Chapter 53

In the courtyard of a farm house somewhere near Porthcurno, where no farming had gone on for several years, a noise began. Alerting none of the farm animals that weren't present at the house that wasn't used for farming.

It instead roused the attention of the disassembled Dalek that sat within one of the workshops, its vocal warnings and the trumpeting, vworping, wheezing noise of the time and space capsule brought a woman out of the farm house. She stood, watching, calmly, knowing what the blue box was, watching with some amazement as it solidified; a lightning bolt of energy arcing from its light out to an unknown point. Then it stood, the noise of materialisation stopping with a thud, leaving the area around it aware of its unearthly angles, even if it was, on first glance a subtle blue box, its sharp lines and hard edges were like nothing on Earth, nothing this small patch of Earth had seen for more than a year.

Then the door opened and a head stuck his head out the door, followed by the rest of his body.

Then he ran over and embraced the woman who was waiting.

"Goddess, Daphne." Harry Potter lifted up Daphne Greengrass in a hug and kissed her like he'd not seen her for months, rather than the time that he'd been gone. Apparently.

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Daphne felt her breath taken away as Harry kissed her, that usually happened with them, but this was different, there was relief, a passion and longing that she had not seen in him before.

His hair was also of a different cut to how it normally was, and his clothes, they felt unlike anything she had felt him wear before.

Looking over at the box another figure stepped out. This man also had a face of relief. He looked up at the box and then higher to the sky.

"No airships?" He asked to Harry, who turned around and laughed.

Draco returned the smile. Daphne noted it was as genuine as she'd seen on the man in a long while.

"You've been gone for 2 weeks," Daphne said gently, holding Harry. "But it's been longer for you," she observed watching him.

Harry looked longing at her. "Yes." He exhaled. "I got him back."

"He has a name Harry," Draco called; he was leaning casually against the blue box. The TARDIS.

"I'll explain everything, I just need to grab my things," he said and kissed her again before returning to the blonde man leaning against the box.

"Not a polyjuciing mind altering alien then Potter?" He asked with a smirk. "Or shape shifters?" He asked in a darker tone.

Harry shook his head. "What's the Doctor think?" Harry asked as Draco pushed open the door and the walked back into the console room that they'd come to know well. The Doctor and Alison were standing at the console, the Master, the android version of him having gone offline as they'd attempted to materialise.

"Well?" The Doctor asked, frowning slightly.

"Not a mind sucking parasite. Nothing seems to be the problem." Harry looked over a the Doctor, who still had a slightly sour look on his face. Harry'd come to know that as concern.

"Is there a problem?" Harry asked.

"No. Yes. I'm not sure." He flicked one of the brass switches on the console. "Low level psychic field." He flicked another switch and a sound wave appeared on the screen. "Four beats." He raised a hand to his chin in thought and then seemed to change his mind. "Been there a while." He turned sharply. "Something for the League of Paranormal Investigations to look into," he said looking to Harry expectantly.

"Or the security services, or even UNIT if we're desperate," Harry chuckled as he took a few steps around to the Doctor and embraced him. "Thank you, for everything."

"Yes. Doctor." Draco held out a hand, the Doctor took it in both hands.

"And you're sure about…" Harry began, patting his pocket as he trailed off.

"Yes. Harry. I've got half a dozen others and as for the other," he paused. "It will always connect," he paused again and mused. "Most of the time."

Harry nodded slightly, embracing Alison similarly to the Doctor. "Write a letter every so often Alison."

"How'm I gonna send it?" She asked.

"Use the rift or something," Harry said raising his eyebrows as the Doctor. "Throw it into the vortex."

The pair walked with them over to the doors where Harry and Draco paused at a hat stand, each collecting a storage vessel. Harry's wasn't any larger than when he arrived. Draco did not have a similar bag, he'd commented to Harry 'I'm not some sort of travelling shaman Potter'. Instead a Draco picked up a small box, pushing it together to form something the size of a deck of cards. The 'Chinese puzzle box' was actually none of those things being not Chinese, not a puzzle and not really a box. What it was, was something far more interesting.

Harry patted his bag to make sure it was closed, even though he knew it was, and had been when he'd left it by the door after their previous dash through the TARDIS doors.

The doors opened as they approached, the TARDIS 'knew' them. Knew when to open the outer doors for them.

Harry and Draco stepped out into the shadow of the police box where Daphne was waiting.

"Daphne, this is the Doctor."

"Another manifestation of him?" She said outstretching her hand as Harry and Draco stepped out into the sun. The Doctor and Alison, the latter held back by the Doctor stood in the shadow of the TARDIS.

"Hello," the Doctor said sniffing the air. "Early 21st century." He looked around. "What have you been getting up to here Harry?"

Harry smirked. "More than you want to know I think Doctor."

"Yes. Well. Goodbye Harry," he said and turned back into the TARDIS.

"Okay." Alison looked at him awkwardly. They'd never quite got on as well as he'd hoped. Draco had got on a little better than he had. "Bye." She turned and walked back into the TARDIS, the door closing with a slight creak.

The three wizards stood in silence as they watched the TARDIS dematerialise, a bolt of energy arcing from its light as it did.

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Draco was the first to break the silence once the TARDIS had dematerialised. "Hello Daphne," he said. "How long have we been gone?" He asked. Some concern was present in his voice.

"2 weeks. You seem…changed Draco." Daphne observed.

"I am," Draco said looking to Harry.

"I'll explain, I believe you wanted to attend to some things," Harry paused and looked to Daphne as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Did Ioan and Judith bring the cabinet back here?"

She nodded. "In the storage area." Noticing that Harry looked to Draco.

"Something we can investigate later Draco I think."

"Indeed. Potter," Draco smirked. "Harry."

"Go, I know how anxious you've been," Harry said nodding towards the road. "Time and all that."

Draco snorted. "All that indeed."

Daphne watched Harry watch Draco go.

Then it was just quiet as Harry seemed to breathe in the air and relax, the tension going from his shoulders, and then he seemed to come alive again.

"How'd you know to be here, and now?" He was curious.

"The letter," she said simply.

"The letter?" He asked, puzzled as she lead him back inside.

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Daphne handed him the letter as she explained how it'd arrived with her owl post. "I believe it's from River Song, her penmanship and the form of the ink is the same as the letter sent to Ian and Barbara Chesterton," she said as she showed him the letter.

Harry frowned at the letter. "Interesting. Our first meeting wasn't quite as friendly as I thought it would be." He paused noticing her curious expression. "The first for her. Also 'fun' is a strange way to describe what we went through," Harry sighed and turned to her. "It's good to be home and to see you Daphne Greengrass."

"And you, Harry James Potter." She smiled wrapping her arms around him. He smelt of dust, and ancient things, like the tombs in Egypt or a thousand libraries layered on top of one another. He sometimes smelt of things like that when he'd been off 'exploring' some odd storage facility for his work. But not like this.

"A shower, then I'll explain everything," Harry said smiling brilliantly with only care and love in his eyes as he embraced her again.

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Daphne leaned into the chair, thinking through what Harry had told her.

He had taken his leave to catch up with his associates, merely using his telephone and his computer systems within the house, he'd not invited them around, he'd said he wished to spend the night with her, alone.

According to Harry they had been 'indisposed' for approximately a month, perhaps two although he admitted at moments it had been difficult.

He had explained his arrival on the planet 'Hyspero', a planet she knew a little of thanks to Ian Chesterton and Barbara Chesterton's stories of their travelling times with the Doctor.

Harry's arrival there and his subsequent crashing of a spacecraft seemed not to have fazed him.

She did find she held her breath as he told of apparating out of the falling spacecraft. Such apparitions, were not for the faint of heart. Although Harry was not someone like that.

Hermione had once said to her that Harry was an 'adrenaline junkie', an addiction to dangerous situations.

What Harry had gone through to rescue Draco Malfoy was beyond dangerous. Space travel and not one but two spaceships, both of which Harry had crippled.

It was fantastical.

Yet Harry had done it, rescued Draco Malfoy and then, because of a fortuitous meeting of the Doctor been able to rescue one another.

Then, as he and Draco recovered within the Doctor's blue box, his TARDIS the Doctor, this new man she'd seen had attempted to return them home, and it as Harry explained failed; 'The TARDIS had trouble landing here and now, a lot of paradoxical eddies' so the Doctor had said. Each attempt they were flung off somewhere or landed randomly. Though with each landing they're accumulated more information.

During which time they'd had a few 'adventures' with the Doctor and the woman he was travelling with, along with an automaton version of Harry and the Doctor's friend. Harry admitted that was odd, but the Doctor and his automaton associate did not explain.

Daphne found herself wishing briefly that she had been with Harry and Draco and also thankful that she had not been there. She was not sure she would have had the inspiration and the confidence to have taken the risks with apparition that Harry had done on the planet Hyspero. She could barely even consider the variables for doing such a thing in an unknown environment such as that.

That Harry had done all this for a man that in his childhood, they had been on opposing sides spoke much to his character and the maturity he had.

There were those that she had known within Slytherin that had actively conspired against her, and now she doubted she could converse in such friendly manner that Harry did with Draco Malfoy.

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It was more than an hour later that Harry came out of his office a contemplative expression on his face.

"Seems I've a standing appointment with the Prime Minister-elect Harold Saxon. I missed the election, fortunate I guess I voted early."

"As did I," Daphne noted. Many wizards did not participate in the muggles' government, including their voting system. But with Daphne and her family's business her parents considered it important to have some knowledge of the muggle's government system. More so at a localised level and how they attempted to restrict or manipulate access to the ports and rivers than any larger level. The higher levels at which Harry interacted with.

She'd not really paid much attention to the Saxon man. Like Harry she had voted for one of the other candidates.

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Harry looked over at Ioan who was driving his Jag as they drove up to Downing Street. They'd been chatting all the way up about various things, his project with Osric amongst them and Cohort Dow. The latter of which Harry had some ideas about, they'd mostly come to him when they'd been stuck in the TARDIS after one landing had led to them being 'stuck' almost 'beached' in the vortex till they could work their way free, so the Doctor had said.

They'd caught up on all the important things shortly after he'd arrived back. He'd also not wanted to keep the Prime Minister-elect waiting. If he'd asked for him, and as Ioan and Judith had explained sent some government-esque agents along to find him. According to Judith, Ioan related to him they weren't from MI5 or 6.

Which was interesting and odd.

Harry was wearing a good jacket and shirt. The jacket had a reactive weave within it, tailored to his DNA and body movement something he'd picked up in his brief travels with the Doctor to stop his wand getting removed by people who locked them up. A slight shift would secure the little pocket where he slipped his wand into.

Not that he expected to need it. It wasn't as though any of the Prime Ministers in the past had been bad.

Except the attempted coup in the 1960s with Alec Douglas-Home and the successful coup in the 90s with the Ice Warrior invasion and the Ice Lord being installed, and that whole Slitheen thing. But a few dodgy bits of governing didn't mean he needed to worry about all of the British government.

How wrong he was.

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Harry was shown through to the Prime Minister-elect's rooms almost immediately.

"Harry Potter." The man; Harold Saxon beamed at him.

It wasn't an instant recognition. It was his manner that revealed him. It was something that the android version had some of, but not all of what his friend once had. The man he'd known as he'd grown up and the man whom he'd known during his time in the 1970s. Only during those times had he really known the man, the Time Lord. That time in Cardiff and when he'd seen him hideously injured. Those had barely been the man whom he'd known as a friend. He had, unlike the Doctor changed almost beyond recognition during his lives.

"Magister," Harry said calmly.

The Prime Minister-elect, 'Harold Saxon' smiled bringing his arms out in a gesture of a hug. Harry didn't move. There was something more than dangerous about the man before him, and almost nothing of his friend.

"Ah, your recognise me Harry," he said walking around the room. "Have you seen the wife?" He asked casually gesturing to the corner of the room.

Harry chastised himself for not noticing, not noticing any other people in the room.

Magister, no, this man, this Time Lord didn't deserve the name of his long past friend. The Master had a presence within the room, it was almost overpowering, like a…like a psychic field. Something he needed to investigate sooner, rather than later.

"Lucy, allow me to introduce you to a friend of mine. Harry Potter a man who should have been best man if he hadn't been…" He paused, having rounded the room to come to a stop beside Harry. "Travelling in time and space," he said, sniffing the air near Harry.

"Something unavoidable came up," Harry said without pause "I had to hitch a lift."

"With him? The Doctor?" He hissed, or possibly purred. Harry wasn't sure.

Harry shook his head, ready. "I caught a lift with a Navarino tourist bus."

"Navarinos. Oh those japes," he said wandering back over to his wife. Lucy.

Even though most of the room was separating them Harry could tell that the Master had Lucy hypnotised.

To love him? Harry wondered as the Master kissed her, there was certainly a forceful nature to the Master and his relationship with this woman.

There was something wrong, very wrong, with this.

"Lucy? You're married?" Harry asked as the Master let go of the woman.

"Yes." She stared at him with passion, though a somewhat blank passion

"All Prime Ministers need to have wives Harry Potter. Office demands it."

"What about Xznaal?" Harry asked casually.

"An Ice Warrior? That little hiccup, he was…" he paused and smiled broadly at Harry. "An alien." He clapped his hands together. "A clever lead. You did learn something, when you were a kid."

"I was always listening and learning Master," Harry said, his voice remaining calm.

"Yes, like a good spy, watching and learning. Secrecy," the Master mused.

"Something that is always useful. Secrets. Something you used to like to uncover. Doomsday Weapons, Matrix Tapes…" Harry listed.

"Oh, Harry Potter, that was so long ago. Wars fought." His eyes lit up. "But now I'm here. And you're here. Harry Potter." He walked back across the room to lean on a desk, his fingers tapping out a rhythm softly. "I've got lots of reports. You've been oh so useful to the government."

"I do what I can," Harry said, he was a little surprised at how calm he was able to keep his voice. He chanced a look over to Lucy. She had a vacant look on her face but her gaze was following the Master as had moved around the room.

"Don't worry about Lucy, she knows all my secrets," he paused and smiled what Harry presumed was meant to be a warm smile at her. "The perfect wife for me." The Master embraced her again, wrapping her in a hug and kissing her.

Harry was glad that thanks to Draco he was well practiced at maintaining a neutral, somewhat indifferent expression.

Maintaining that and staying neutral was also the best way to make people reveal their secrets, doing so was sometimes the best route to take. He'd been taught that by two people; the Doctor and Magister, the latter of whom wasn't the man before him now.

Releasing the woman the Master sighed. "My faithful companion." He looked over at Harry. "Have you ever wanted to be that Harry?"

"Hmm?" Harry inquired.

"A companion, travelling the universe of space and time with him." The Master seemed to spit the last word.

"No. Earth is," Harry paused for the infinitesimally small amount of time and was going to say 'interesting enough', but this man, this Master seemed quite, quite psychopathic. All in the eyes. Sort of like Ginny, which was an interestingly odd thought. "my home," he finally said after less than a moment's pause.

"And what a home it is." The Master abruptly let go of Lucy who seemed to sag, suddenly under her own weight and was left bracing herself on one of the chairs. Harry elected not to rush to assist her and instead remained where he was standing.

This man, this Time Lord was completely unlike his friend of the past. He was even unlike the man who he'd encountered in Cardiff, although that man, that Master had something of this man. But this man… was dangerous and Harry fought with himself to remain calm and still.

"Such a wonderful spectrum of light here." He spun around to look at Harry. "It's become my home, the start of a new government, a new empire Harry Potter, a new golden age. That's what that woman what was her name?"

"Harriet Jones," Harry provided with a light smile meeting the Master's manic grin.

"Harriet Jones. Yes, binned, rubbished by her own party. The people scrambled to vote for me. For my new party. Saxon," he said gripping one of the chairs looking over at him and began to tap the chairs with both sets on fingers. "I hope you voted Harry Potter, before your little jaunt into time and space." The Master seemed to luxuriate over those two words.

Harry decided to hold his tongue on questions like how the Master came to be here and what he was doing. This man, this Master seemed quite, quite psychotic and dangerous. "Oh course Master. I always participate in the process." Harry didn't add who he voted for, it wasn't Saxon.

The Master brought his hands together. "Good, good. That's is good. Maintaining the political processes you humans enjoy that so much." He looked over to Harry, Harry met his gaze, confidently.

There was a short amount of silence, broken only by the Master's tapping of his fingers against his own hand.

The mood was broken by a slight knock at the door.

The Master looked over at it and breathed in deep. Looking up at the ceiling. "Our meeting is at an end Harry Potter." The Master walked across the room and stood close, though didn't touch him. "Very good to see you Harry Potter, but now our public awaits Lucy."

Harry was glad the Master didn't embrace him as he walked away. "Be seeing you Harry," he said forming a his thumb and finger in an odd salute. It was the only sign that he recognised of his old friend.

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Harry didn't relax until he was out of Downing Street and back in the Jag with Ioan and they were some ways away from London in a Little Chef car park and he'd done a thorough sweep of the car and himself.

"Do you want to explain?" Ioan asked, he'd taken his silence as confirmation something was up.

Harry explained quickly.

"Oh," Ioan said.

"Yes. We'll need to alert everyone of the Greyhaven situation." Harry said. 'Greyhaven' was the code word, named after the man who launched a coup against the British government and installed an Ice Lord into the Prime Ministership.

"Yet no one's noticed," Ioan mused.

"No," Harry said looking over at the Little Chef and wondered if it was worth going in. "No," he said again.

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Harry Pearce looked up as the phone rang. He wasn't expecting any phone calls. It had in fact been somewhat quiet, with his team mostly focusing on some house keeping. It had been a remarkably peaceful election with no groups coming up to threaten the Prime Minister-elect Harold Saxon. It was remarkable, yet he didn't feel like he needed to worry about it, or Saxon himself. He seemed entirely normal, if a little odd at times.

"Pearce," he said. There was only one word, spoken by a woman.

"Greyhaven." Then the call ended.

Harry Pearce knew there would be no point in attempting to trace the number.

Looking out into the offices he wondered who to send. Jo had only recently gone on sick leave, she had the most, though not the best working relationship with the man who'd introduced the Greyhaven protocols, one they hoped not need.

Pearce sighed and beckoned Ros into the room and wrote something on a piece of paper.

"Harry," she said walking into the room, Pearce knew that she'd registered the piece of paper as soon as she'd entered the room.

"How's the housekeeping going Ros?" He asked rising from the desk and walking over to the jug of water on the other side of the room.

"Fine. Hopefully we'll have some peace now that the government's sorted itself out," she commented as he poured himself a glass of water.

"Do you want a drink?"

"Bit late in the day for water Harry," She said as she shifted around the room.

Harry knew without turning she'd already read the piece of paper.

"Perhaps it is." He downed it. "Why don't we have a drink?"

"You and me Harry?" She looked at him as he turned around. "Socialising?" She quirked an odd smile.

"Ye," he paused shaking his head. "Too much normality is a bad thing."

"Goodnight Harry," she said as she walked out the door.

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Harry stood in his workshop, his bag, full of many things sat beside him, next to his temporal energy detecting Dalek, well bits of the Dalek.

He'd set up the energy detectors outside the workshop with the original prototypes he'd constructed inside creating a negative effect of what they were detecting outside.

He was also looking at a satellite representation of Britain's most recently launched satellite network. The 'Archangel Network'.

"I should have realised," Harry whispered at the Dalek.

He knew he'd not trusted the Archangel Network, though he couldn't quite work it out at the time. Late last year when he'd been testing technologies for his new magic-resistant satellite phones he'd used GLONASS and Galileo as the basis, the Archangel Network hadn't even entered his consideration.

Now he realised why, something in his subconscious telling him not to trust it.

Briefly looking over at his Dalek he wondered if it would have been worth recording every temporal blip. He'd considered it, linking in his temporal detection equipment into the satellites and other systems around the Earth. But in his trial there were just too many blips to make the information useful.

Now he wished he had that useless information to find out when the Master had arrived on Earth.

Not that the information would be useful to him.

It would only satisfy his curiosity.

There was a knock on the door, Harry looked over as Ioan and Judith walked in. Ioan was carrying a box with an UNIT and IE logo on it.

"Worked it out yet?" Judith asked.

"Notice anything different?" Harry asked curiously.

"Not really." Ioan shrugged and looked to Judith.

"Something. But I'm used to somethings. Perhaps that's it," Judith mused unhelpfully with a smirk.

"Perhaps. I think anything that tried to force itself on us we rebelled," Harry mused.

"Because of what we see and do," continued Judith.

"Yes. Is everything in place for our meeting?" Harry asked he pushed himself away from the desk and went over to the kettle on one side of the workshop as Judith and Ioan sat down at the old sofa and chairs that was in one corner of the workshop.

"Everything's set up and ready, the psychic field doesn't seem to have penetrated the village," Judith said as Harry sat down handing them each a mug of tea.

"That's a relief." Harry said wrapping his hands around the mug, and gazing into the box that Ioan had set down on ground in front of them. "Thanks for getting this."

"My first official time in there. Not that anyone seemed to care." Ioan said. "You have an idea I suppose Harry, if you're wanting 30 year old files."

"Something I read about in the 70s in UNIT when the Cybemermen invaded," Harry muttered. "Might be a way to break the spell, if being in Aidensfield doesn't do that for us, we'll try the standard approach and then work our way up from there." Harry pulled out a wedge of files. "I'm not sure if it's an elegant or practical approach."

"Especially if it's 70s technology." Judith sipped her tea. "It's hard enough finding parts for some of the gear we've got that we've not worked out how to adapt."

Ioan nodded. "Although I've found some Soviet era gear that should see us out for a few more years in magic-rich environments. Mate of mine ex-Quidditch player bought a warehouse."

Harry just nodded. Ioan's mates were wide, wonderful and quite knowledgable. It seemed when you travelled around playing Quidditch professionally you had a lot of spare time on your hands. Professional footballers bought cars and had affairs, professional Quidditch players became knowledgeable about obscure subjects or bought up random odd bits of land. Supposedly off in the middle of nowhere to build private Quidditch pitches.

"Still I'm not sure what to do with or where to put the ICBMs your other mate offered us," Harry said as he swallowed some of his tea.

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Ros Myers sat in what had once been a bus shelter, the bus, when it ran, travelled on the motorway, not this backend road. Only caravaners and other idiots travelled along this road.

She'd left her own car some distance away, parked in a secure location that the security services didn't know about.

Potter, or one of his associates from LPI had informed her of the pick up point, they'd been the ones to initiate the Greyhaven protocol. The League of Paranormal Investigations had been a lot more proficient in their management of the alien threat and the magical complication than UNIT had been in the past few years. She'd crossed paths with Potter a few times since Zaf's death, his remembrance being something he'd attended, although he'd only met him once from what she understood. Potter had spoken well about Zaf despite their single meeting.

She heard the car's approach long before it became visible, it punctuated the silence of the moor that she was looking out on.

Minutes later an E-Type Jag pulled up beside her and the door was pushed open.

"Can I give you a lift?" Asked a man's voice.

"Potter," she said in greeting.

"The boot's unlocked." He said as she picked up her large backpack that could have fitted into the footwell of the Jag, albeit uncomfortably.

"Hardly subtle," she said as she got into the car with Potter.

Inside the car seemed unchanged since its production, although it was a vehicle that she'd only seen parked rather than sat within. There was a device sitting within the glove box that appeared to be charging or wired into the car.

"Subtle is very boring," Potter commented idly. "And getting around in Range Rovers or whatever it is the service gets around in is just as unsubtle," he continued. "It's an energy scanner," he said by way of explanation. "Chews through its batteries."

"Not something you've managed to solve Potter, not like you," she smiled at him.

"No. Magic is something else and aliens it seems don't have to worry about batteries." It seemed to genuinely annoy him. Ros left Malcolm and others of his ilk to worry about concerns like that. As long as it worked she didn't care.

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After that Ros remained silent, as did Potter, seemingly focusing on driving the car.

As Potter drove Ros considered the Greyhaven protocol and how it might apply to their current government. Harriet Jones had been swiftly elected following the deaths of the inner cabinet and PM after the incident with the nuclear weapons and aliens and destruction of Downing Street via an internal security breach. She'd gone on to do some good things for the country. A useful politician after the last one got himself killed.

She'd increased spending to the services that actually protected the country; the armed forces and the security services, and Torchwood. The latter had not been a good investment.

Her downfall had been something of a curiosity. She hadn't cared quite enough about the internal machinations of the government to look too closely into it. Preventing wider terror threats had been more pressing.

After Harry Pearce had informed her of the Greyhaven protocol being activated she did begin to look into it, carefully.

Jones' downfall seemed to begin shortly after the destruction of the Christmas asteroid.

Some reports suggested it was a leak from within her own government, while others suggested the media had had enough of her doing good work something they weren't used to. Or maybe it was someone unassuming, no one expected Greyhaven the man, the science minister. No one thought he'd lead a coup.

That was always the way, governments never expected coups.

Looking out the window she noted that Potter had turned off the main road towards a town.

"Is this some recreation town Potter?" She asked looking at all the vehicles and indeed everything, all of it looked to be vintage 1960s.

Looking at him he had an odd smile on his face. "Something like that, we haven't time travelled though. That was my worry when I first came here."

ThatPotter's first concern had been time travel was telling of the situations that he and his organisation found themselves in.

She learnt as they drove through that the village was Aidensfield. She'd never heard of it, though there were probably plenty of backwater towns that she'd not heard of.

Potter turned off onto a small lane that lead up to a country house.

"Your home away from home Potter?" She asked, Potter snorted.

"Hardly. This is merely larger than the pub. My associate concluded the pub was a little cramped for our meeting," Potter said as he pulled up next to the other vehicles that were also parked on outside the house. A modern Land Rover Defender and what she recognised to be a Rolls-Royce Wraith, only because one of her father's friend's obsessions was Rolls-Royce's earlier cars.

"Another of yours Potter?" She asked.

"My associate's, or one she chose to drive to pick up our other guests for this meeting Ms Myers," Potter said as opened the boot of the Jag, he didn't attempt to handle her bag, for which she was grateful.

"If you'll follow me we can get started," he gestured toward the house.

"No drinks first Potter?" She asked casually.

"Hardly. Though the pub is fully stocked," he said as she followed him into the country house.

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Harry led Ros Myers into banquet halls where Judith and her associates who'd also managed to escape Saxon's influence had set up for their meeting. He'd not yet come up with an adequate answer as to why some people had escape the Master's influence. Initially they'd thought it was because they all dealt with similar things that lay outside of the norm.

But he'd mused wouldn't that mean that all wizards, who also were outside of the norm wouldn't be influenced?

He'd run that theory past Draco, he'd also suggested that Draco stay outside of Britain until this Master/Saxon thing had sorted itself out, Draco was having none of that suggestion. Draco had also pointed out that not all wizards are the same citing himself and the 'mad cow', a title that still amused him.

Whatever the reason it didn't work on some people Harry was sure that he couldn't replicate it and would need to do something different.

He hoped that just being in Aidensfield was enough to sway people, the isolation, the slight perception field that surrounded the town and the lingering psychic influence from the Auton inhabitants would hopefully all combine to allow them to see the truth.

If not they had a few other options.

It was a somewhat smaller meeting of the enacted Greyhaven protocols then he would have liked. They had a representative of the domestic security services; Ros Myers. The protocol did specify that anyone of high enough seniority should be here, preferably from both Five and Six.

They couldn't afford to wait for whatever MI6 was up to. Ros Myers was more than capable.

They also had a member of the government.

Albeit a former member of government, they couldn't risk having a current member of government and it needed to be someone who had, during their career encountered things 'out of the ordinary'.

Harry had thought that the Duke of Forgill, whom he knew peripherally, though not personally. Harry knew he'd remained active in Scotland's energy production and distribution even though he'd retired from his position with the Scottish Energy Commission.

It seemed that they wouldn't have his company, although the woman, the Baroness who was holding a mug of tea carefully watching the room was also someone he'd peripherally encountered.

She also would at least know of the Master, albeit, again peripherally.

Baroness Jane Blythe of Devesham. She had been in the Royal Navy during the 1970s, had even met the Doctor, and had been present when the Sea Devils had made their appearance. According to Ioan who'd brought her and done deeper reading on her background she'd left the navy shortly after that incident and gone into politics after that before going onto other businesses.

Finally, someone Harry didn't know, a current member of the armed forces, though someone who wouldn't attract the government's attention too much.

Air Marshall Robert Townsend had had a relatively quiet life according to Judith. He'd supposedly had some contact with Isaac Summerfield's bookshop-slash-alien safehouse in Little Caldwell. Which led to attention from UNIT and his name ending up on the pile of people who knew about aliens and the like. He had unlike a lot of other people managed not to be killed and stay out of the limelight. They did have a peripheral involvement however; he had helped tidy up some of the remains of the dragon business that he'd been involved with a several years ago. He'd been a little busy around that time and not as integrated with the security services or armed forces as LPI was now in times like this.

That was it. Although that mostly was the idea behind the Greyhaven protocol, light and small. Too many people could lead to it being compromised. Though no one knew that they would be the ones to be contacted in the event, just that they might be.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ioan approach. "How's everyone settling in?" Harry asked casually. It wasn't a casual question though, it was his own query to Ioan asking 'what do they all think of Saxon?'.

Ioan shrugged. "They're waiting for an explanation." He said in a soft voice.

"Aren't we all," Judith said failing to make him jump. "You're getting better Harry."

"Travel does that. Also knowing you and your friends have done a double check of Aidensfield makes me more confident."

The Baroness drained her mug.

"Looks like they're ready," Harry muttered.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

"Do any of you find anything odd about this man?" Harry asked pressing a key on his laptop that was attached to a moderately sized screen overlooking the dining table.

The image was that of Harold Saxon, 'Harry' to his 'wife' Lucy and Prime Minister to anyone whose brain had been addled by the Archangel Network. Harry had wondered if the Master had been inspired by him when choosing a name, or more likely the psychotic Time Lord like the pun, alternatively the Master was simply insane.

The collected people around the table looked at him.

"That's the Prime Minister Potter." Ros Myers looked at him as though he was stupid. She was exceptionally good at using that expression.

In the shadows at the back of the dining hall Harry knew that Ioan and Judith were readying with wand and stun gun. Judith had one of his stun guns he'd dug out of his collection of many weapons. Just in case it came to that option.

"Indeed. But I want you all to think about the Prime Minister, about your investigations into him, into his party," Harry explained in a calm voice. "How did he come to power, what were his policies, what party was he a member of?"

The assembled women and man around the table seemed to stare off into the distance for a moment.

"I'm not…not sure. But I remember they were good," said Baroness Jane Blythe. At almost the same time Ros Myers tapped the table, four taps. That creepy weird tapping that everyone seemed to be doing whenever they went out. An almost unconscious thing.

It was like something you didn't notice until someone pointed it out to you. Judith had likened it to the 'as you know' dialogue in TV shows. He blamed Judith for his now inability to watch TV drama without noticing it.

The tapping was the same. Yet it was more sinister. More sinister than 'as you know' dialogue, which at least if that were in place instead of the tapping they'd have some answers by now.

Trust this Time Lord, this Master to bring something entirely sinister to the psychotic table.

"Yes, he was very…convincing, no threats from any groups. It was unbelievable." Ros Myers seemed to struggle through the sentence.

"Yes." Harry leaned forward towards her. "Think and hold onto that. It was unbelievable."

The tapping continued. Now the Baroness was doing it with her feet. Harry wanted to stun her now except they'd agreed to try and 'break the spell' all at once.

"I…Potter, what are you talking about. That's the Prime Minister. We all voted for him," said Air Marshall Townsend representing the armed forces.

"Did we?" Harry asked curiously. "Did you, what made you vote for his party? What was his party about?" Harry asked looking around the table at the faces of the man and women. They all seemed to be struggling with thinking he was an idiot and some niggling thoughts and questions that seemed to surface and then were kicked back down. It would have been humorous if this weren't such a dire situation that they were in.

Harry shook his head. "Plan B." He said and stunned Myers.

Similar flashes hit the others.

"Wondered how long you were going to hang out for them Harry," Ioan said as he stepped forward.

"Nifty things these." Judith said placing the wooden spell gun on the table. "Why've we never used them before?"

"We've never needed them," Harry said looking at them briefly. They were left over from the siege of Hogwarts, from the Doctor and his friends, the Doctor had allowed him to keep them, though he'd never really needed to use them before. Of course they could have stunned these people in a variety of different ways. But he wanted it to be magic, or something akin to it. If the Master was using technology to put everyone under his spell then perhaps it's be a little magic in the form of knocking them out that could bring some of them out of it.

If that didn't work he had a 'Plan C' which had worked against the Cybermen when they'd invaded with Tobias Vaughn's help.

They didn't really want to go to that one, because just finding the tech for the neuristors had been difficult. From the UNIT reports it had been difficult at the time and now 30 plus years down the track it was much, much harder.

"How long should we leave them unconscious?" Harry mused looking around the table.

"Longer the better I think." Ioan pocketed his wand. "Tea?"

Harry sighed. He already felt like a good genuine probably 1960s pint. "Yes," he finally said and did the same with his wand, pushing himself away from the table.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

Ros woke up, looking around. The last thing she remembered was Potter saying 'Plan B' followed by a flash of light. "You stunned me you bastard."

"All in the name of getting us through this crisis Ros," Potter said, his voice calm. "It probably wouldn't have worked if I'd told you I was going to do it," he continued, still in a calm voice.

Ros raised her head and looked around at the others around the table who were in a similar state. She also noted Potter's other associates who were standing a short distance from the table, each was armed; with more than one weapon.

Ros was mildly surprised at how good she felt considering she had been stunned, there were none of the usually after affects that usually came with being gassed or tasered.

"Now," Potter said in a commanding yet level voice, gaining the full attention of all around the table. Ros had to hand it to the younger man, he managed it quite well, exuding a sense of power without a lot of obvious force. A little like Harry Pearce in that respect. Potter pressed a key on the laptop, displaying once again the image of Harold Saxon Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

"Think about Harold Saxon and why did you vote for him?" He said looking around the table.

Ros looked at the image of the man on the screen, and something struck her, if one were being dramatic one would say it was like a slap in the middle of the back.

But she wasn't, and it wasn't. This was…there was something, something that seemed almost not right about him. A smile too broad, the crowd around him too willing.

It was like.

"Oh," said someone near her. But Ros wasn't quite paying attention as she was having her own 'oh' moment.

She remembered voting, voting for Saxon, but she couldn't remember why, what he stood for and that mismatch in her mind and that image, it almost made her want to vomit. Instead she turned away from the image with disgust. "What have you done Potter?"

"Hopefully made you see that Harold Saxon is much more than just another politician," he continued in a calm voice, but he sounded grim.

"What is he?" Asked one of the others at the table.

"A manipulator, who's got everyone under his thumb, a master of deception" Potter paused.

"And?" Asked the Baroness.

"An alien," Potter finished.

Marvellous. They had all elected an alien as Prime Minister Ros thought to herself.

For the second time in its history the United Kingdom had an alien as Prime Minister, this time placed there with the will of the people.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

It was late in the afternoon, they'd gone down to the 'Aidensfield Arms' a pub that was so 60s it was almost achingly twee Ros thought as she sipped the half pint that Potter had pulled from behind the bar. A 'genuine 60s pint' he'd said in the worst farm-boy accent.

Potter had skipped vaguely over why he chose this town specifically to knock them out in, merely saying it was 'special'. But Ros wanted to know more, wanted to know why.

Before Potter could walk away from the bar she fixed him with a look.

"You want an explanation of the town and why your pint tastes like it's from the 60s?" Potter surmised.

"Yes," she said swallowing a mouthful of the pint that did taste unlike anything of the 21st century.

Potter shrugged and explained.

"And you thought this was the best place to meet?" She asked looking at him.

"Of course. My choice of isolated locations is limited, and surely you can see the usefulness of a town that is isolated, doesn't exist as far as anyone is concerned and hidden for all intents and purposes from the outside world," he paused. "Plus you still get mobile reception."

"I suppose that's how you knew you didn't time travel when you visited this wonderful example of British history then Potter?" Potter grinned at her.

"That's why I like you Ros," Potter said. "Always on the ball."

Ros was about to say something more when one of Potter's associates Judith, who had elaborated on any other names walked up to the bar. "Harry, shit's about to hit the fan."

"Marvellous."

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

The TV in the corner of the pub was anachronistic with the rest of the bar. Not a huge flatscreen like some pubs but large enough.

There on the screen was Harold Saxon, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Seeing him now Ros despised the man, the alien. There was just something wrong with him. Something that her mind was failing to process, something to do with a conflict between the conditioning and her rational side of her mind. The conditioning by Saxon's Archangel Network so Potter explained it, and now that he'd broken that there was still an internal conflict. Potter had provided some painkillers for the inevitable headache that would ensue.

"Just a few years ago, this world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown, falling from the skies. You've seen it happen, Big Ben destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men. The Christmas star that came to kill. Time and time again, and the government told you nothing."

Ros sneered at the image on the screen. The government had worked hard not to tell everyone what had happened. People liked to get on with their tedious lives, not to worry about spaceships, terrorism and attempts on random's lives.

"Well, not me. Not Harold Saxon. Because my purpose, here today is to tell you this. Citizens of Great Britain, I have been contacted."

"Uh oh," said Potter. "I hope this is just a pile of shit that's about to hit instead of a sewage works' sized shit."

"A message for humanity, from beyond the stars."

Potter had a decidedly grim expression on his face. As did the Air Marshall and the Baroness, who'd said just to call her Jane, her political life was mostly behind her.

Potter was the expert out of all of them with this shit.

The screen switched to what looked like a cheap disco ball with flashing lights.

"The aliens that look like they were designed by Blue Peter are always the most vicious," Potter mused aloud.

"People of the Earth. We come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return is your friendship."

It sounded to Ros like a child's voice, or more precisely like an adult putting on a child's voice. If it weren't for Potter's grim expression and the look of worry on his associates' faces she wouldn't have been concerned.

"Ooo, sweet. And this species has identified itself. They are called the Toclafane."

"Mean anything Potter?" Townsend asked.

"Nothing I've heard of before. He could just be making them up," Potter mused watching the screen.

"The name or the aliens?" Ros asked.

Potter shrugged. "Both maybe, or not."

"And tomorrow morning, they will appear. Not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. Oh, I don't know, every medical student?" That last question seemed directed at someone, though Ros couldn't fathom much from Saxon.

It was then that the broadcast cut abruptly back to BBC World News.

For a moment the pub was silent. Ros felt like she needed the rest of her half pint.

"Well," Judith said beside her.

"Tomorrow we need to decide if we kill the Prime Minister," Potter said casually. "Anyone for a pint?"

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

They were at the forefront of this. Harry sucked in a breath of rapidly approaching night air.

Those that were present represented the Greyhaven protocol, and as they'd discovered they couldn't contact anyone, not without risking their security.

"Airforce One's landed, seems the Americans are pissed that Saxon's taken the lead with the aliens," Ros commented.

They'd settled back into the country house where Judith and Ioan had set up a computer and media room, as part of the preparation for this. In case, as it seemed it was big shits were hitting the fan and spraying everyone with a fine mist.

"Do we have a lock on where this meeting is taking place? I imagine the Americans will want to take control, as they do like to do," Harry said with a light smile eliciting a similar one from Ros Myers.

"A ship called the Valiant. Your associate Judith said you knew about it," Ros asked.

Harry had a look of surprise. "I saw a requisition form, it's a UNIT airship that I didn't think would get off the ground. Their prototype ships the Sao Paulo and Defiant completely failed, energy dampening problems," Harry mused. "I thought they were aiming too big and too Captain Scarlet." Harry bit his lip in thought. His project was still in the early stages it might fall to pieces if they tried to fly it up there, especially since he'd decided to try and add the gravity bubble tech to it.

"What do the others think of destroying it?" Harry asked.

"You were serious?" Myers asked surprised.

"Very, but I'm not sure we could justify killing the President of the USA," Harry sighed. "We'll have to wait for the Master to do it." Harry shook his head and turned around to return to the house.

"Do you honestly believe he is that unstable?" She asked him curiously.

"Worse," Harry answered with conviction having stood in a room with him and 'the wife'.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

"I can be master if you so wish."

"Oh, he's dead isn't he," Ros Myers said. They were all sitting around watching the Master's broadcast. Aware of what was about to happen.

They did have their hands on a few submarines, whose crews had been away from it all or deep enough not to be affected by the Archangel Network.

Buffalo however wouldn't let them fire off several surface to air missiles. Instead that was the Air Marshall's job to use the Greyhaven protocol, or something related to it to order them to target a secret UNIT airship located at 58.2 North 10.02 East.

"I will accept mastery over you if that is god's will." Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Judith face palm. That made him smile, despite the circumstances.

"I'm taking control, Uncle Sam, starting with you. Kill him."

There was some silence around the room as they all realised they'd just watched the President of the United States be killed by an alien on a worldwide broadcast.

"Stop it! Stop it now!" Harry leaned forward. He'd not heard this Doctor's voice for some time. He could only see the back of his head on the broadcast. But it was him. Of course he'd be there. Hopefully to save the day, but with regard to the Master he was a little late.

"Oh, how to shut him up? I know. Memory Lane. Professor Lazarus. Remember him and his genetic manipulation device? What, did you think that little Tish got that job merely by coincidence? I've been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver? But, ooo, if I only had the Doctor's biological code. Oh, wait a minute, I do." Harry suspected that the Master didn't realise all of this conversation was still going out live or that anyone was still watching. Of course they were still watching, the President had just been murdered.

"Look into Lazarus," Harry said to Judith who was beside him with a laptop.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

Now the Master was looking into the camera. "Two minutes past. So, Earthings. Basically, er, end of the world. Here come the drums!"

"Oh." Harry started.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

A/N:

If you look at the two episodes The Sound of Drums and The Last of the Time Lords, there is no real cut point between where the reset point happens. The Doctor says that they go back to "just after the president was killed but just before the spheres arrived". But it doesn't really neatly line up when you look at the scenes beside one another.

The next few chapters will of course be the Year That Never Was, the year when Martha Jones walks the Earth and lots of other things, and probably more than a few cameos and a bit of death. I'm also changing a few things here and there to better accommodate Harry and his universe.

I hope that I've captured John Simm's Master. There isn't a huge amount of back and forth dialogue between the Master and anyone aside from the conversation over the phone he has with the Doctor, so it was that conversation I went to in order to get the pacing and tone of the conversation he has with Harry right.

I guess I should also mention the time Harry and Draco spent travelling with the Shalka Doctor. It's not something I intend to cover in this story. In part because I don't feel like writing those brief travels at this point. But also because I feel they're a separate (though related) story.

Bits of what happened will be mentioned going forward and at some point I will probably write 'Travels with a Doctor' a story that shows what happened during the time they spent travelling with the Shalka Doctor. It'll be one of several stories that will be part of the Visited by a Doctor universe, but will be separate 'Missing Adventures' of it, which I hope to write at some point/

The people that made up the Greyhaven protocol were going to include a few more people, but I found as I edited this chapter that it was just doubling up characters and adding too many OCs.

As mentioned in the chapter the Greyhaven protocol states someone from MI5 and MI6 but it's just Ros Myers in this.

Robert Townsend is an OC, although the dragon cleanup mentioned was of Harry's making and was the dragon that Harry shot down in chapter 17.

I also wanted someone who had been a politician or something like that just to balance out the Greyhaven protocol, so it wasn't just the security services / armed forces.

For politicians I didn't want Harriet Jones, because of where this arc was going I didn't want someone passionate as Harriet is about the Doctor, Martha's enough for that.

So I went back to the Doctor Who universe to find some people who actually existed, and it's hard to find people who've appeared in Doctor Who who were politicians or something like it and who've survived or aren't corrupt/evil.

I did consider the Duke of Forgill who appeared in Terror of the Zygons. I decided not to include him as he'd have been a little too old to be believable in the story. Additionally he's only ever called the 'Duke of Forgill' in Terror of the Zygons so that would've become annoying, I still decided to include him, albeit briefly.

So I had to compromise. Jane Blythe does exist, as surmised in the chapter. She appeared in The Sea Devils and was Captain Hart's secretary in that story. The Baroness portion is my own addition because I wanted someone who'd been a politician. Devesham of which she is Baroness of is a town that appeared in The Android Invasion.

A/N update: The 'Year That Never Was' arc ended up being longer than I had intended it to be, and some reviewers commented on this fact. If you want to skip the bulk read next chapter (chapter 54) and then skip to chapter 64. You could probably get away with skipping to chapter 64 from here, but may miss some character introductions.