Chapter 68

"Thank you for meeting with me Gwen," Harry said as he sat down opposite her and looked around. "Cosy spot." It was a pub in the backstreets of Cardiff. He'd missed it the first time he'd driven past and decided to park elsewhere and walk into the pub. Daphne was off meeting up with some associates, he'd supposedly be meeting them later tonight. Someone other than Draco for them to have a nice meal with, it couldn't just be people they'd had extreme experiences with. Supposedly that didn't foster good social interactions.

"I was surprised that you contacted me, I thought you and Jack were close," she watched him carefully.

"I could have said the same, but from what I understand you've been working very well without Captain wandering pants," Harry commented idly, full well knowing that Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper had been managing things in Captain Jack Harkness' absence. He'd even hacked into Torchwood Three's computer systems to check. He'd used Torchwood One's codes to do so...so that wasn't really hacking. Spying Harry decided. He'd spied on them. That was completely different, that was intelligence gathering and discovery.

"How'd you know about that?" She looked at him. "Your work with the security services no doubt?"

"No doubt?" Harry wondered along with her.

He took an envelope out of his inner pocket and Gwen tensed. "Please." Harry shook his head. He wouldn't try something here in the pub. There were two drinks in between them. He pushed the envelope towards her.

"What's this?" She asked of the envelope.

"Some information in good faith, as I have a request," Harry said.

"What's the information?" She asked, almost demanded. "Then I can decide whether I acquiesce to your request."

Harry smiled his winning smile. "The rift's been acting up recently."

"Maybe," was all Gwen said, Harry knew it had. He'd checked, spied, nay, checked.

Harry sipped his drink. "There recently was a significant temporal event that encompassed the whole Earth."

"Temporal event?" She repeated.

Harry nodded at the envelope. "In there's the exact time of the temporal event and the space-time coordinates where the event was initiated from."

"Okay," Gwen said slowly.

"If my assumptions," Harry mentally thought to himself 'and research'. "About how your rift manipulator works you should be able to input that information to settle the Cardiff rift down. It's currently flaring out, reacting to the temporal event. No doubt there's other things on Earth that have been reacting to it as well," Harry finished.

Gwen nodded. "Thank you. And what is it that you want Harry Potter? That LPI can't find out on its own, with your significant resources?"

Harry frowned slightly. "I've hardly got more significant resources than Torchwood. You've got a base under Cardiff and more money than anyone else in Wales," he paused. "I don't care about that. I want to know about Compound B67." Harry wasn't expecting the expression on Gwen's face. One of surprise and relief.

"Compound B67? Retcon?" She asked curiously with some confusion.

"Retcon?" Harry repeated. He'd tried looking for B67 in their database and come up empty, obviously he'd been searching for the wrong term.

"It's a drug. Jack slipped me some when we first met," Gwen explained with some bitterness in her voice.

Harry listened as Gwen continued to explain exactly what Retcon was, what it did.

It was...interesting.

Basically a memory charm in a bottle.

-/

As he left the pub, he had a bottle in his pocket, Gwen had pulled out a bottle from her inner pocket, tipped out the pills to show him. They dissolved tastelessly in liquid supposedly. He'd lost interest in the rest of his drink from that point.

Dangerous is what he thought of this Retcon.

It also posed some interesting questions, chief among which was what was Fuller doing with it on his desk, around his office, and it in his body.

Perhaps someone was dousing him with it, but most likely he was doing it to himself.

It didn't make much sense.

He thought about calling Judith and Ioan to inform them if what he'd found out about Compound B67, but he'd given them the next few days off. Their investigation had been ploughing ahead more than full steam and they needed time to take a step back and process. Especially as those two had been working while he'd been recovering from his curiosity.

Instead he decided to go for a wander around Cardiff, with a quick detour back to his car to secure the bottle of Retcon and grab his energy and temporal scanner and its extra batteries. Just because he was here for a break, a dinner and whatever didn't mean he couldn't gather some first hand information about the state of the Rift in Cardiff. Spying and gathering intelligence from Torchwood Three was all well and good. But they were still the people who had freed Abaddon and from what media monitoring Torchwood Three did it seemed Torchwood was relatively well known around Cardiff. So much for a secret organisation. Obviously 'secret' meant the same as UNIT did, so secret they needed a sign, saying it was secret.

-/

"I thought I'd find you. Wandering the streets," Harry turned around and saw Draco breezing up to him.

"I'm not wandering the streets, I'm merely pondering certain cartographical elements," Harry explained to the other man we fell in beside him as he slowed his pace.

"With your technology," Draco looked down at the energy scanner.

"Indeed Draco technology," Harry emphasised. "More subtle than wand waving."

"Here I am not so sure," Draco mused looking up at the sky.

Harry mirrored his gaze. "It does have a feeling this city. It must be the rift, it's been very active since that temporal event."

"Which I see you are recovered from," Draco appraised him. "Ready for you to commit another act of stupidity and get yourself injured again Potter."

Harry smiled. "That almost sounded like you cared Draco."

"Few people can tell me amusing stories of contemplating killing Aurors Potter. Fewer still would mention the name of the Auror, a so-called friend. Further few would be so bold to claim it was the great Harry Potter to do so," Draco commented in an amused tone.

"Don't forget I also get you involved in fun action," Harry pointed out.

Draco snorted. "That is something I will never forget Harry."

"For better or worse?" Harry asked curiously.

Draco paused, in thought though not in pace. "For better Harry. I feel genuinely superior to all wizards and muggles for my experiences."

"I'm glad Draco, that I've been able to make you feel even more superior," Harry said in a deadpan tone.

"I know of a decent drinking establishment nearby if you are done wandering the streets like a vagabond Potter. Or is that what you enjoy doing, wandering around like a derelict in this city?" Draco looked around the buildings and side street that they were currently walking slowly down.

"Draco, we're not being shot at, there's no Weevils about and a temporal rift isn't trying to swallow us up and regurgitate the horrors of the universe on us. We should be lucky there's only bins here," Harry gestured lazily.

"Fortunate yes Harry, that it has recently rained and I must not be confronted with the smell of or presence of urine as well." Draco wrinkled his nose.

"There's always a bubble head charm. Apparating I suppose isn't an option around a lot of these parts." Harry mused in a questioning tone.

"Indeed. Although that does have some advantages," Draco paused as they came to a cross street.

"Which way?" Harry asked. "To your civilised establishment?"

"I said it was decent Harry, not civilised," Draco pointed in the direction they needed to go.

"Sorry decent. And," Harry continued, picking up on Draco's statement. "Good so one can't be crept up on, no popping up. No need for wards around here. The rift keeps everything here a bit unstable," Harry said as he checked his energy scanner again.

"It is certainly not somewhere that I would wish to live," Draco looked up at the sky again as though cautious Abaddon might drop in out of it.

"Nor me," Harry agreed. "But Daphne's business has some ports here and she's inviting some associates to dinner tonight. It can't just be us three as she has informed me."

"Indeed Harry, you cannot simply associate with people whom you have shared-"

Harry cut him off. "Deadly danger and time travel?"

"Yes. Succinct, a change for you," Draco smirked as he indicated for them to turn another corner, and then before Harry could retort Draco pointed at a nondescript red door. "There."

"Ah, your decent drinking establishment I presume. Either that or it's a brothel," Harry teased.

"Don't be tasteless Potter."

-/-\\-

Hermione exhaled and tried not to lose her temper and wished she had accepted Harry and Daphne's offer to have a nice meal down in Cardiff.

She couldn't though, they were meeting in the middle of the week and the reports coming out of Cardiff meant that the Ministry practically needed to issue apparation safety maps like weather reports. It was the 'Blaidd Drwg Rift' that was down there, the Rift Harry had used to time travel and probably knew even more about it than anyone else in the wizarding world.

After the talk and meetings concerning her 'department' it was still undecided exactly what to do with her 'department' as much as it was. Her Archaeological Response Team, or ART as she called it in her head. It had worked, for a time operating as a division and part of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. When she and Ron had a good working relationship they managed to smooth out the problems.

Or rather she smoothed out the problems between her working team and the Aurors whom the Ministry wanted to accompany her.

Times were changing however. Her department, which had been a 'division' within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was now a department, which didn't have an official name or head of said department.

She'd recently heard of a suicide in the Ministry, not a common thing, a wizarding person taking their own life.

She'd also heard that Susan Bones' new Department of Ministry Investigations had taken over that investigation. It was supposedly Kingsley showing that the new guard that on its way into the Ministry. That he was working to get rid of the 'favours' system that was at work behind the scenes.

Corruption was the other word for it, that no one ever used officially, officially corruption didn't exist, and if it did someone could pay you to get rid of it.

Although, Hermione thought, on money, she had a lot. Or rather her Archaeological Response Team did. She had a very good pay, though she presumed given how lax the Ministry was with the cash she got she could have taken a generous amount of money for herself for 'operating costs'. She knew of several other divisions within departments that skimmed money off the top of their operating costs. More like they extracted the cream and then said all they had was milk.

Those that were within what her department had been had found the work challenging.

She could understand Harry just having two other people working with him who understood the dangers.

Not that it was all dangerous, some of it was just historian work, and that part of her department slash division slash un-defined group still existed.

There continued talk of giving her a dedicated department, rather than this vague status they currently had. A Department of Historical Research and Investigation or something like that, probably exactly that given how some departments were named.

For now she was writing Archaeological Response Team on all her correspondence, because that name had been approved, she had some offices. The historian portion had offices. But they didn't have a head of a department.

She knew that she wouldn't get the job, she still wanted to be out in the field. What the department needed was someone who was good at balancing the research and investigation side of things with the magical politics side. With probably a dash of muggle politics, she didn't know if someone like that existed within the Ministry.

She'd even briefly thought of raising it with Harry to ask of all people Draco Malfoy because he had his fingers in all sorts of pies, while she was still mostly working through the maelstrom that was Ministry politics.

At least she got on well enough with Susan, she was probably a better person to ask than Malfoy, his relationship with Harry aside Hermione doubted she'd ever get on with that man.

They had far too much past history, although she'd have said the same for Harry, and for Ron and herself. They all had past history, some that she'd have thought would keep Harry and Malfoy separate and others that would keep herself and Ron together.

Now, all that was different.

"Honestly Hermione," she said talking to herself, Harry had said that he did so occasionally, so she had decided it wasn't too much to also talk to herself, if only to shove herself out of the rut of thinking on her own personal history. Instead she should be considering the history and archaeology of her ersatz department and what they needed to deal with.

At that moment she was saved by midday post, also known as the 'we'll just show up whenever' post. Which included the flying memos and anything else anyone in the Ministry liked to throw around.

Grabbing all of the paper planes out of the air she looked at each one. Three were mildly important, 2 were vaguely important and one was a request from a building development, supposedly they'd found a Mummy that had been trying to randomly hug people to death.

"Time for work," she said, again to herself.

She would, she supposed have to take some Aurors. Not Ron, but she couldn't just take the people Ron had rejected who worked under the other senior Aurors. That would just seem like she was avoiding him and anything connected to him. Ron needed to get over his aversion to working with Slytherins. Harry was seemingly best mates with one of them; Draco Malfoy.

Hermione scowled at her reflection that she caught in the window that wasn't a window, again she was thinking about Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.

Walking over to her bookshelf she grabbed a ledger that contained names of people who were on what was essentially the Ministry's 'casual' employees. People who had a wide enough skill set that they could be employed at a quite high rate, but didn't want or need to be employed in the Ministry or sit around dealing with its bureaucracy all of the time. They were also mature enough not to run in charging blindly 'that's for the Aurors' she'd heard some of them comment more than once.

-/-\\-

Hermione examined the remains of the Mummy and considered shouting at the trigger happy Aurors again. The Aurors that Ron had sent with her had used something like, thought obviously not Fiendfyre.

That would be too dark.

"There's not much left. Some sort of forging spell I think he used," Emma Dobbs, a witch who did some work in the Department of Games and Sport, somewhere down past its Patents division but also had a good historical knowledge. Hermione was already thinking of asking her to come into her as yet unnamed department that she wasn't running. "Peregrine sounded like he was giving him a verbal Cruciatus," Emma joked darkly.

"As long as that Auror doesn't piss all over the floor, it's already contaminated enough." Hermione muttered as she carefully moved the ashes to one side. "It looks like it had a skeleton, animated to attack people," Hermione looked up at the ceiling. It was this as much as the mummy itself that had brought them here. Several floors above there was renovation and reconstruction going on, but this ceiling and the above floor was what was holding everything up. Some ancient spells that the wizard developing this building didn't want collapsing. He was paying a hefty amount of fees and regulation for the pleasure of working with the Ministry.

"He's been suitably warned Granger," Peregrine Derrick said as he rejoined them.

"Thank you Derrick. You didn't have to, I could have dealt with him," Hermione looked up at the older man.

"You needed to start here. He needs a better superior," Derrick commented looking over at the other Auror who was standing watch over them in case anything else happened. "He's good."

"Yes," she didn't say what she thought. He hadn't had Ron as a mentor. Hermione looked up at the ceiling as she dragged her wand, centimetres above it along whispering a spell as she did, then stepped back as the ceiling glowed through a variety of colours.

"It looks stable," Hermione said.

"Very old, older than the papers for this place say," Peregrine Derrick commented.

"Here, double check," Emma passed him a scroll from her pocket.

"Scoop up the ashes, we'll take it back and have the Law Enforcement check it for anything dangerous. They can discover if it's dangerous rather than beating down my door in a fit of concern," Hermione commented.

"And the skeleton Granger?" Derrick asked as he waved his wand above it.

"It's still got some underlying power hasn't it?" Hermione asked as he cast various diagnostic spells, these were hovering above the twisted remains of the skeleton.

"Very minor. Few people would recognise it as present," Derrick said.

"We're the few that do," Hermione wrinkled her nose. "I don't want to take it with us to the next job," she exhaled and opened her bag retrieving a large red coloured bag she had for such items. "Derrick give me a hand, Emma, get the Auror that Peregrine scared, we'll send him back to the Ministry and he can meet up at our next job," she ordered.

"Right," Emma said, seemingly fighting not to say 'Yes sir', something Hermione had noted that she'd done more than once.

-/

Stepping outside with the bag now ready she found the Auror with an owl on his arm.

"This just came for you I was going to bring in but-" he began.

"It's addressed to Hermione Granger." Interrupted the other young Auror.

"And that's why the owl is on your arm Auror Ackerley is it? You could not let an owl deliver its post to me?" Hermione asked calmly looking down at him.

"Yes ma'am," he said then looked to Peregrine and Emma. "I mean no sir. I mean-"

"Just give Granger the letter Ackerley," Peregrine Derrick said quickly losing his patience.

Hermione gently took the letter off the owl and it flew over to a nearby post, seemingly relieved to be away from the Auror.

"Here. Auror Ackerly, take this back to the Ministry, to your department get them to check it over and then send it on to the Historians' department."

"But...shouldn't I..." He started looking around the group.

Emma shook her head.

He disapparated with not much of a sound from his mouth, but a lot to the surrounding air.

Slipping open the envelope Hermione raised an eyebrow, it was written in a fine hand, but didn't mince words in saying there was a dangerous archaeological concern that she would need to look into urgently. That a team had already been dispatched and she needed to muck in as well. Aurors were already on site along with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

"Capable Aurors hopefully," Hermione said as she passed it to Peregrine Derrick and Emma Dobbs. The pair were here and paid for the next 2 days. These sorts of wizarding work contracts were somewhat vague about what they were doing. Hermione knew they were being paid well, not quite as well as she was being paid, but more so than if they were in some other job where you could back stab your way into becoming Minister or whatever it was people did.

-/-\\-

Harry looked out across the morning twilight bay, he had decided to accept Daphne's offer to stay, even if it was in Cardiff for the night. Strange things happen in Cardiff, he knew more than anyone, and he was still...unsure about it.

Especially given his contact with that other timeline, being here, with the memories of those memories. Those experiences, it still felt different. His plotting of the cartographical anomalies had been part of it.

Trying to understand things, his curiosity being a small part of it.

But here on the River Taff it seemed more isolated than most. According to Ludwiga, the associate of Daphne's who monitored logistics for ships coming in and out of Cardiff for Daphne's family's company river had a softening affect on the disturbances here. Presumably that was why Torchwood Three was located where it was, so the Rift manipulator didn't rumble the whole of Cardiff whenever it had one its little 'ejaculations' of temporal energy.

"Deep in thought Harry?" Daphne asked as she walked over to him. He could see her, dressed complete for the day ahead. They had both risen early, though when he'd last looked at her, he was sure only 10 minutes ago she was still in night clothes.

"Just thoughts on Cardiff," he mused continuing to look out the window.

"Still uneasy thoughts?" She asked handing him a cup of tea.

"For the most part, but at least this place is nice," he observed.

"Isolated and old. My mother purchased it when I was born on a whim," Daphne revealed. "It has proved a useful site."

Harry nodded. "Land values around here are probably through the roof," he looked up at the ceiling. The building they were in had an aesthetic of what a barn conversion might look like if done by a wizard and the building wasn't a barn as was actually, from what he'd gathered a former grain store. Or possibly a pub. Daphne had alluded to it having had several lives before being purchased. Though her revelation of it being by her mother was new.

"What are you up to today?" He asked curiously.

"Investigating some former sites my parents utilised goods transfer. They have informed me of some instability recently," Daphne explained casually. "Yourself Harry?"

Harry sipped his tea. "Something I noticed in the paper yesterday. Not suspicious but I want to stop into London and ask a friend about it and to check in."

"Of concern?" Daphne asked.

"Just a feeling," Harry couldn't be more specific, saying so.

"I was to apparate, as you are driving to London, might I accompany you, some of the way?" Daphne asked, smiling at Harry's face lit up into a smile.

"That would be wonderful Daphne Greengrass."

-/

Daphne Greengrass relaxed as she watched the landscape drift past as Harry drove his conveyance through and occasionally around the early morning traffic. She enjoyed being in any of Harry's conveyances as he drove, it was an experience of speed and land passage outside of the train travel one occasionally took. Being at sea was an entirely different experience. One she had recently decided to take a larger part in, for her family's business. Some items needed a business hand on them for their entire journey, their costs were huge if anything were to go awry.

"Sorry to disrupt, just want to hear the news," Harry said as he pushed a button activating the conveyance's wireless.

It was, a function that she very rarely saw and heard Harry utilise when driving. He had said he preferred to enjoy the process of moving his conveyance. His conveyance, this car was the Exige, she prided herself on knowing the designations of all Harry's conveyances rather than just dismissing it as his conveyance. This one seemed at first the least practical, for he had several expanding bags within the storage spaces of it to combat its lack of space. How muggles utilised this conveyance she supposed that was why they all utilised such boxy-shaped vehicles to transport themselves.

Daphne listened, the muggle voice on the wireless not dissimilar in performance and delivery to the wizarding wireless. The news presentation while about the muggle world was no less interesting than the wizarding world. She knew of several of the captains of their ships who listened to the muggle British Broadcasting Corporation's wireless broadcast of the 'shipping forecast' as they had become more relevant and accurate than the wizarding post's reports from the areas they sailed through.

As the news broadcast finished she enquired to Harry what he was listening for in the journalist's hourly reporting.

"Something now that I hear the name I think I saw in the Hourly Telepress before all this and now he seems to be making some noise that the government," he paused to correct himself. "the new government is listening to," he sniffed. "Anything to distract the population from the shit slide of the past few months," he muttered shaking his head before returning to her question. "Luke Rattigan."

"A muggle?" Daphne asked. "You suspect something untoward?"

Harry seemed to shrug, but only slightly. "Nothing as much as that. Not a suspicion yet. Just a curiosity. It could be nothing, my paranoia, or the nightmares spilling over."

Daphne nodded. Harry had been quite affected from the memories recovered from his alternate self, the one he spoke of from the averted future in where she was dead. Such a calm thing to consider, only because of her experiences and intimate knowledge Harry shared with her could she take this information so lightly.

"I don't really know," Harry exhaled in continuing his thoughts. "But as my work and LPI transects and intersects more often with other areas I thought I'd stop in and have a chat," he continued to explain.

They remained in silent contemplation until Harry turned off the motorway towards her destination.

-/-\\-

Harry looked out at the Thames, this bit of the river had come to be where he met Harry Pearce for their occasional chats. It was better than having to go through those security pods that Section D had set up in their offices.

"Pearce," Harry said in greeting as the older man approached him.

"Potter. What do I owe a meeting with you?" He asked he shook Harry's hand.

"This and that. Touching base now that recent events have settled down," Harry indicated one of the benches that they sometimes sat on but Pearce shook his head.

"We'll walk, nice enough day," Pearce said. Harry nodded.

"How is Ros?" Harry asked.

"After your little stunt getting her to London?" Pearce sounded amused.

Harry exhaled. "It was the most expedient way to get her here Pearce."

Pearce shook his head. "Ros is fine."

"Indeed. Very capable...I would have come to know and trust her with my life and the life of the whole human race Harry," Harry's voice cracked slightly, remembering. So much so Pearce paused in their slow walk and looked at him.

"Are you quite alright Potter?" He asked, concern in his voice.

Harry snorted a dark smile. "Depends Pearce on how you define alright. My curiosity got the better of me."

"Of you Potter? And you seem so capable most of the time," Pearce seemed amused.

"Indeed. I saw..." Harry trailed off looking across the river at Westminster, at London itself and was caught, lost in thought for a moment. Even though he had locked away most of the memories. Those really vivid ones were in the pensive, the ones that wouldn't leave were locked away in the special part of his mind prepared by Other-Harry. The broad brush strolls, that's what resided in there. But still some things lingered. Maybe it was hard coded into his biodata, some stuff that would no longer leave him. The images of London destroyed by the Toclafane, the pain and death the...other things. There were also annoying blanks. For some reason Westminster caught him by surprise for a moment.

"You saw...?" Pearce repeated prompting him breaking whatever pause for thought Harry had.

"A recollecting, something more intense than a vision, something...we dodged a bullet. Ros may have mentioned our idea of the missing film?" Harry looked to the senior security services man.

Pearce nodded. "She did mention it briefly. That is squarely in your and your organisation's territory Potter. Or if we're desperate UNIT's."

"Yes, UNIT..." Harry mused. "I saw into that missing piece of film. And..."

"And?" Pearce repeated, still a concerned look on his face for him.

"And it is not something that I might choose to see Pearce were I given the chance again. We dodged a very large bullet. One that would have seen London destroyed and over one tenth of the world population killed," Harry said in a soft sombre tone.

Pearce was stunned for several moments as they walked on silently. "I see, and this was because of the Master?"

"The Prime Minister," Harry said grandly in a cynical tone. He clapped his hands together gently in the fourth beat time. Pearce scowled at him. "And how goes that shit storm?"

"Sweeping it under the carpet, the way politicians do it best, focusing on new things, new schemes," Pearce said.

"That is something I would like you to look into, if you or one of your associates has a spare moment." Harry asked drawing Pearce's attention.

"Oh? Something your organisation doesn't immediately have to deal with I presume?" Pearce asked curiously.

"We are in your directory if you need any help Pearce. We are all meant to be working closer given the recent events, just in case. I think the Master has shown that we can't leave it up to the PM or UNIT to sort things out." Harry continued.

"No. That we cannot," Pearce looked to him to continue.

"Luke Rattigan." Harry said un-drammatically.

"Rattigan?" Pearce seemed confused.

"Someone I've read about and have seen in the news recently," Harry frowned trying to pull his thoughts together.

"And you suspect him of something?" Pearce asked.

"I suspect a lot of people of something," Harry said in a short tone. "But the government seems to be talking him up and we've not exactly had the most successful couple of governments Harry. I'm wary of what they'll do given what's happened in the past couple of years."

Pearce had nodded while Harry had been talking. "Yes. We have had a run of unfortunate political situations in the past few years."

"Which is like saying the 1970s had an unfortunate number of alien invasions Pearce," Harry commented.

"Something you would know all about Potter," Pearce commented in a dry tone.

"Indeed. Something I would," Harry didn't elaborate further it was Pearce's method of joking. "Is that all Potter?"

"For now Pearce," Harry paused. "Only…"

"Only?" Pearce repeated.

"Only keep your ears and eyes open. This cut of film-" He was cut off by Pearce.

"Our collective dodged bullet?" He asked.

Harry nodded slightly. "Yes, that. Has thrown out instabilities. Cardiff is currently somewhat..." Harry trailed off trying to think of the right word. It wasn't dangerous per se, merely prone to more quirkiness than usual. "More than its usual self."

Pearce looked at him. "I see. Is it dangerous?"

"Not much more so than usual. I spent the night there last night. I survived," Harry gave Pearce a crooked smile. "It's not dangerous. Torchwood should keep it contained."

"Because Torchwood has been so very successful in the recent past," Pearce derided.

"No worse than UNIT, more or less," Harry offered.

"Very much the latter Potter," Commented Pearce.

Harry stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Well, that is all for me Pearce, unless there's something else I can assist you with?" Harry asked.

Pearce looked to him. "No Potter, for now, we will investigate Mr Rattigan, just in case."

"I know it's just a hunch but..." Harry trailed off looking again out across the river. "We both want to keep the world safe-"

"I'll settle for the country safe Potter, we can leave the world to other people to worry about," Pearce said cutting him off.

"Very well. The country then Pearce. We'll leave the world to UNIT," Harry chuckled but then looked back to Pearce with a more serious expression. "I don't think we should forget about our little group either. Just in case."

"'Our little group'?" Pearce asked him.

"The one you accused of plotting to overthrow the government, during the ghost shift debacle. Recent events have illustrated a healthy suspicion of government is in the best interests of us all I think," Harry paused. "Our governments have been unduly influenced by aliens in the past few years, we need to remain cautious and ready."

"In case they do something stupid in the other direction or..." Pearce trailed off.

"Yes, them or…" Harry replied trailing off, not wanting to specify what the threat might be.

"Just in case." Pearce repeated with an ambivalently optimistic face of concern.

"Indeed," Harry said.

-/ - /-

A/N:

I do love writing dialogue between Harry and Draco. Draco especially.

Hermione and ART are in this chapter as a sort of introduction to the next chapter. Although ART did briefly get mentioned during the Year That Never Was.

Thanks for reading.