And he sounds like a chatty sort of bloke with a sense of irony. According to the Doctor Davros once set himself up calling himself the 'great healer'."

She shook her head. "You're mad Harry, musing on Dalek creators. You couldn't just sit back and read or something?"

"Poetry? Great works of literature? UNIT preparedness reports? Possibly," Harry said as he grabbed the support poles for the largest of the expanding bags. "We'll set up the big ones first."

"I'm sure Mrs Malfoy won't be happy to see these go up," Judith pondered looking back to the house.

"I think Narcissa is only worried about us finding her son. The fact we drove this," he thumped the side of the Defender. "Into her son's property without her batting an eyelash or making a comment says something." Harry looked over at the manor where the aforementioned women was standing and watching. "That before she called us she tried all the conventional means to find him. I suspect some unconventional ones as well."

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Narcissa Malfoy watched as Harry Potter and the muggle woman who it seemed was part of his 'League of Paranormal Investigations' removed several bags from his conveyance.

It appeared from where she stood that they were magical tents, though lacked many of the external features of a tent. They appeared to be something of his own creation by the way he moved around and set them up. A convenient method of transporting equipment for his organisation.

She had not heard of the League of Paranormal Investigations before, though she did not involve herself in the businesses of the Ministry, that was her son's domain, something he did not pursue with as much force as her husband, a man she had little to do with. The war had damaged their relationship permanently. Though it seemed not between her son and Harry James Potter. Two men that she found interesting had formed an association. Although Draco had alluded that he, along with Daphne Greengrass and Potter had shared an experience, one that he had not elaborated on further.

Mature that he now was she did not demand to know, as her husband might have if he had any contact with them.

The devices that Potter and the other woman were extracting from the large tents appeared to be muggle equipment with no magical items in sight.

She had not informed Potter in as many words, that she sought her son elsewhere away from the house and grounds and found nothing. That indicated he had been removed somewhere secure, or…

Or she did not know what, she had heard stories that London had become the site of a madman's dream, floating mechanicals in the sky beyond the muggle's comprehension, large skyships made of rock and bone had hung above London and been destroyed seemingly by the muggles' hand.

When discussing the events of the ghosts the previous year he seemed unconcerned, but had indicated Potter had informed him of their danger. The 'ghostly guards' some of her own associates had called them, that brought death when they gained form.

A third man had joined Potter and the woman moving boxes of muggle equipment into the folly. This man, older by a few years than Potter, although not as old as the woman she did know of. He had been an upcoming Quidditch player, something her husband had once been interested in, though his interest for the sport waned as his needs to increase his association with those in the sport increased.

Ioan Hrycek, a wizard whose name did not command any special power within the British wizarding world had been destined for a good role in the Quidditch world, if not for his predilection for the idea that wizarding power did not rule the fickle minds of muggles. The muggles need to believe in 'aliens' a simple wizarding creation had him labelled a deviant and expunged from wizarding culture.

Potter had also been called this, by Ginevra Weasley, a woman whom she knew had, for some time an almost unhealthy obsession with Harry Potter. She knew that the two had been in a relationship for a few years during their time at Hogwarts. She was also aware of their breakup and Weasley's descent into…Narcissa wasn't sure. The Weasley girl's antics had been of little interest to her. From what she knew she was dead resulting from circumstances that were unknown.

Her son, whom she had briefly raised the topic had mentioned something about Potter and 'the mad cow', but had been interrupted by a firecall before he could explain the inference further.

Potter and his associates appeared to now be setting up a large dish arrangement.

The lawns and paths of Malfoy Manor had never seen so much muggle devices, it was rather interesting. Narcissa did not spend much time in London as her son did. She preferred not to go to the bustling shops of Diagon Alley nor the streets and roads of London. There were still many in London's Diagon that remembered her and her husband, and who they had served.

The large rope-like cables were all being trailed back to Potter's conveyance.

It was, as much as Narcissa knew about muggle conveyances more practical than some. This one, this 'Defender' she had noticed the name on its rear had been adapted to function in a magical environment. She knew of no muggle conveyance that could function within a magical environment.

She had thought no muggle devices could function in a magical environment, but Potter and his associates appeared to have no issue with their devices here, and their organisation it would seem had used them in magical environments before.

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"You know she's been watching us for more than half an hour," Judith commented.

"Malfoys are good at watching," Harry answered, the rear of the Defender was now mostly empty of its bags, save for the laptop and the cables that they'd run out to it.

Their initial readings suggested that the cabinet wasn't too special, there wasn't any alien technology in it.

But it was magical, and there was something other about it, something that showed up on their scanners but was in the question mark field, the bits of the spectrum that due to the fact he'd put the energy scanners together from information from the metal mutt K9. Plus other alien tech that he'd got his hands on, it meant there were some energy readings that fell into the 'I don't know' category. Aside from them being unknown and not within the realms of normal science, and even the extra-normal-classified science that he dealt with.

The dish, which he'd not actually tested yet, which would probably explain the slight sparking it was doing would hopefully let him hook up with his computer at his house, which in turn would connect to the dishes around his property and in turn to other satellites in orbit.

Although he was beginning to think it may have been a bad idea, if the smell of burning continued to waft his direction was any indication.

"I think-" He was cut off as Judith reached past him and grabbed the C02 extinguisher.

"Negative atmosphere around it will hopefully neutralise the magic to normal ratio a bit," Judith said with a smirk as she walked away from him.

"Ye…" Harry muttered as he drew his attention back to the computer, which was just receiving the information from the link up.

It took a lot more typing to get the information from the scanners within the folly to line up with the rest of the data he had available to him.

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"Oh," was all he said, leaning against one side of the Defender. It wasn't so much as an answer as another question mark.

According to all the data he had available to him wherever Draco had gone it wasn't on Earth and it wasn't in the solar system. That actually wasn't quite true Harry mentally corrected his thinking. He didn't know where Draco was. The cabinet's final coordinates suggested somewhere that wasn't on any of Sol's planets, nor anywhere on Earth.

There was other data in that was coming from the scanners including several that…

"Did we bring the temporal scanner?" Harry pushed himself away from the Defender.

Judith paused and nodded. "Want to plug that in and see if we can go for a spin through the folly's history?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I want to do Judith, time travel through the Malfoy's history and meet all of them and warn them about their future," he replied sarcastically.

"That'd bugger the timeline every way to Thursday.," Judith mused.

"It is Thursday," Harry said with a straight expression.

"Some never get the hang of Thursdays." Judith commented. "Boorish people always seem to invade on Thursday."

"…" Harry was about to say something but couldn't think of anything to say to that.

Several minutes and some swearing later more data showed up, Ioan also joined them and the various sparking bits of equipment. The most interesting things of the moment; data, although the sparks that caused the swearing could also have been interesting, probably more interesting than the data and indecipherable symbols that scrolled along the screen.

All this always seemed so much more interesting when the Doctor visited him and told him about all the excitement, all the running up and down corridors and meeting megalomaniacs.

Even in the 70s, there was much more physicality, experimentation to what he'd been doing, now. Data. Lots of it.

"Action later," he muttered.

"We don't need to hear about your sex life Harry, mind on job," Judith said slapping his back. "On your friend Draco. Unless him and action are in your mind together." Harry heard Ioan cough. "Who knows what you wizards get up to away from your partners, all that wand work."

Harry tried to tune out Judith's voice and refused to allow his mind to go to what happened in those Harry Potter and the… books. He refused to go there.

"Well…" Harry began. The data was somewhat inconclusive. The cabinet definitely wasn't a TARDIS, but it was temporally displaced. By a factor of he didn't know or wasn't sure about. The numbers coming from the various bits of equipment didn't give him a scale for him to work out when or even what the scale was in.

It was above, or possibly below the present time. Probably the future given that the numbers were above what the readings he knew of for the 'present' and the recent past.

He explained as much to Ioan and Judith.

They both looked at him seemingly knowing what he was about to suggest next and with a resigned look on their faces.

Judith watched him and said; "I hope you'd go to as many lengths if we disappeared."

"I would do much more if either of you got your selves lost, taken, kidnapped or otherwise disappeared." Harry looked to each of them with a serious expression. "Seriously." Harry repeated. "You're my friends and my work mates, and if anything happens to you I will come running, with a battalion of soldiers in my wake if need be."

Judith snorted. "I can just imagine you with a Roman legion behind you."

"Now who's got wand waving phalluses on the brain?" Ioan commented and was punched by Judith for his comment.

"Start packing away the gear, except anything that'll be useful. I'll brief Narcissa Malfoy."

"And tell her what?" Ioan asked curiously.

Harry wasn't sure.

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Narcissa watched from the window as Potter approached he wore an indistinguishable expression on his face. It was neither grim nor positive it was…resolved.

She left the house to meet him outside in the afternoon light.

"Mr Potter," she paused. "You have information concerning my son."

He seemed to wrestle with an adequate response to her question. He seemed surprised that he did not have an adequate answer for her. That perhaps he had thought he would have had a reply once he was standing before her.

"The cabinet does not lead anywhere on Earth, but leads somewhere that is hospitable to human life." He chose his words carefully, very carefully considering the information it revealed.

Narcissa was not sure what this information meant exactly. But it obviously meant something to Potter.

"I will be pursuing Draco through the cabinet and will bring him back through whatever means are necessary," he explained. There was a fierceness to his words. An almost certainty.

"I see. Even though you do not know exactly where the cabinet leads."

There was the suggestion of a smirk, possibly a smile on the edges of his face. "It's something I've done before." He held onto the smirk, keeping his face neutral. A skill her son had learnt late in life. Controlling one's expression in interactions necessary if he was to live as a Malfoy.

"You do not believe he will return through the cabinet of his own accord?" She asked and then added. "If it is safe where it is located."

"It is hospitable, enough," he said simply. "The cabinet could have been locked away, moved, so could he. I try not to muse on these things," he said, though he was playing against his type, Narcissa could tell he was controlling himself in his interaction with her. This was a more restrained Potter, determined not to reveal as much as he knew.

But she wanted to know, she wanted to know where her son was. "You would tell me where my son is Mr Potter," she demanded.

He put his hands behind his back standing firmer, a formal gesture, one she had not seen him perform before. "I don't know. Truthfully," he paused. "The cabinet is somewhere," he paused again and gazed firmly at her, his green eyes unencumbered by anything else focused on hers. "From what I and my colleagues can ascertain it is not on Earth and not anywhere within the solar system."

Breath was caught in her chest as she digested this information, Potter continued to speak. "It is also very likely that the cabinet has been transposed in time, wherever it is, it is likely in the far future," he paused again. "Or possibly the distant past."

The silence that endured his response seemed long, but she was quite sure only a mere few seconds passed as she came to understand this information. Time travel was something most wizards understood was possible, time turners were used often by Ministry appointment for specialty investigations and occasionally loaned to institutions to enhance study. Her husband had overseen various organisations from the Ministry utilising the time turners.

But what Potter suggested was beyond the even the greatest wizardry of ancient times.

"I've travelled a bit myself, I'm confident I can find him," he said, stopping and watching him, waiting for her to speak again after her long silence. "But I will need something."

"You seem confident Mr Potter, you do not think he is," she paused, voice catching at the mere possibility of what she was about to say. "lost?"

Potter shrugged and shook his head in seemingly casual indifference. "Draco won't go down without a fight and I think wherever it leads he'll have enough wits about him." Now he allowed a small smirk. "Draco also knows something of what I and LPI get up to."

Narcissa considered this. "What is it you need Mr Potter?"

"Something with his biodata," he stopped himself seemingly remembered where he was. "Sorry, his blood or something like it."

"Blood?" She asked. Blood was not something that was kept in many wizarding house holds.

"Or hair and skin, something, my equipment, I can use it when I get there, wherever it is, hopefully to find him." This the less controlled less certain, though still passionate Potter was interesting to witness. There was still much in him as there was in the boy, many years ago who she had seen, fighting.

"I will attempt to find something for your devices," she said, Potter nodded and smiled a quick smile.

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A strand or two of Draco's hair and a letter opener with a drop or so of blood that seemed to have got there when he'd been distracted opening a letter or something.

"The samples are a match," Ioan said and handed Harry the portable scanner. "One Draco detector."

Harry nodded. He had his not exactly magic bag the Doctor had given him many years ago, packed with everything he thought he might need and more. Weapons, medicines, some alien currency or what they presumed was currency liberated from UNIT and Torchwood some time ago. Everything one could need when stepping into the unknown, literally. An unknown location, a planet, space station, something. Something with a probably safe atmosphere.

"I note that neither of you have asked to come along with me," he said looking between them.

Judith smiled broadly at him. "You're the one who's said 'there's enough weird adventure on this planet without going off with a mad man in a box'," she said doing a remarkable impression of him.

Harry frowned. "I don't sound like that."

"You do Harry," Ioan added.

"I'll try and contact you when I arrive. If you don't hear anything from me after 3 hours move the cabinet," he ordered.

"As long as you've told her we're doing that," Ioan jabbed a thumb backwards which wasn't the direction of the manor, but was the direction of the door. Harry didn't think he should pick Ioan up on the technicality of his incorrectness. Technically she was out the door and in the manor house.

"You're trying to distract yourself Harry," Judith chided.

"Is it working?" He asked with a half smile.

"You could just leave him there, say he's dead," she commented idly.

Harry looked at her. "No, I couldn't."

She patted him on the back. "Now off you go before we throw you in."

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The sensation of travelling by Vanishing Cabinet was unlike any of the other forms of matter transmission or time travel that he'd thus far experienced, and as Harry fell slash slid through the darkness he reflected that it was surprising that he could now think that and be right about it. Just the past 2 years or so he and LPI had been through a time loop or three, at least 15 types of matter transmission and one mushroom induced alternate reality experience. All of which proved accepting tea was not always the best option. Especially mushroom tea, that had been the mistake. He blamed Ioan, who had mentioned it was the stuff of nightmares, the thing serving them the mushroom tea, rather than the mushroom tea itself.

That had been pleasant, actually it hadn't, but the vomiting that followed had been. A pleasant relief.

"Focus," he grunted to himself, Harry was sure the motion of movement, which he couldn't really feel had increased. The sliding sensation had given way to falling, as aside from the initial feeling of sliding against wood; the base of the cabinet he couldn't feel much, except a sensation of movement coming from…something. He couldn't feel any air passing him and gravity had been a bit indistinct for a while but he still felt like he was moving in a direction that might be called 'down'.

Out of the darkness realised that very quickly that a rectangle of something that was a slightly different black to the black that was all around him was very quickly approaching him.

Removing his wand; gripping hard against losing it he motion a spell to open the door.

Then he had a moment of panic as he could see the wall on the other side and could now judge his speed.

It wasn't slow. He sucked in a breath of air preparing himself, mostly to swear.

He only barely had enough time to process that thought as he passed the threshold of the cabinet and slammed into the metal wall.

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Blood pulsed out of his head wound as he looked around.

It was only then as he was coming to terms with the fact that he had a good sized head wound that Harry realised, mostly in the fugue of a head wound and possible concussion that there wasn't any air in this room he was in and he was about to suffocate.

"Fu-." Harry began to swear, only aware as he exhaled that the air around him wasn't air…

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A/N:

Minor edit done June 2021.

Here, or rather last chapter begins a mini arc which takes place, timing wise during the campaign for the British election, as I needed Harry away from Earth during it otherwise he would have worked out eventually who Mr Saxon was. He will still get to meet Harold Saxon however.

I will also be covering the "Year that never was" in a chapter after this mini arc.

This was mostly a setup chapter for the next few that follow will be filled with action, excitement and River Song.

A note about this cabinet, time doesn't pass at the same rate inside the cabinet as outside it. Additionally where it is effects how much time passes within it. Travel unlike a Stargate isn't instantaneous.

I couldn't fit this explanation into the chapter or the next, but might explain it sometime in the future in more detail.

Thanks for reading.