Chapter 49

'This is Harry's fault'. Draco thought to himself as he was grabbed roughly by River Song, who was holding him in a fierce grip with a weapon pointed over his shoulder.

He was quite certain he could reach his wand, and possibly even stun her, but the people, who were behind him, to which River Song was pointing her weapon at would surely just use the opportunity to attack him.

"I'm sure you're thinking, 'why me, why am I a hostage?'" Song asked him leaning closer to his ear as she loudly whispered the question.

"Not really," Draco answered. "My body would act as a shield against their weapons fire, and you obviously think I'm worth something to them." He was actually wondering where the cabinet had been taken, that was his only link back to the folly and his estate. Although he had a suspicion that the cabinet had brought him much further than he had initially thought.

She smiled. "I like you young man. And don't think about whatever laser lance you've got in your coat." She looked towards his pocket, where his wand was securely hidden. "I'm faster."

"I could help you," Draco countered and her grip on his shirt released slightly.

"Help me?" She looked at him briefly, returning her gaze to over his shoulder where he assumed assailants lay.

Draco nodded. This River Song wasn't the woman he and Harry had met in the past, that woman had been much more confident. This woman, while appearing confident by the explosion that had rocked the room they were in, it had come as a surprise. One she had covered very quickly, the fact other people had begun to shoot at them also assisted her cover of surprise.

She also seemed to be trying to suggest she was psychotic and insane, though from the noises of falling bodies behind him that was doubtful. Truly insane people couldn't shoot straight, his Aunt Bellatrix always cast a very wide spell when she was casting.

"That explosion wasn't part of your plan," Draco observed as he tried not to cringe as something very hot passed by them both. An advanced weapon of some description. Harry would know, and probably relish in the danger that he was currently in. Draco however did not, this was a situation he never wanted to be in. That he was in it now was surely Harry's fault, and not his, probably.

"My plan, sweetie was to get in and out before anyone noticed," she paused to fire again. "Thought you didn't want to damage your archives!" She shouted. "Shooting them isn't going to leave you with much."

Then there was another noise followed by a scream. "No, you're dead, the tombs…!" Shouted someone.

"Perhaps you're right, what was your name, since you know mine," she smiled. "You can have your lance."

"It's a wand," Draco removed it with little fuss. "Draco Malfoy."

"Whatever you want to call it." More footsteps arrived at a running pace as she looked around them. "This way, we can make it to the landing port. Even if they've taken their leave, without me, damn traders," she muttered. "We can still get out."

Draco shot several short incapacitating spells out at the armed guards of some description who were slowly encroaching on them.

Song threw out a capsule towards them, projecting a shield of some sort and grinned at him, he body language suggested relief. "That'll make them think. Come of Draco Malfoy before-"

Draco was going to say something but he realised with a split second of pain that several things had happened; the shield had not stopped their pursuers, something, powerful, like a cutting spell had ripped out from at least two points passing though the flesh near is hip and left shoulder, melting flesh and fabric together as the beam continued and did not penetrate the clothing that River Song was wearing, but did slam her against the wall with its force.

"That's not very friendly," she said, grinning.

Draco was working through mental preparations in his mind as he pulled off the working coat that had been fried and melted. Something that was supposedly impossible to do with any known spells, it was why he wore it while working and why supposedly the cost reflected this. Rough and reliable, dependable and now, bits of it and his flesh and been superheated and melted. Blood had also very quickly soaked into it.

As he allowed it to drop to the ground he let out a breath that he was holding and turned firing back at their pursuers.

"Which way Song?" He demanded; the pain felt like it was still travelling through his body; pulsing and pushing through his very life blood.

"We'll have to get a medkit and a stop on that or you'll flash fry," she commented grabbing his hand and pulling him into one of the maze of corridors and shelves that were around this 'archive' so Song called it.

Draco tried to think as he felt his temperature rise and hoped it was only adrenalin.

"Flash-"

"Like an oil fryer, they're raiding their archives, I wonder what's so important? They'd better appreciate it," she flashed a smile at him.

"What were you stealing?" Draco asked.

"That obvious?" She looked along the long shelves. "He'd love this, shelves, canyon to a bottomless pit, corridors," she groaned the last word. Draco wasn't sure if her tone was dread or pleasure. "I'm impressed. Lesser men would have blacked out by now with the Zodin's dust going through their bloodstream."

Song's comment only confirmed what he was feeling a writhing heat that was tripping through his body, it felt somewhat like the Cruciatus, only less so, yet more continuous. "I am familiar with pain Song."

This sort of pain was something he did not wish to go through again.

"Call me River sweetie, or do you prefer last names, should I call you Malfoy?"

"Call me whatever you want," he bit out tightening his grip on his wand as his fingers in his other hand twitched.

In the distance they heard more weapons fire and someone ordering "…adicate them!" The voice had an echoey metallic sound, though it could have been the affect of the corridor making it sound like that.

"Down here, the Knights like to put a medikit where ever something dangerous is stored. Very clumsy," she said, continuing to lead him.

Between the courses of pain Draco wondered why Song was helping him now that it sounded like a new enemy had joined the fray.

Seemingly in her future she knew him and 'the Doctor' whom Harry had a connection with, but at this point, considering she was ready to shoot him, why was she helping him now? He asked her that as she forced him to sit as she went through a small box that was marked with purple and red stripes.

"You offered to help me, can't leave you to boil in your own fluids now can I?"

Draco was about to ask when something seemed to rip through him.

"It's reached your heart," she said in a grim tone and plunged a huge needle into said organ before he could protest.

Draco felt like his body was burning with cold from the inside, the hot searing pain now replaced with dark coldness that he hadn't felt since…for a long time. He pushed that memory back to the furthest reaches where he had kept it thus far.

Then what looked like a large man in silver stepped out into the corridor.

"Time to start doing what my better half loves to do."

"Sex?" Draco asked, somewhat deliriously. Before shaking his head. "No."

"No indeed sweetie. Though you're very nice too," she said as she shot the man, but it seemed to do little.

"You, will be converted. You will be like us," it said as it approached them.

"Time to move sweetie," she pulled him up and Draco felt like ice had fallen down into his shoes.

As they moved between the shelves River Song suddenly stopped. "A stroke of luck." She pushed something that looked like a weapon into his hands. "Still full. Bit camp. Trigger there. Point it at the Cybermen."

"They're Cybermen?" Draco asked, the ones that Harry had explained, the ghosts, these only looked like approximations of those hulking metal beasts.

These seemed more of flesh, covered with protective layers.

Or maybe it was just the light.

"What is it?"

"The Glitter Gun." The name seemed to amuse her. "It fires gold dust. Kills them," she explained. "We need to get moving."

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Song was stood at something like a muggle computer, an 'entry coder' she had said, to gain access to the outside world.

She had said it would only take a few minutes, he was to keep watch for more of the Cybermen.

But there were several exits and entrances, they would have to be very lucky not to be shot at, again or discovered.

The indicator on the Glitter Gun was also registering less than 45% full, he had used it several times in order to arrive here. It had fired a concentrated burst of what was appeared to be gold dust. Song had, when he had inquired why, had said something of 'chest units' and 'purity'. Unfortunately one of the Cybermen had chosen that point to attack and she had not been able to continue her explanation.

"Just a few more minutes sweetie," she called.

Draco wished she'd stop calling him sweetie. He wished he could take his hands off the Glitter Gun to tend to his wounds. The 'Zodin's dust' had cleared his system according to Song but he was still wounded, not badly, but enough to be irritating, the blood oozing from wounds was always irritating.

Draco also wished he'd never been curious, both enough to go through the cabinet and buy the damnable thing in the first place.

While he was wishing his life hadn't lead to this Draco didn't see the Cyberman that had walked up behind him and only was able to cry out as it grabbed him with both hands across the shoulders, its strength was even more than Song's.

Song turned around and was similarly incapacitated.

They were both forced down into a kneeling position until another of the Cybermen walked over.

"Report?" It said, Draco noted it was slightly different, black bars, rather than silver were on its head.

"Leader. These two beings show levels of temporal energy."

"Good, we will bring them with us to the time craft," it said forming a fist. "Now the Cyber Empire begins again!" It said in an impassioned tone.

"Oh goody," Song commented sardonically.

Draco wondered if he could risk apparating, even as far as back to where the cabinet had been. Could he afford to leave River Song here?

The woman had thought to use him as a shield, even a tactically useful one. Although she had saved his life, but would leaving her here to be potentially killed mean affecting his, Harry and Greengrass' personal pasts? Even though it was her future.

Draco sneered to himself, these were the thoughts of mad men and the musers and theoretical physicians of the time, and of the Unspeakables. The answers to which were dependent on a series of variables and were usually complex and difficult.

Although, Draco had read some considerations on the subject. Information that his father had gathered after the board was informed Granger had utilised a time turner. Not an unusual act it seemed for the Ministry to allow them to be used in education nor was it completely out of the ordinary for a muggle born to be allowed to use something like a time turner.

It seemed there was a theory that had been tested, although his father's information didn't go into detail who and when had theorised it. That younger wizards could withstand minor temporal incidents, their accidental magic buffering the paradox that would ensue.

Draco, and indeed Harry and Greengrass were young, but not as young as they were in Hogwarts, there was also the other people they interacted with in the past, leading up to their encounter with the future incarnation of the woman who was held tightly by one of the Cybermen.

The Cyberman leader seemed to be instructing its troops, they were all moving about efficiently, carrying a range of technologies.

Even if he could apparate he had no idea where to apparate to, there was, now that he was forced in the seated position without needing to run for his life or shoot anything, a sensation. It was a feeling, almost entirely off from his other abilities, but almost again close to occlumancy.

It was a something, something he couldn't identify, only a sense of…distance. He'd felt something when he'd been in the past with Harry and Greengrass, but there was still a connection, a past, a personal one.

This, this seemed. Alien. Not like these Cybermen or the Dalek creatures that Harry had explained about the ones that had flown above London. This was an unfathomable feeling, a sensation that was like looking at the Dark Lord's face and seeing almost nothing recognisable as wizard. But like that there was a power, a power that chilled him and scared him.

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A/N:

I have been trying to find a reason to include the Glitter Gun in my stories. It was mentioned in Revenge of the Cybermen.

These Cybermen, are the 1980s-style Cybermen the ones that appeared in Earthshock, Attack of the Cybermen and Silver Nemesis.

This chapter and the previous chapter have been slightly shorter than my usual chapters basically as a result of me splitting Harry and Draco's action up.

Next chapter will return to Harry's action, and is much longer than this chapter.

Next Time...Read below if you'd like some information about the next chapter that's a little bit revealing of what will be in the next chapter kind of like the "next time" trailers that reveal a little bit of the next story. I wouldn't usually do this, but there's something in next chapter that I'm not sure I've described accurately enough for everyone to get the reference.

It's not a huge part of the next chapter, just one of those obscure references I throw in every now and then.

Next time...

I'm not sure how many people are familiar with the Japanese Doctor Who novelisations translations that included some interesting interpretations of the Daleks. The two Dalek stories The Daleks and Day of the Daleks featured illustrations of 'Daleks'. If you're not familiar with them and are curious search for Hayakawa Daleks to get an idea of what they look like, it'll be vaguely important for the next chapter.