Chapter 82
Harry Potter was...bored wasn't exactly the right word.
He had several workshops worth of disassembled Project Indigo pieces he and Ioan had taken apart, salvaging a lot of the components for the future.
The power sources especially would be useful for future projects.
His Lotus Evora had come back from being re-engineered with stronger electronics to withstand magic and alien disruption along with blues and twos added discreetly. As with all his cars though there still remained an unknown aspect until it was driven into a situation where these re-engineered aspects would be tested. As a registered LPI vehicle he'd decided it would for the most part remain within in the Post Office Tower so it could be used from London. It was somewhat more suited to London than the Defender was. Although it was lacking the ground clearance of the Defender, that was something he couldn't fix easily without altering the handling. He'd just decided to live with it.
Things had for settled down, the most notable thing had been a call from Martha Jones to tell him that Gwen had delivered a healthy baby girl. He and Daphne had been invited, Gwen hadn't really said to what, but whatever it was, it was to celebrate the birth of Anwen. Maybe it was something Welsh. It had made him think about his own responsibilities, to Edward Lupin 'Teddy'. He'd not so much made himself scarce in the years since the battle. But...he hadn't wanted to be overbearing, and he didn't know what to do around him when he'd been younger. Then of course there'd been Ginny and everything that had entailed and now...suddenly Teddy had already finished his first year at Hogwarts.
He'd wanted to be there for Teddy, but when he was younger Harry felt...out of place, but Andromeda knew if there was ever danger, disaster or whatever to call him. Harry felt thankful that there had been little cause for that.
Daphne and Draco had likened that the role of a godfather to that of a distant relative.
Or like an aunt or uncle.
Harry did not wish to be like either of those to Teddy.
Or Edward as he had insisted he be called the last time he'd seen him.
Harry resolved when the school year at Hogwarts ended he'd find some time and some adventure to interest Edward, if he was still interested in that sort of thing. Maybe Hogwarts would cure him of it.
It hadn't for him, Harry thought to himself; it'd just left him craving more. Like now, the lack of interesting adventure was...annoying.
Because it had been so quiet he'd acquiesced to a request from Nations Unies Intelligence Taskforce, the French UNIT that had come to him through different channels in part because it seemed their superiors didn't take them seriously. Supposedly Vincent van Gogh had been seen 'haunting' the Musée d'Orsay. It was during the van Gogh exhibition. Judith had suggested that it might be a prank played by cosplayers. After she'd explained what that meant he'd sent both her and Ioan to Paris to investigate.
He was beginning to wish that he'd gone instead when the phone rang.
"Hello?" He said grabbing it.
"Harry? Sorry, I wasn't expecting and answer so quickly," it was Hermione's somewhat surprised voice on the other end of the phone line.
"No aliens invading," he explained with a short laugh.
Hermione laughed. "Well, I've got a mystery for you. The Ministry does a survey every few years of the various henges and other sites in Britain."
"Sounds reasonable," Harry mused, he'd heard of all manner of wizards using the various henges for things. Draco had once explained to him that it wasn't just the World Cup that wizards blocked muggles out of, there were other cultural events that needed to be conducted without being on the grounds of a family's estate or whatever. Though most tried to avoid needing to do so, some didn't have the fortune or legacy that afforded estates so had to make do elsewhere.
"Well I got Stonehenge, usually it's boring, everyone's researched this place to death," Hermione continued to explain.
"Okay," Harry said as he typed into his computer to get a live satellite feed of Stonehenge.
"There's a whole chamber below Stonehenge Harry!" Hermione hissed. "It wasn't here on the last magical survey and it certainly wasn't here during the last muggle survey, I've got the geoscience reports in my hand!"She sounded both excited and surprised, with a hint of worry.
"I see," Harry frowned to himself the satellites were currently in the wrong position to get a good view.
"I want LPI on this with me Harry. This is an official request from the Ministry," Hermione said clearly.
Harry nodded. Remembered he was on the phone. "Will do Hermione."
-/ - \\-
Less than an hour later Harry Potter drove up to Stonehenge in LPI's Land Rover Defender, in the passenger seat was not Ioan or Judith but one Ros Myers, who had an annoyed expression on her face. Mostly because she still had a cane with her.
"I appreciate this Potter," she said as he stopped the vehicle. "I don't know how much longer I could sit recovering."
"You almost died Ros," Harry challenged. "I've been there and I understand."
He'd called Ioan and Judith who'd informed him it had been the Doctor and Amy Pond very probably with the painter himself at the Musée d'Orsay according to the CCTV footage. They'd been asked, while they were there by NUIT to help with a few other outstanding cases that UNIT in Geneva had ignored. It seemed France or perhaps the EU didn't have an LPI-like organisation. Or maybe wizards didn't work as closely as he did with the security services. He'd not really looked into it. Up until now it felt like LPI had been fighting various fronts, only now were they really settling into their new roles working with the Ministry of Magic and the security services in a proper ordered manner.
In any case he'd said that was fine, it was better to build up good relations with those across the Channel than to snub them.
Whatever was lurking beneath Stonehenge would be perfect for Ros Myers to dip her toe (and cane) into the world of the League of Paranormal Investigations. At some point she'd head off to be LPI's agent in Cardiff, but that was all for the future.
"Harry!" Hermione greeted with a hug as he got out of the Land Rover.
"Hermione, might I introduce Ros Myers," Harry gestured to said woman. "She's recently joined my organisation."
The two women looked at one another for a moment.
"Hello," Hermione extended a hand to Ros.
"Granger," Myers said by way of greeting as she winced slightly looking up at the henge, shaking Hermione's hand.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Hermione rushed to say witnessing Ros' discomfort. "I didn't mean-"
Harry cut her off, who was then pre-emptively cut off by Ros.
"I had an accident, Potter's been keeping me out of the field." Ros looked at him. "Needlessly. I can cope."
"I have no doubts," Harry said and looked to Hermione. "So what's this 'Underhenge' you've found?"
-/
"The opening mechanism was simple enough to be found, but it was hidden nevertheless, as soon as we descended we felt it, the...there's something here, or was here Harry," Hermione began.
Harry and Ros stood at the entrance to the Underhenge. Harry handed Ros the portable energy scanner while he retrieved the larger ones from a bag he'd pulled out of the Defender. "Check the readings Ros, this place feels..."
"Dangerous," Ros finished his sentence with a tone of almost-not dread.
Harry moved around setting up the larger narrow dish-like scanners, he generally didn't use them unless they were in a particularly magic-rich or problematic environment. Stonehenge was most definitely one of the latter.
As a significant historical site, to even drive up he'd need show his security pass, even though Hermione or Hermione's people had obviously bewitched the site around here to keep everyone away.
As they'd driven up he'd had Ros keep and eye on the energy scanners, which were inconclusive to this whole area.
Walking back over to where Ros was standing at the entrance he asked what she had found.
"Inconclusive. If I'm reading it correctly your device doesn't even know if there should be a hole there in the first place," Ros said showing him the screen.
"Harry?" Hermione drifted over to them with Peregrine Derrick whom Harry recalled from the Dalek timeship incident. "You've got a worried expression on your face."
Harry grimaced, "I have," he said. "I'm going to grab the temporal scanners for the extended rig," he said to Ros. "Clip in the portable one," he looked to Hermione. "Did you look for temporal problems?"
"Time travel, really Harry?" Hermione looked around the henge. "Do you know how old this is?"
Harry shrugged. "Do you?" He fixed her with a look. "Does it matter?"
"Are you about to tell me that this circle is an alien landing ground Harry?" Hermione met his look.
Harry shrugged. "Perhaps. I don't know Hermione, I don't know everything about aliens."
"But this places feel...dangerous," Ros said again, struggling to find the words to describe the feeling this place had on her. Exactly what or how her psychic abilities manifested within her was still something of an open question.
Psychic abilities had been acknowledged as existing in the human race to various levels, UNIT's Paranormal Division had experimented with it in the late 60s. But it was all still very esoteric.
Fitting then, since he ran that division in the 70s.
"I'm going to get the multi-dimensional scanner as well then, just in case," Harry added. Said scanner wasn't portable and had to sit in the back of the Defender; shielded from everything, it was also still experimental, he was only vaguely sure it even worked.
"If you think it's important Harry, but we did establish a perimeter of charms to check the area, honestly, it's all been done before," Hermione said shaking her head, "I did look down the steps," she said following him to the Defender.
"And?" Harry asked as he opened the rear door.
"There's a set of stairs and a musty smell. From my team's charms and spells, the steps are at least 2000 years old," Hermione answered.
Harry paused "That's old, but not that old."
"It's not old for stone circles in the United Kingdom Harry, Stonehenge is notable for being one of the largest intact and surviving ones. But there's plenty that muggles know of. Several more on exclusively magical sites protected from most muggle intrusions," Hermione lectured almost enthusiastically.
"Most?" Harry asked.
"During Cromwell's reformation he managed to stumble upon a few wizarding households and during that process sites were pillaged. It's not something that's widely reported but it did add to the anti-muggle sentiment," she paused.
In the pause Harry mused. "I wouldn't have thought that wizards would get into bed with muggles."
"No. However certain groups saw Cromwell's reformation as an opportunity to forward their own agenda," she explained.
Harry finished unpacking the dimensional scanners and setting them up inside the shielded space of the Defender. "Jump in, I think I'll need to reverse up so we're a bit closer," he said as he closed the back of the vehicle. Starting the engine he looked to Hermione. "Nothing this interesting was ever in History of Magic."
Hermione snorted, her face that of annoyed disgust. "If it includes muggles and is complicated it's been something that's been left out. You only find out if you go into a subject where you can get access to the more complicated tomes, written by witches and wizards with a passion about it," she explained as Harry turned the engine off. "And surprisingly some muggles who were allowed into the 'secret'."
-/
Ros found herself easily adjusting to Potter's world, she had spent weeks recovering and reading his files. Potter had indicated that she would need to know all the basics and everything outside of that. In any job with the intelligence services his proposal would have been a large job. In this his League it was a huge proposition and a very senior position; overseeing Torchwood's antics and ensuring that LPI's interests were also looked after. Torchwood had always been something she'd heard of but hadn't seen much evidence of, except in recent years.
Now, here she was, a cripple. Near death.
And discovered to be something else.
She felt uneasy, and she hated that feeling.
Looking over Potter's...their instruments she could see she wasn't the only one who felt uneasy about this site.
She said as much to Potter who had a worried expression on his face. His friend, Hermione Granger, lead member of the Archaeological Response Team 'ART' was seemingly doing this checking to pre-empt danger. She was watching them with cautious optimism, eager to explore beyond the stairs.
"I don't like it," Potter mused in a ponderously grim tone.
"Nor do I," she agreed.
"I don't think we should be going down there, the dimensional warping that's showing up suggests everything down there doesn't know if it wants to exist or not," he sighed. "I don't want to be on the wrong end of a Schrödinger-Einstein-Rosen dimensional bridge."
"What?" Granger looked at him.
By Potter's expression Ros knew, even after only their relatively short time working together that he was showing off. Or possibly there wasn't any word for what was going on down there.
"I'm going to get the Cybermats, let's see if we can sniff anything out," Potter announced as he pocketed the portable scanner.
-/
"Harry, what is that?" Hermione craned to look at what Harry was carrying; it was a box that looked like it had been covered in thin silver, like silver leaf or something.
"Something I recovered from under the Ministry a few years ago. There's been various infestations around London that've been around since the IE-Cyber Invasion." He explained. "They're Cybermats, I've been trying to find a use for them."
"Rather than just destroy them Potter?" Ros asked, she was holding the 'control box' in one hand, she'd left the cane leaning against one of the rocks.
"I've done plenty of that, and taken them apart, amongst other things. You always learn something," he said pulling one out of the box carefully. "Power onto the control Ros," he said said holding it near the box, waiting for it to wake up and then immediately chucked it down the stairs.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "Won't that damage it?"
"It's designed to eat through and disrupt almost anything," Harry explained as looked at the small screen attached to the control box.
"And what have you set it up to do Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Look for signs of technology," Harry murmured as the picture resolved itself into a dark cavern.
The resolution wasn't amazing from the Cybermat, from what he'd been able to tell it would have gone back to some sort of Cybercontrol or it would have acted on its own. He'd left some of that intact within it, but he'd disabled the more dangerous bits of it. At least he was 90 percent sure he had. He'd burnt his fingers sonicing bits of the Cybermat's innards to do so.
"That looks like a Dalek," Ros muttered.
The Cybermat, despite not having good resolution offered a large field of view, albeit from ground level. It certainly looked like a Dalek, made out of stone.
"Daleks." Harry muttered as the Cybermat made its way around the space, around the dust and-
It was at that point that the dimensional scanners started making alert noises.
"Dimension shift," Harry said in a worried tone. "Something's shifting within the Underhenge."
"I think we should back away Harry," Hermione's tone was full of worry.
"Everything we've looked at, even yourself Hermione says it's contained under there," Harry said trying to sound as casual as he could.
"It doesn't feel like an explosion." Ros observed beside him curiously.
"More like a reverse earthquake," Harry mused.
"I'm going to get Peregrine, we'll check the perimeter." Hermione looked toward the passageway that was wobbling around and seemingly merging with the grass before walking away.
"Discovery of a lifetime warping away?" Ros asked.
Harry wrinkled his nose. "Who knows." He shrugged as the reverse earthquake subsided. "Where it's gone," Harry corrected himself. "It's not a discovery of our lifetime Ros." Harry looked to the woman. "There's countless things hiding under a lot of major British landmarks. Why should Stonehenge be any different?" He looked up at the stone pillars.
"Does this mean we go?" Ros asked him.
Harry shook his head. "I want to do a full detailed temporal and dimensional scan of this place, the dimensional scanners never get used for something this big," Harry explained and then added "Plus Hermione doesn't know everything about magical scanning."
"I heard that Harry Potter!" Hermione said in a raised voice not too far away.
-/
Harry banished rain off of Ros, the pleasant calm British summer had turned nasty and had begun to bucket down about 3 hours after the Underhenge had gone all wobbly.
"And why didn't you tell your friend about the secondary site you detected Potter?" Ros asked with a curious smirk as they drove away from Stonehenge.
"Two stone-rotted Daleks and a weird wobbly event at a maybe magical site?" Harry looked to her. "'League of Paranormal Investigations'." Harry quoted at her as he turned onto a road. "I don't not trust Hermione, before you quiz me Ros. There're few people I trust completely."
"But?" Ros prompted.
Harry shrugged. "Hermione seemed happy to have the Underhenge thing signed off on. Anything weird we can investigate."
"Yes. Potter. Weird," her voice was laden with sarcasm. "So Cauldwell says it is a word I must become used to," she snorted. "Inevitable that something would wake up eventually." She rubbed her leg.
"Pain?" Harry asked.
"Yes, you are Potter. I'll survive," she commented coolly. "Where do you think the location is?" She was looking at the energy scanner that was mostly wobbly, but the only thing they could follow. The temporal energy had mostly petered out.
"I'd hazard a guess it's that archaeological dig up ahead," Harry pointed.
-/
The rain had mostly lifted by the time they had their passes checked by the lone security guard who seemed mostly in place to stop ramblers from wandering onto the site.
"I got a call someone from the Ministry's at our humble little site," an older man, he looked to be in his late 50s ambled over to them.
"Harry Potter, Ros Myers," Harry introduced.
"Professor James Rafferty," he greeted shaking Harry and Ros' hands and looking at his security pass. It wasn't very enlightening, it only had LPI and had a barcode to scan and a clearance code. Nothing revealing. "So what is LPI when it's at home?" He looked at them eagerly.
"We deal in the esoteric, its intersection with the real world and the alien visitations," Harry explained carefully, technically that's what LPI covered.
Rafferty seemed to brighten up. "Ha! I was the short lived Professor of Extra-Terrestrial Studies at Oxford during the '90s."
"What happened?" Harry asked surprised.
"Budget cuts, rolled into xeno-visitations and psychology of alien encounters." He shook his head. "Now," he rubbed his hands together. "What brings you here?"
"We detected a secondary source of temporal and dimensional warping at this site while investigating Stonehenge," Harry explained, he decided he couldn't be arsed dumbing down an explanation, especially as Professor Rafferty acknowledged the existence of aliens. Though he'd never heard of any such thing as Extra-Terrestrial Studies. By Ros' expression it seemed like she'd at least heard of what it had been rolled into.
"Time travel?" Rafferty asked. "You'd better take a look then."
-/
"What are we looking at?" Harry asked.
"Roman?" Ros wondered.
"Yes! Second century. That's the odd thing, probably your time travel." He looked to them.
Harry was looking at his portable energy scanner. The readings weren't as extreme here as near Stonehenge. "Have you disturbed much of the site?" He handed the scanner to Ros as he removed his wand aiming a few careful spells around the site watching for a cloud of purple clouds that would indicate ancient enchantments.
"What is your friend doing?" Harry heard Rafferty whisper to Ros.
Ros ignored Rafferty.
"Just checking for the esoteric," Harry announced and shook his head at Ros.
"What happened at Stonehenge Mr Potter?" Rafferty asked.
"Everything went wobbly and disappeared. But this must be more fixed," Harry mused to himself.
"Is he always like this?" Rafferty whispered to Ros.
"I've just started working with him." Ros looked at him. "So far, yes. Irritatingly so," Ros paused and then shouted. "Potter."
"Yes. Ros." Harry focused on her.
"Is there danger to the Professor's site?" Ros asked him directly.
Harry shrugged and handed Rafferty his card. "Call us if anything goes wobbly."
"And disappears?" She looked at him.
Harry nodded. "Then we'll look into it."
"Will do Harry Potter, will do," Raffety said walking back over to one of the tents.
Harry looked to Ros. "Unless you're feeling anything?" He fixed her with a hard gaze.
This made Ros visibly irritable. Owen had said this was term that was used to 'interview' people who'd been involved in psychic events. Owen had been going through the data Harry had concerning psychic abilities, not just from UNIT, but from businesses like the Butler Institute and Om-Tsor experiments in the 1960s. The latter Harry had been informed by Owen had, or rather its affects had been mistaken for wizarding activity.
Ros though disliked being asked this. Although they hadn't settled on a term she preferred, or really if she had settled into the new reality.
Harry did wonder if she would rather not have survived. Than having to accept this new reality she found herself in.
Although she had been aware of the wizarding world and alien interference for some time, it was just the convergence of realities and life. Or perhaps it was surviving a bomb that killed everyone around her including the home secretary she was attempting to save.
Harry wasn't really equipped for helping her with these psychological issues, he still had his own nightmares of his own discovery that woke him in cold sweats and screams on occasion.
The whole world being turned into the Master had not helped his nightmares much either, nor Gallifrey appearing over their skies.
"I won't push Ros. I'm in no position to asses..." Harry shook his head. "Anything really."
"You're terrible at this Potter," Ros muttered.
"This is why Owen has been providing the post-incident care, not me Ros," Harry countered.
Ros shook her head. "Nothing like near Stonehenge."
"Well if it disappears maybe we'll get a call from Professor Rafferty again and we can bring the whole team down here," Harry said walking back to the Land Rover.
"Hmm," Ros muttered looking around the site.
"Come on, let's got and get a bacon sarnie or something," Harry said as they got into the Land Rover. Ros gave him a disgusted look. "Or whatever you'd like Ros, Cornish Pasty, Devonshire Tea, Pie Floater?" Harry continued to list as he started the engine.
-/ - \\-
A/N:
Edit done March 2019, minor edit done June 2021.
I've taken a slightly esoteric position on the whole Pandorica / universe reset thing. I didn't really want to write another alternate universe chapter with Harry and LPI in the alternate future created by all the stars exploding in The Pandorica Opens. While it might have been nice to have Harry in that universe I didn't think it would contribute to the story.
I know that in The Big Bang everything that/has/would happen/happened gets erased because of what the Doctor does. But with so many alternate universes / dimensions I wanted a little peak into one of those alternate areas. It was also an excuse to have Hermione spouting some wizarding history. She so infrequently gets to do that since she left Hogwarts (with Harry in the room I mean).
Ioan and Judith get to go to Paris because...well there's nothing amazingly exciting for Harry to do there so they get to go and do the investigating about Vincent's visitation.
Professor James Rafferty is a professor who exists in the Doctor Who universe. I try to use characters within the DWU when I can. Unfortunately a lot of them die in their first appearance so Rafferty was as close as I could get to someone who'd be qualified, he appeared in the Seventh Doctor novel The Dimension Riders.
Thought I'd mention Teddy, who would be at this point have finished his first year at Hogwarts and be on holidays now. I hadn't really forgotten about him, but it's just he's got very little character for me (or you) to hang your ideas on.
Thanks for reading.
