Chapter 100

Harry hadn't even wanted the shake the Saucer Commander's plunger.

After their delays from the TARDIS explosion and everything around it he'd been left counting down the rels somewhat; waiting for the moment when they were out of the disruption field that prevented them from dematerialising and going anywhere, and what stopped the saucer from jumping to FTL.

Oswin had already taken a copy of all the data that had been gathered in the disturbance field, along with all the other data they'd gathered at Think Tank and elsewhere. Just in case it might prove useful.

On the plus side out of this long boring voyage at sub-light speeds he now had a very boring looking case in the Timeship, filled with positively archaic weapons, which could only be fired by someone with hands.

But, in designing and perfecting them it had distracted him for a time, and if he ever met a Time Lord that wanted to torture him again he'd have something to fire at them, even if he missed.

Unfortunately there was no dwarf star alloy on the saucer to make the bolts out of to make sure the Time Lord stayed down if shot.

Although quite rightly the Dalek operator had pointed out if the bolts were made out of dwarf star alloy they'd be too heavy for him to fire.

Steel had a poetry to it, it was what the Time Lords used agains the vampires, fittingly he could use them against them. If a situation presented itself to him.

His health had improved too, supposedly.

He knew Oswin still worried, about his mental health. He worried about it if he was honest.

He'd been trying not to bite his nails. During this forced time away from doing what they were here to do.

Even if the Time Lord's TARDIS's destruction had meant a few more days spent in the disruption field, he'd embraced the forced break.

He'd learnt as much as he could about this saucer, and any information about the Daleks' fleet operations. He'd done so in between his chess games with the Daleks, although after the Time Lord's appearance and threats weren't as exciting as that brief adrenaline rush had injected into his life on the saucer.

These 12 or maybe it was 14 days? Whatever, it hadn't been wasted time. He never wanted to do that.

Even his time spent on the Time Lords' space station, he'd learnt something.

That Voran was a stupid, stupid Time Lord, and that they needed to learn something about interrogation. He doubted he'd ever get to teach the Time Lord anything about it, he didn't want to spend any time within the same atmosphere let alone room with that Time Lord.

Harry let go of a breath he was holding as a noise went off on one of the consoles.

"We have exited the spacio-temporal distortion field," announced a Dalek.

"Await the fleet's full exit of distortion field," the Saucer Commander said and turned to look at him and Oswin.

He met its eyepiece, spoke the first line of the 28th stanza of 'The Lament of the Non-Operational', something he'd been doing since they'd been here. Educating the Daleks on their poetry, one stanza at a time.

"Yes," the Saucer Commander's lights lit up for a very long time, they were still lit up as Harry departed the command deck and went into the Timeship.

Oswin had closed the doors and dematerialised the Timeship by the time he was in the control room.

"I'm glad to see those spinning again Oswin," he said exhaling a sigh and, finally after 14 or so days, he felt he could properly relax; leaning against the middle console with its central rotating element additional to the spinning screens indicating they were in flight.

"Ginny detector isn't showing anything, but we're still showing significant interference from the distortion," she reported calmly.

They still weren't really sure what that was. But even they Daleks had started to spitball some random theories while they had been stuck there slowly exiting it.

It was an energy wave of some sort, but it wasn't meant to destroy that planet, because no one went to that much trouble to destroy a planet, there were simpler methods to do that.

Not a lot of imagination their Dalek chums, and he wasn't going to share his imaginings with them, well not with that particular Saucer Commander, who was just kind of oafish and annoying.

He'd contemplated shoving it into the power management systems and promoting one of the other Daleks on the deck.

But that would have been…Harry wasn't sure, probably not best practice in a war.

If Ginny and the other Time Lords had been up to something with those TARDISes it meant it was part of a bigger plan, because it suggested that they committed significant resources to it.

That it was space and temporal energies that had been affected meant it had been intended to wipe off or wipe out a big bit of space and time, and that it had destroyed a planet and much of the local space-time meant it was doubly dangerous.

Harry sighed, drawing Oswin's attentions.

"Go, relax now that we're away from everything Harry," she said calmly. "I know you've been waiting for properly cleanse and rest."

Harry smiled at her, he had.

He'd been sleeping on the saucer rather than in here, he felt like it had made the time pass quicker, the soft noise of the background of the saucer was both calming and hypnotic.

He'd wanted to save the area within the Timeship, if he was coming in and out…he didn't know, it felt less like an amazing space, a safe space in here. He wanted to keep that, maintain it. Especially after the Time Lord's threat.

Living out there, out on the saucer, it felt like it was still part of that mission, dealing with Ginny and that other Time Lord, the one that according to the Daleks' remembrances never existed, thanks to Oswin's skills. After the TARDIS had been removed, the panels repaired and the body disposed of. Nothing remained, not of the body, data or TARDIS, nor anything that they'd done to deal with any of those things.

Stripping off before even the door to his room had closed he wandered into the bathroom.

The shower too was on as he walked in.

He still didn't know where the water came from, or where it went or how the Timeship knew to turn it on. There were controls in the shower to make it hotter or colder or adjust the pressure.

Stepping in, feeling it hit his head, washing away the grime in his hair, he again wished for a bath, something to lie and relax in.

He guessed he should be thankful that the Eternal had a shower fitted at all within the Timeship, a concession to having human ally.

There was a little shelf inset, where he kept body wash, which he'd brought with him, a little scent of his regular life. It was relaxing in its own way.

It didn't make him long for home, for Earth, not really. He knew what he had to do.

He also knew, or suspected at least where he and Oswin would end up, he'd not really thought about it until now.

He just hoped he wouldn't end up facing the man in charge. He'd seen two faces of the Lord President now. Within the Time Lord's memories, and recorded on CCTV, when Gallifrey had appeared above Earth.

They both were an intense man, with a gloved hand and the Time Lord collar. Harry knew he definitely couldn't meet him. And probably couldn't kill him if he met him. That might annoy the Time Lords.

And probably affect the web of time.

-/

Mostly dried and somewhat tired he dropped into bed. He didn't know what time it was, he didn't really care.

The shower had relaxed him, both mentally and physically, he felt like he'd been holding, staying tense despite his and Oswin's attempts to maintain a light mood, a creeping tenseness had crept into him on the saucer.

Now, Harry rolled over in bed, allowing the weight of the quilt cover to hold him down and he fell into sleep.

…only to wake up with a feeling. Like something was crawling over his bed and down his back.

He sat, bolt up right pushing himself up in bed and against the wall that served as his bed head.

In the middle of the room appeared to be a large spider.

"You are perceptive for a two legs," it said.

The lights in his room slowly turned on and Harry was sure he was shouting for Oswin. Or he might have just asked the spider what it wanted.

"Your help," it said simply.

"How did you find me, why me?" Harry said in a few fits as he called out for Oswin again as the door to his room opened.

"The vibrations of our enemy rippled out; our sisters sought out sympathetic vibrations-" the spider was cut off as Oswin entered.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed in her Dalek guise, her gunstick pointing downwards at the intruder. "That's a-"

"Yes," Harry cut her off shaking his head. "Explain. What do you want of me?" Harry asked.

"I can show you," it walked forward.

"Hold it," Oswin warned carefully.

Harry shook his head, looking at the spider and pulled the quilt on his bed to cover more of his naked body as the spider jumper up on it, not scaring him, but certainly surprising him.

It was then that he felt a pressure on his mind, and pushed back. "You're trying to reach my mind," he said. His wand was just out of reach, if he wanted to blast it.

"You protect your mind from an Eight Legs?" The spider composed curiously. "Relax human, I merely wish to show you," the spider said.

"Harry," Harry provided. "Why should I let you show me anything?" He challenged.

"Your companion may shoot me, if you disagree with my contact," the spider offered.

"Confident, we could just kill you and throw you back out into the vortex, you could be a vortex sprite or dust on the receptors," Harry commented idly looking at the spider. It wasn't like the Acromantulas at Hogwarts, this seemed…much larger than a regular spider, but smaller than those Acromantulas at Hogwarts. There was also the weird warbling pitched tone of a female voice coming from it.

"Your vibrations are similar enough, my sisters sought out a defence against them, someone to assist," the spider didn't really explain. "Allow me, to show you Harry," it sounded almost desperate.

"Show me," Harry repeated as he mused and hoped this was a weird dream.

"Harry," Oswin warned adjusting her aim to the spider once more.

"If it looks like I might die stun me, then shoot it," Harry said looking to her briefly then slumping against the wall, adjusting the pillow. "I guess I wasn't ever going to get a good night's sleep without something interfering was I?"

Then as he was being flippant he felt the spider's connection with his mind. It was still sitting in front of him, but it was…humming? Rocking forward on its legs.

"Harry?" Oswin called worried.

"Fine…just…weird…" Harry muttered as he felt quite sick as the memories were projected into his mind.

-/

He was lower to the ground, and had eight legs.

There were mounds, around; their dwellings.

Low pens, woven silks as fences. Animals were kept, herded. They looked like sheep or something like them.

There was a noise….noises…something like the trumpeting of the noise around the mountains, and the ruins of the Great One's lair.

Then there were two legs, they had weapons. Energy fired at them.

They retaliated. Psychokinetic energy pulsed out from them and their sisters. Used only to control the herd animals or in the occasional dispute and political wrangling.

The blue energy arced out and struck the two legs and they retreated for a time.

A pair of new two legs, flaming like the fires that sometime struck in the low lands in the dry seasons.

These new two legs, they struck out, killing many of their sisters.

A barrier formed between them and their most verdant lands, where the animals reared and produced well, where their webs could preserve them. The most proficient weavers could preserve the animals for many seasons. For when the low lands were not verdant, and the dry fires reigned.

One of the two legs stood at a line drawn, the barrier removed.

"You spiders, we're taking the blue crystals, interfere and we'll destroy you, leave us be and you can get on with your agrarian civilisation," the two leg said. "Barely a level 2 civilisation," it muttered to its associate.

Harry felt like he was falling, but he was still on his bed.

"Harry, you're moaning, should I stun it?" Oswin called to him.

Harry shook his head to Oswin's question, but it was reassuringly real. He wiggled his extremities, he now only had two hands, two feet. He could no longer see smells and taste colours.

And he knew what this spider was.

"You're an Eight Legs from Metebelis III," he said, smiling to himself.

The spider, nay, an Eight Legs seemed surprised.

"You are aware of us Harry?" It asked.

Yes, Harry thought and thanked the Brigadier, Mike Yates, Sarah Jane Smith, plus Jo Jones and the excellent file keeping of Carol Bell for the full documenting of the events surrounding Lupton, the Buddhist Monastery and everything else that happened there, up to and including the Doctor's regeneration, plus the magic crystal of Metebelis III. He just never thought he'd encounter an Eight Legs.

"I never thought I'd meet an Eight Legs, certainly not one who would appear in my bed chamber," Harry said and immediately regretted saying 'bed chamber'. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the lights on Oswin's dome light up, though she didn't make a sound, just moved her manipulator arm around in a weird way, she was probably laughing at his phraseology.

"You showed recognition of the burning two legs," the spider queried.

"Are there any signs of Daleks where the two legs are?" Harry countered, it would help them, though possibly not the Eight Legs if there was a saucer, or preferably a fleet of them nearby.

"What are Daleks?" The Eight Legs asked.

Harry looked to the side at Oswin. "Like my friend here."

The Eight Legs turned and looked back to him. "Nothing of her kind has visited Metebelis III."

"You must be far outside the Time War," Oswin commented.

"Will you assist us Harry?" The Eight Legs pressed again.

"The flaming two legs is my responsibility, give me the coordinates and we'll come," Harry said as he felt a spike of information and then the spider disappeared.

"That was weird," Oswin was now back in human form and feeling his forehead.

"Aside from feeling my clammy head what are you doing?" Harry asked as he pulled himself out of bed, wrapping the quilt cover around him and walked out into the control room and set the coordinates before he forgot them.

"Just making sure it wasn't a hallucination Harry," she answered simply.

"You were going to shoot that hallucination," he pointed out.

"Could be a group one, we're all capable of mass delusion," she commented flippantly.

"And the coordinates?" Harry asked as he padded back out of the control room, deciding he could still get a little bit of sleep before they arrived.

"You've got a good imagination Harry and a very wandering mind. Maybe you imagined them up," she called to him.

"The only thing I'd have imagined up is there being two of her in the one place," Harry called as he fell back into bed. "That's something at least."

-/

"You're awake and dressed Harry," Oswin observed as he walked into the control room.

The squares were slowly spinning and he could feel the Timeship approaching its final location.

Harry walked over to the controls nearest to the screens and pushing a few buttons so he could see the planet they were approaching.

"We're in the Acteon Galaxy, there's not a lot of war activity around here, nothing of strategic importance to Dalek forces," Oswin paused. "Or Time Lord for that matter."

"Yet they're here, for the blue crystals of Metebelis III," Harry paraphrased.

"I've heard of them, they're good for focusing so say traders in this sort of stuff," Harry turned to look at Oswin. "Back when I was working out this…" she trailed off. "Thought I could somehow suppress the Dalek side of me."

Harry walked the short distance between them, drawing her in one armed hug. He didn't say anything for a few moments. "The incongruity doesn't worry me Oswin," he laughed letting go of her. "If anything I feel much safer with you."

"Knowing I can pass you a mug or exterminate something over your shoulder?" She countered with a smirk.

"Exactly," he said meeting her smirk with a genuine smile "now let's go and see what the Eight Legs want," Harry finished, nodding towards the screens that were slowing to a stop.

"And they're not spiders," Oswin confirmed.

"No, apparently that term's quite offensive," Harry said as the Timeship fully materialised.

"Good to know, since they called us, and can project into the Timeship," she said. "It wasn't a real thing you realise?"

Harry shook his head as they made their way to the doorway out of the Timeship. "It felt real."

"Psychic attack does that," she said as she followed him outside.

-/

Harry looked around as he made sure his coat was closed around him, considering the brightness of the sun, especially after the even light within the Timeship it was surprisingly cool. There were low mounds in the distance and higher mountains behind the Timeship, there wasn't much vegetation. Yet there was there still was a fresh smell to the land around where they'd materialised. Although after the more than two weeks spent aboard a Dalek saucer and the travel before, anywhere would smell pleasant and fresh.

"This is different," Oswin observed, she wasn't dressed any more appropriately for the weather, but she was smoothing down her red dress and looking around them.

Harry pushed his hands into the pockets of his coat. The reassuring feeling of his wand and a Cybergun, and his newly created anti-Time Lord weapon, both of which were strapped to either thigh,

"Uh oh, looks like company's arrived," Oswin said as Harry was looking around at the low mounds around them.

Harry turned around and realised the low mounds were likely some sort of…spider houses or something.

All the spiders approaching were larger than Earth spiders, although not the same shape or size as Acromantulas of Hogwarts, even now that he could appraise them in the flesh, rather than whatever it was that appeared in the Timeship – a psychic projection or whatever. The telepathic contact within his mind had felt real.

"You have come Harry," the lead spider, nay Eight Legs said in an almost surprised tone.

"You called, gave us coordinates, we came," Oswin commented.

"You had doubts?" Harry asked looking at the lead Eight Legs.

"Our contact with two legs has been infrequent," the lead Eight Legs began.

Harry nodded, and there were many questions he wanted to ask about when and where they were in relation to the events that he had knowledge of, but that could wait. If Ginny, or rather two Ginnys and the Time Lords were present here, then he wanted to find out what they were up to. Or how far along they were.

And standing here chatting wasn't going to get them anywhere.

-/

Harry looked over the ridge, they were in the mountains overlooking the Time Lords' mine pit. That was the only way to look at it. It was a huge blight on the landscape, about 50 kilometres long and he couldn't fathom how deep because of the blue glow that seemed to permeate the site.

There was also a smell of decay and…he was sure it was magical but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

The Time Lords didn't seem to be involved in the process of mining the crystals, there was a single battle TARDIS with its chameleon circuit operated. He only knew it was there because Oswin had pointing it out.

His 51st century binoculars just read it as a structure and seemed to be having problems with the high magic or whatever environment. His omnioculars were a little better at seeing through everything.

Shuffling down the ridge so he was more better hidden from the pit he extracted his wand to cast some detection spells around them. He'd apparated himself and Oswin near a shallow valley and they'd hiked up. The Eight Legs with them had appeared beside them without any explanation as to how it did it.

But here, his diagnostic and detection spells were not encouraging.

There is seemed to be complex wards protecting the site, definitely anti-apparition within it, or something like it and a range of other charms and wards, many of which he got the colours for, but only vaguely recalled what they indicated. It was all very powerful and very complex.

"Nothing good," Harry muttered to himself. He also doubted this would be a technological solution, especially given his binoculars' issues. If Ginny, the Ginnys were down there doing the work, then that meant that something was stopping the Time Lords from bringing in heavier machinery and technology.

Unless the solution would be something really simple like simple explosives or something like that, but anything really high tech from his arsenal, he suspected wouldn't work so well.

"I think I've seen enough for now, Oswin?" Harry turned to see Oswin holding a Dalek eyepiece, not hers, this was chunkier, bigger with what looked like a lens to look through on the other end, like a telescope.

"You're not the only one who visited the machinist while we were trapped on the saucer," she said by way of an explanation. "But you're right, this is going to be tricky."

-/

He'd apparated Oswin back and the Eight Legs had just faded away and then faded back to where they'd met beside the Timeship.

Then they were invited for lunch, which turned out to just be a meeting.

He brought an insulated mug of tea from the Timeship.

What he wanted was more information about how and when these Ginnys and the Time Lords happened upon this location…and more so when they were.

"How long has it been since the Great One was destroyed?" Harry asked directly.

There was a muttering around the…it wasn't a tent, or a house, it was some sort of space made of compacted earth and sticks around where all the Eight Legs sat on blue plinths and daises, he and Oswin were sat on two small seats that were made out of silk.

"What do you know of the Great One?" Asked one of the Eight Legs.

Harry breathed a breath of relief that he was holding that none of them said 'all hail the Great One'.

"A few friends of mine talked of it, an Eight Legs that decided she wanted to rule the universe, collected a lot of the crystals of your planet together, she was destroyed by the power she sought," Harry explained, neatly omitting the names of everyone involved.

"That was several thousand journeys ago Harry," the leader said, Harry hadn't discovered whether she had a name. Or even if she was a she. She had a female-sounding voice.

"We have many trading partners that visit our world," another Eight Legs said from the back fo the room.

"Does that mean they don't harbour any mad ideas?" Oswin asked leaning into him and muttering in Dalek to him.

"You've got significant psychic powers, enough to project into our Timeship, why haven't you stopped them?" Harry instead asked the lead Eight Legs.

"That is a different sort of power Harry, they are harvesting the crystals of our planet. Along with the processing they are manufacturing a dangerous combination of energies, and have done so for many orbits of our planet," the lead Eight Legs explained.

There was mutterings of agreement around the room.

Harry nodded in thought. "Can you show me, your previous encounters with them?"

The Eight Legs bent back on its legs, seemingly in thought, the others were doing it as well.

"Foot in mouth, again," Oswin mocked in English this time.

"Always," Harry chuckled softly.

"There is much distress, death and anguish in the memories Harry," the leader began. "We do not wish to harm you."

Harry smiled at them. "You called for my help, you must've realised that I would need to face them, I need to see what you've tried so far," Harry paused and looked to Oswin. "My friend will stun me if it's all too much."

"Legs and everything," Oswin said waving her hands around mysteriously.

"Very well," said the leader.

He immediately felt the spike of psychic contact, poking at his mind.

"You must relax your mental defences," he wasn't sure if the voice was outside his ears or inside his mind.

"That's easier said than…"

-/

It started out as a small hole in the ground, a lot of the crystals, perhaps the ones left from the Great One were readily available, they'd been sectioned off. No one came near where the Great One used to be.

Nearby the animals grazed, controlled by the Eight Legs, they grazed around the most verdant of the grounds and were corralled when the cold times returned each year.

Then the hole became bigger, a contingent went to explore, to seek a pause, a cease by their visitors, that their search for crystals was within their animals' grazing lands. Some of the most lush and verdant.

They had supposedly warned them of their intentions, but the Eight Legs of Metebelis III had few trading partners and no traditional space travel. Their interactions with the universe limited to a few trusted groups since the era of the Great One.

They began firing as they approached the hole.

They fired back, their psychic blasts arcing from them towards the attacks. Those with weapons they recognised fell, some hit with multiple blasts fell, glowing, changing. Those present felt a change.

Then another emerged with the long red hair and wielding a device, which flung a different, somewhat familiar energy at them.

There were many deaths.

They retreated.

More waves of Eight Legs, and more deaths.

Then the box, it appeared above one of their settlements and fired something and then…

Then they remembered their settlement being there, remembered the grazing of their flocks.

But…there was nothing.

He recognised the location as where the Timeship materialised.

Again they regrouped and approached the now huge pit. The air had changed. The rocks, and ground below their legs was different.

They could no long move with ease across their planet.

The flame two legs and the soldier two legs, they wielded their weapons with anger and volatility.

More were killed, many of the young.

They sought to understand their invaders, the vibrations they used, sought to find a weakness, to find some way to assist themselves.

Harry felt himself crumple against Oswin, who was mopping his brow and pushing his mug of tea into his hands. It had been refilled.

Sipping it, he didn't care how it had been so. He felt cold and disquieted, saddened beyond anything he thought he could feel. It was like he'd seen a whole civilisation wrenched apart, one that had just wanted to breed sheep and move on from a megalomaniac past.

He felt like he knew each of the Eight Legs, what they had done. How they had shorn the sheep. How they had moved to other worlds to trade the fibres; silk and wool. Those that had been lost. The intense sadness that had felt.

Harry wiped away at his cheeks, they felt wet, and not with sweat but tears, he actually felt quite cold.

"And you sought me out," Harry croaked as he took another sip of his tea. "Of course I'll help you," Harry continued. "This isn't the first world I've seen the Time Lords ruin, but…"

"But?" the Leader asked in an arching tone.

"This is the first where those have shown me such…history," Harry said weakly "I've never…I…" Harry shook his head. "I think I need to..." he shook his head again and left the space, feeling a need to clear his head as he wiped at his cheeks again.

Oswin watched him go, disturbed.

"You are different to Harry," said the lead Eight Legs. Oswin still wanted to say spider and she wasn't sure why. Some identification system deep in the Dalek part of her.

"Harry is more receptive to psychic wavelengths than I am," she said calmly.

"You are different to others also, a presentation beyond," the Leader pondered? Oswin wasn't sure. She didn't explain she was leaving their company, she just left.

She found Harry some ways away watching the animals penned and grazing.

"They're sheep, or something like it, they look like sheep and sound like it, but none of the breeds of Earth," Harry commented weakly.

"This place and those Eight Legs make me want to present my Dalek side to them," she said with some annoyance.

"You can probably inside," Harry commented to her.

"But outside I can't, they're not officially here, and we can't give the Time Lords a reason to think so," she paused. "I know Harry, the strategy is a simple one, but valid."

Harry nodded. "They showed me it all, how they were the invaded, but it was different," the last time he'd really seen, felt this, felt something as intense as this was the darkened Earth, invaded by the Toclafane, those memories he mostly kept locked away in a pensieve, the ones that couldn't be easily filed and channelled away, he kept those deep in his memories.

It was that visceral despair of having a planet occupied and destroyed.

He knew, though didn't really want to acknowledge that he knew that the Daleks were doing the same thing in this war and that because he was a participant in it he was part of it.

But so far all he'd seen, all they'd experienced was the Time Lord's machinations, the Time Lord's destruction.

Harry knew, he knew the Daleks weren't defenceless in this war, that they were also the aggressors, although he was still unsure how it all started exactly. Who fired the first shot, and if that mattered?

There was something real, visceral and experienced, seeing them invade, even if it was only four people, from ground level, literally with the Eight Legs.

"It's probably them feeding the memories into my head," he admitted to Oswin.

"Can we just blow them up?" Oswin asked brightly. "Thought I'd change the topic to something you like doing."

Harry chuckled as he reached out to feel the wool of a passing sheep. It seemed quite perturbed that he'd done so. He also immediately regretted it, the wool was much oilier than the sheep on Earth. Extracting his wand with his other hand he awkwardly cast a cleansing charm on his hand and then alternated it to the other. "I don't think we can get the Timeship close enough to pop their TARDIS open," he said.

"Plus no saucer to provide the power, and we definitely need the base load power to do anything like that Harry, it's an immensely tricky thing," she commented idly.

"Great, strike that one off," Harry said turning away from the sheep, they had also gone back to their business of being sheep and ignoring him.

"Anything more complicated is going to be stopped by those crystals isn't it?" Oswin asked.

"And the ones they've got; Ginny and Ginny here," Harry shook his head. "From the memories they showed me, they look younger than any of the ones we've met so far, maybe that's why they're out here on the fringes."

"I didn't look closely at the temporal coordinates close when the coordinates were set, but I think we're still within a couple of hundred years of our last temporal location," Oswin added.

"I don't want to bring the Daleks here Oswin. The Eight Legs aren't caught up, not yet with the war…although…" he pondered.

Oswin leaned against him gently to prompt him.

"The Doctor came here before, fought the Great One," he answered her unasked question.

"Wondered how you knew the ins and outs of Eight Legs culture," she commented.

"There was also a detailed report about it by one of the Doctor's companions, supposedly a colony ship crashed here with humans," Harry explained.

"And there's no humans here," she turned around and looked at the sheep. "But there's sheep."

"Got there in the end Oswin," Harry chuckled.

"I'm a media manager Harry, not a farmer," Oswin said.

"And I'm a wizard not a warrior," Harry countered.

"We're a Sorcerer and Mage Harry," Oswin finished.

Harry nodded with some finality. "Right, we are."

-/

It was night, he'd still not worked out what to do. Oswin had retreated into the Timeship to get some kip, or something. To work out what was making her feel on edge.

She said it was very likely the crystals being mined, here, near where the Eight Legs lived it was much less of that feeling.

Harry meanwhile had found a blanket in the Timeship, and laid it out on the ground, and wrapped his coat around himself and cast a warming charm. He still felt a little cold, but was enjoying lying down, in the fresh air, a little bit a breeze around him and looking up at the stars.

He felt a presence and then an Eight Legs approached him. He had to still think Eight Legs not spider, but it wasn't as much an automatic response as he thought it would be.

"Your associate has retired within your craft?" the Eight Legs leader enquired.

Harry turned. "You don't have names do you?" he asked. "Something about the memories, like others," he didn't want to mention the Daleks, not that he thought mentioning them would bring the Time Lord's wrath down on this planet. "Some other association?"

The Eight Legs remained silent.

"You're the Leader then, of this group, you decided to contact me?" Harry asked.

"Yes Harry, the decision was mine, my sisters supported seeking intervention of a being with like minded vibrations in the psychic pathways," it, the Leader said as it walked around and stopped beside him.

Harry pulled himself up to sit crosslegged beside the Eight Legs. "What happened to the human colonists?"

The Eight Legs shifted, to look at him.

"I know they were here in the Great One's days," Harry pressed.

"You are knowledgable about our history," the Leader praised. "One day, they were gone, there was a…a gap in our combined knowledge, the stars, some had changed alignment, the two legs' dwellings disappeared, then reappeared several orbits later, there were no two legs that remained, but we remember the two legs' rebellion and their subjugation of us and we of them," the Leader explained.

"Hmm…" Harry made a noise in thought.

"You know why this is?" the Leader asked, it shifted, to look at him head on.

"The Time Lords are fighting a temporal war," Harry began.

"Against the Daleks you mentioned?" It asked.

Harry nodded. "Both are terrible, the flame haired one, is my enemy."

"And by extension, the Time Lords. And the Daleks?" The Leader asked.

"None are ones I'd recommend dealing with," Harry replied honestly.

"I see, but you have ideas to combat the flame one?" The Leader asked.

"Maybe," Harry said. "I doubt it will be easy."

-/

It was freezing up here, Harry thought to himself. And that was with gloves on, a bubble head charm against the high altitude, warming charms and his coat wrapped tightly around him. There was thankfully not much wind, which was a relief because he was gripping the broom with his legs only while he used his energy and temporal scanner along with a camera and regular film camera to gather information of the pit below.

He was pretty sure he was high enough up that anyone on the ground couldn't see him.

Unfortunately that meant his scanners didn't work very effectively, he'd never designed them to use them like this, so he was relying on old fashioned lenses on his cameras to help reveal more about the operations below.

He did briefly thank that at least the Time Lords weren't as nutty as the Daleks, to think that in mining they could hollow out the planet and drive it around the universe.

Small mercies he supposed.

-/

"It's positively ancient Harry," Oswin was in the back of one of the rooms off of the control room. Her eye a very low blue hight which she assured him was film safe.

"Are you feeling better having got your dress off?" Harry asked. He'd already developed the film, he'd done that while Oswin was looking through the mostly corrupted digital images and sensor data, neither of which revealed much.

"Yes," out of the corner of his eye he saw a tiny about of light, which Oswin had also assured him she'd be filtering out through her forcefield anything that would be affect developing the photos.

"I don't know what it is, the one place the natives haven't seen a Dalek before and I can't go out like that!" she exclaimed.

Harry smiled as he set one of the photos into the fixer. "You can show this side out there."

"Just not to the Time Lords, I know, it's frustrating, the Eight Legs already suspect something," she commented in an annoyed her Daleky tones ringing out and sounding even more frustrated than in her human guise.

"I'm enjoying the fresh air," Harry paused. "And the relative safety, knowing where the enemy is for a change, they're not going to drop out of the sky."

"Or blow us up from the sky," Oswin added with annoyance.

"Blacking out when jumping to hyperspace is getting annoying," Harry agreed.

Oswin laughed, it was one of the most unique un-Dalek noises she made and it tickled and amused him no end, and there were so few people who would actually appreciate the sound.

"Would sleeping help?" Harry asked as he progressed, putting another negative of the film in the enlarger to process onto the photo paper. All of this stuff had come out his rainy day and the kitchen sink bags that he'd brought with him. He wasn't sure why he, or maybe Ioan or Judith had packed it, but it was useful. He was pretty sure he didn't know how he'd make this stuff from scratch and didn't know how the chemicals worked well enough to even explain it to someone who might procure it. Oswin had called it ancient and archaic.

"I had a rest, while you were setting up," she said in a low tone.

"Did it help?" Harry asked.

"In here, yes," she said in short bursts. "I don't like feeling uncomfortable in my forms Harry…" she said softly. "Feeling more comfortable in this side of me, I've worked hard for them to be equal, more so the other than this."

Harry put down the tongs and crossed the short distance between them to look at Oswin eye to eyepiece and took a hold of her manipulator arm in both hands. "I'm not scared of you, I'm not worried about you, and I just see you Oswin, bumps and all" he gestured down at the lower spheres and then grabbed his chest, raising his eyebrows at her.

She laughed loudly. "Yeah, but you're a weird Sorcerer magic man Harry, you still use chemicals for still image capture and didn't blink seeing a spider in your bedroom."

"Grew up under the stairs Oswin, spiders don't worry me," Harry said in a comically dark tone returning to his work. "It's who I met after I escaped the cupboard that worries me," Harry said to himself as he returned to his work.

-/

He'd managed to work the food machine and get a pasty out of it. It wasn't quite what he was in the mood for, but the meat which was a bit unknown and the vegetables and pastry filled a hole in his stomach after working through the photos. He'd looked at them after getting out of the impromptu dark room but had left them in Oswin's expert manipulator arm to combine and create a single image from while he had a quick wash and a change of clothes. The smell of the dark room chemicals clinging to him.

He'd contemplated trying the food machine for mug of tea, but decided on something more refreshing; sparkling water.

Walking back into the control room and to the side of it Oswin was looking at a large screen which hadn't been there when he'd last been in here. But then they hadn't need to look at something not Timeship related.

"Well, did I do a good enough job?" he asked sipping the conical flask of effervescent water.

"Yes," Oswin drawled, her lights now able to light up fully beside him. "Your photographic skills are to be commended, as is the manufacturer of the glass lens."

"You say that with such derision Oswin," Harry laughed.

"We're often between two of the most advanced fighting civilisations, fighting a multidimensional war and you're using a chemical and polymer-based structural system to capture surveillance and technical information Harry," Oswin explained in a deadpan tone.

"Against an enemy who if she continues will probably affect the war in ways we can't understand," he nudged her side. "Roll, or hover with it Oswin, I thought it was mad when I went to Hogwarts where the paintings talked, brooms flew and there were talking spiders in the forrest."

"What stopped you going mad?" Oswin asked.

"For a time Ginny," he laughed. "Lifetime ago now, and my friends…" he trailed off in thought. He'd been doing that a bit, recently, thinking on the past.

"Do you have any mad thoughts about how to deal with her this time? Especially as we can't bring out the big or Dalek guns to get us out of things this time," Oswin queried him breaking him out of his remembrances of the past.

"Something dangerous, something mad and a little bit of convention," Harry said and continued to explain what had happened with the Eight Legs when Sarah Jane Smith and Lupton encountered them.

"Is that safe? As a wizard?" Oswin asked a very good question for which he didn't have any good answers.

So he just shrugged. "We'll probably need to go and ask someone in a better position to answer that."

-/

"You captured all this from above?" the Leader asked, they were seeing her alone in her lair, she was stood over the photos he'd laid out for her to observe.

"Yes, I wanted to know, how attached you are to that mountain range?" Harry said pointing to one of the mountains that overlooked the mine pit. "I presume they've been taking everything they've been digging up, or she's been banishing it somewhere."

"That mountain range?" The Leader repeated questioningly.

"We intend to blow up a portion of it to bury their mine works," Oswin explained.

"That will not deter them, we have attempted multiple attacks on them," she said.

Harry nodded. "I plan to kill the flaming ones and convince the Time Lords to leave your world, take the Time War elsewhere away from here."

"How Harry?" The Leader asked.

"What if you sit on my back, how much will it enhance my abilities?" Harry asked, the Leader watched him. "I know you can, with humans at least."

"You are very knowledgable of our civilisation, beyond the Great One," she observed carefully. "Few agree to our interacting in such a way," she turned to look at Oswin. "And you?" the Leader mused. "Would not," it said after a moment's pause "your psychic vibrations are not aligned with us."

"Probably not," Oswin said in a slightly meek tone. "I leave the dangerous stuff to Harry."

"Well, I just thought I'd present it as an option," Harry said moving to scoop the photos.

"Leave them, I would study them further, you are aware, I will see into your mind, it is an…intimate connection," the Leader explained gently.

Harry looked down to the Eight Legs. "Without an attack squad to support us and two Ginnys; the flame woman along with the Time Lords and whatever they're doing with the crystals we're only going to get one go at this. If they call for reinforcements this planet might be swarmed, destroyed or might be dematerialised from current history," Harry said in a dark tone.

"You speak from experience?" The Leader asked.

"We've seen it, on both sides," Oswin answered. "This is not a simple war, fought by sides who think they're the most powerful engaging one another."

-/

A long time ago at the Burrow….

"Harry, sometimes, it is knowing you have the power, and not using it which is better," the Doctor said his cream coat flapping in the wind a little bit as the breeze whisked up towards the Burrow.

"And if I have to use this power?" Harry asked the Doctor, thinking of everything he had seen at Hogwarts so far, what he'd escaped, and what might come this year.

"Then you have to make the best choice you can," he paused to take a breath "I told you about the old hermit once didn't I?" The Doctor asked, a smile forming on his face in remembrance. "In the winter when the snow was deep, but the rocks and the trees held the heat of the early morning, I'd sit looking up through the branches throwing smaller pebbles into the snow, watching it melt," he explained making a motion with his hands like bowling a cricket ball. "He'd tell me about the ancient explorers of Gallifrey, who went off into the stars, and the best of them, they knew when to hold their great powers back."

"Instead of…?" Harry asked.

The Doctor smiled, and then frowned slightly, exhaling. "Stupendously silly things."

-/

Harry looked over as Oswin came into view, casting him out of his remembrances of the Doctor. Being here, lying on a blanket, looking up at the stars was properly relaxing his mind, letting him wander through his memories.

Oswin laid down beside him. "Relaxing?"

He nodded letting out a breath of air. "Thinking, feeling. It's the fresh air, the Doctor once said that a good breath of air, full of positive ions could do wonders on relaxation," he paused. "Being here, it's cleansing on the mind, I could almost forget about the war," he smiled "just for a little bit. It's nice, with just a huge sense of foreboding to consider."

"Your favourite kind of worry," she teased.

"My favourite kind of worry is one I induce in my enemy when they've worked out I've done something, not this, this is unknown." Harry shook his head. "I'd forgotten what it was like to not be running into battle with an attack squad having our backs, or-"

"Or even me, ready to open fire," Harry could tell she was wrinkling her nose without looking at her. "Just think of it as a mission of stealth Oswin," Harry tried.

"It's not stealth, I can do stealth Harry, this is...it's like a feeling that I want to be free to be whatever and can't…I don't like it, this pressure," she tried to explain.

Harry turned to look at her. "The Eight Legs don't seem to care, maybe they're seeing or feeling the real you, not what you look like."

"Like you?" She asked playfully.

"Yeah, like me," he grinned at her. "No worries," he said and turned his gaze back to the sky and sighed breathing in a breath of cool night air.

"Maybe I should just take solace like you Harry in the vast open sky?" Oswin wondered.

"It's the first time, for a long time I've been able to do this," he explained in a relieved tone.

"The Degradations planet not relaxing? Could look up at the sky then," she offered.

Harry mock shuddered. "I'm still not over all the porridge meals."

"You got your fill of all the other Dalek junk around though," Oswin pondered.

Harry nodded, humming to himself. "There is that," he paused. "I hope tomorrow isn't disastrous."

"Do you have a plan B?" Oswin asked.

"Blow them up? Harry wondered brightly.

Oswin laughed. "Isn't that plan A?"

"I'm going to try and negotiate first Oswin, but we can't give them time to call in reinforcements," Harry explained as Oswin sat up and offered him her hand.

"Well come on you," she said pulling him up. "Supper and then bed if we're to be doing all this tomorrow."

Harry mock sighed. "Fine."

-/

It didn't feel like much of anything when the Leader leapt onto his back, a little tug on both his muscles and his memories and then there was a…it was sort of comforting, a presence in the back of his mind.

It wasn't like when Oswin had connected him as the battle computer's creativity and controller, that was a rush of power and control, that made him feel like he had unimaginable power and control over everything within reach. That had made him feel a bit giddy at the thought.

This…this was…

"You can relax Harry, I am within to help," said a voice within his mind that was less…less something than the Leader's voice outside.

"It's like you're just beside me," Harry said to himself.

They, well he now, they had been standing some ways off away from the rest, it was a 'sometimes difficult' transition. This process, used occasionally in their limited diplomatic discussions with others.

"You have sustained significant traumas recently, mental tortures, discoveries and protections, I understand the limits, your memories Harry," the voice was calm within his mind, he didn't feel it prying into the darker, personal places of his mind.

"We need to try this, to see how much power we wield, your psychic energy and my,"

"Magic, it is almost one and the same, different perspectives on a similar thing, do you not see?"

Harry raised his arm our and felt the pulse of energy arc out; blue sort of like lightning and hit a mount of dirt some several metres away. It hadn't felt like anything, it was almost a reflex.

"That was far too easy," Harry said, to himself and to the Eight Legs on his back.

"Indeed," the Leader said within his mind.

"Now I want to try my way," Harry levelled his wand, casting and explosive charm at the same area and cast with deliberate action and motion.

He'd very rarely felt recoil casting magic, but he felt his muscles tense and almost struggle to hold a spell wielded and cast with such power and motion.

When he ended his casting he was left breathing heavily, the voice in his mind too seemed surprised by the result.

Harry found himself walking over to the area he had aimed at.

"I hadn't intended to add to the holes in your world," he said with a half laugh looking at the small crater sized hole he'd created in such a small amount of time. He laughed again nervously.

"You believe this action to be better than negotiating?"

"I hope negotiating will work for the Time Lords, Ginny will still have to die," Harry said a hand going to where his anti-Time Lord weapon was. "The Time Lords are invaders on your world."

"I have seen your encounter with the Time Lords Harry, there is much to what you say, and feel, with danger on all sides."

"Welcome to my world."

-/

He, or they had walked up, through the magical and technical barriers that Ginny and the Time Lords had placed around their mine site.

Oswin was with a small group of Eight Legs at the mountain overlooking their mining pit. They'd plant the bombs and wait and see what happened, wait for his signal.

Another larger group would be waiting to support him against the Time Lords, to hold the Time Lords and try and prevent them communicating. Unfortunately they couldn't weave their webs with anything like the speed that would be useful in a battle situation. But they at least had a better knowledge of Time Lord biology to work with thanks for him and Oswin, should it come to that.

The Leader, having seen within his mind did not want to bring the wrath of the Time Lords on Metebelis III.

So it would be up to him, them, to work out some finesse, to remove Ginny and subdue the Time Lords.

As they approached the mounds of soil and mining spill a figure climbed up over a high mound. She was covered head to toe in dust and dirt, it was caked onto her hair and clothing.

"You're filthy, so much for the Time Lords and their noble days," Harry commented as the figure revealed herself as Ginny; crawling up over the mound. Now that she was closer Harry could see it was blue sand and dirt. "Come to ravage another planet?"

She was young, younger than a lot of the other Ginnys he'd met. "Harry?!" She hadn't drawn her wand which was interesting. "What are you doing here?"

Harry smiled, although it didn't really reach his eyes, or his tone. "Usually how I arrive is a bit of an indicator to your past selves."

"Past selves…" she repeated. "You've met the others?" Her eyes narrowed as she fumbled her wand out of a pouch on her side. "You're working with the enemy?" Her face turned to a snarl.

Harry held up a hand. "Just hear me out for a second."

"They're the enemy," she hissed, "Do you know how many planets they've destroyed?"

"And the Eight Legs' planet? Aren't you strip mining it for the Time Lords?" Harry quizzed.

"The spiders?" Ginny hissed.

Harry nodded, ignoring the Leader's bristling at the spider term. "Or are they just lower caste muggles? Not worthy of thinking about during the war between the-"

"Yes!" Ginny exclaimed.

Then Harry fired the killing curse at her.

It was a short spell, held for shorter than he had in the past, it tore through her. It didn't just kill her, it vaporised almost three quarters of her body, the remains dropped to a squelchy lump.

"That was different," Harry quipped, it had been an almost comical end to her.

-/

Harry gazed down into the pit with his omnioculars. The other Ginny was down there, and it didn't look like she was coming back out.

Despite being an open cut mine, there didn't seem to be a lot of light down at the bottom of the mine, and he hoped as he hopped on his broom and jumped off the edge that the Time Lords also couldn't see, or alternatively would be busy with other things.

Flying almost vertically down the sides of the mine pit he could feel the uneasiness of the Leader in his mind.

"Enjoy it," he muttered.

"You do," she countered.

He did, he admitted to himself as he came off on the ground nearby the lone figure working away amongst the dirty blue rocks and sand. In a fluid motion he slipped the broom into a spare pocket lined with an expanding bag.

"Did you find another spider had walked through the exclusion wards Molls?" she asked not looking up from whatever spell work she was doing. "We might need to do a bit more control work soon."

Interesting Harry thought to himself, but he guessed they had to have given themselves different names, he supposed they couldn't both be Ginny.

"I'm afraid she met with something of an accident," Harry said approaching her.

The woman, witch, Time Lord agent turned around carefully, wand out.

Harry cast out with his wand, summoning hers and…overcooked it a bit. He felt the energy flare and explode out of his wand, summoning everything around Ginny. Rocks, crystals and whatever technical equipment nearby came flying towards him forcing him to end the spell duck and dive into a roll as the a maelstrom of detritus cascaded overhead, it continued with magical momentum and impacted into the far wall a long way away.

As he stood up again Ginny was clapping slowly. "You. I heard someone magical might be in the war Harry," she said calmly. "And I guessed it might be you."

As he brushed himself off the Leader within his mind warned "She is too calm for a two legs in this situation."

Yes. Harry thought to himself.

But one of the things he'd learnt is Ginnys, some of them at least liked to talk.

"You've heard of me then?" Harry asked pleasantly.

Ginny laughed. She wasn't quite as young as the other he'd disposed of, but still looked almost the same age as the one who'd departed from Earth. "Enough to be wary. You shouldn't have been able to stop her, and you shouldn't have that much power against me," she paused looking him over. "You've used the crystals haven't you?"

Harry shrugged. "I gather the Time Lords can't."

Ginny appraised him. "You've been observing for some time, I thought I saw a broom in the sky, detected the omniocular spell craft reflecting down into the pit."

"Quidditch never leaves you?" Harry wondered.

Ginny faltered for a moment. "Being around them makes everything clearer, clears the mind and spirit, so they say," she said watching him.

"And with a clear mind you're here?" Harry asked.

Ginny snorted. "You're on the side of the enemy, what of your conscience?"

"I work with them, against you, you're the one who's invaded another being's world," Harry countered.

"The spiders?" She sneered.

"The Eight Legs," he corrected idly "if you're with the Time Lords defending what's right, what of them?" Harry reasoned. He knew he had the power to blast her away, destroy her, but something, not the Leader, but something else was niggling in the back of his mind. Being here around all these crystals and this place…it was a mentally clearing experience.

Ginny seemed to think on his question and gestured with her wand. "I thought you turn up and kill Harry, like the enemy."

"What of the Eight Legs? Are they the enemy?" Harry pressed.

"These crystals are necessary for the war, their planet's already taken a secondary hit after the enemy attacked a Zeiton-7 mine," she looked at him cruelly. "Or did you not wonder where the colonists had gone? They were just regular spiders before they came here."

Harry felt the Leader begin to want to pull his other arm up to fire at her. He fought it. Steady he thought to the Eight Legs on his back.

"It was necessary Ginny? Same working Molls to the ground?" Harry asked.

Ginny looked at him. "Why haven't you killed me yet Harry? That's what I've heard, you turn up with a Dalek death squad and kill my sisters."

Harry shrugged. "Maybe I want you to explain…" Harry left his sentence hanging.

Ginny held her wand aimed at him. "You're going to kill me aren't you?"

"You're an anomaly and a danger to the war," Harry paused and nodded. "Yes, I am."

She lowered her wand. "Then why prolong it?"

"If you come up out of this pit, tell your Time Lord chums that this is all done, and they need to leave…" Harry sighed, now weary. "Then they can leave, I'm not the Daleks, I'm not going to kill any Time Lords unless-"

"Unless it's really necessary?" Ginny snorted again and then looked at him carefully. "I think I've killed more Daleks than you have Time Lords."

"Some of my best friends are Time Lords," Harry countered.

"And you're still on their side?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know which side I'm on Ginny, I'm dealing with you, the extraneous elements in an already complicated war. You and your sisters shouldn't be here, you're my mistake."

She stared at him and turned around. "Come on then, if you're good to your word, we've got a long walk."

"How long have you been here Harry, in the war?" Ginny asked curiously over her shoulder.

"Long enough to have seen a lot, and enough that I don't want to be here," he admitted, he still had his wand out and he hadn't disarmed Ginny or hers, but she was leading the way up the narrow path.

"And you're still sure you're on the winning side?" She pressed.

"Do you think there's a winning side in a temporal war, aren't we all just losers to Time?" Harry asked, putting emphasis on Time to see how she responded.

"You're not one of those who believes in Menti Celesti are you?" She scoffed.

Harry shrugged. "Who knows."

"You tease her, this is not how I expected you to progress Harry, not from your previous encounter, nor your memories," said the Leader in his mind.

'I'm trying to do the best for you and your planet,' he thought to himself.

"It is not a criticism, you have far more control than I assumed, even for a capable two legs."

"How did you find me here? I've enhanced our TARDIS's perception field, and woven one into this area."

"A question for a question Ginny?" Harry asked.

"You could torture it out of me," Ginny tried playfully.

"That's hardly my style," Harry said.

She laughed. "That's exactly your style Harry Potter, I might be a part of her, but I remember it all."

Harry remained silent.

"Ask your questions," she said with a shrug "you're not like the Time Lords, they would not admit to ask questions."

Harry shook his head. They certainly liked to ask questions and interrogate them out of you.

"The potion ingredients, where have they come from?" It was something that had been annoying him for some time, he assumed they'd been grown in a TARDIS or something, but nothing from his limited testing had revealed anything like that.

Ginny laughed. "That's what you want to know?" She turned around, continuing to walk backwards to look at him.

He tightened his grip on his wand.

"It really is annoying you isn't it?" She queried with a smile.

Harry shrugged. "It's a thing that doesn't make sense."

Ginny smiled. "They like that, things to make sense, the dateline and web of time."

"The web of time can hardly be of import in a temporal war to the Time Lords," Harry countered.

"Alvega, it's protected, and you'll never get a Dalek to land there," she boasted. "Well, how'd you find me here?"

"The Eight Legs called, I answered," Harry said simply as they continued to hike out of the pit.

"You were called by spiders and you came? Are you at the beck and call of all enemies of the Time Lords?" She challenged.

"The Eight Legs opposed you being here, that makes them the enemy Ginny?" Harry quizzed.

"Yes!" She looked back at him with venom, and now it seemed more of the viscous streak of the Ginnys seemed to come to the fore

"I wouldn't say I was International Rescue of the Time War, but they made a compelling argument," he said.

"Spiders Harry," she almost spat.

"Eight Legs," Harry countered calmly.

"They're spiders Harry, they're not even Acromantulas, at least they're magical, these, we had to do some pest control when we first arrived-"

Harry raised his other arm, not his wand arm. A blue arc arced out and hit Ginny in the shoulder. He was relatively sure he had intended to do so, but there was also the annoyed, rightly so Leader on his back.

Ginny whipped around. "You, you're…"

"Powerful, and that was just the start, you have blood of innocents on your hands Ginny," Harry looked into her eyes.

"They're not even that sentient Harry," she said in a pitying tone. "We're almost out of the pit now," she looked up at the sky.

Harry only realised that now that they weren't at the bottom it wasn't subsumed with a blue tinge. "Is that why you've turned into such a psychotic-" he was cut off by her laughter.

"It suppresses, controls, the blue crystals of Metebelis III Harry, you should know that, you're using one to wield the crystals' power at me, not even a wizard's attack."

"We can kill her now," said the Leader within his mind.

'As much as I want to we need to deal with the Time Lords.' Harry thought to himself. It amused him that Ginny hadn't realised what was going on.

"Isn't there anything else you want to ask me?" Ginny asked vehemently as they continued to trudge up the hill.

"Not really, I think I liked you down there," Harry chanced a look over the edge and was glad he had his broom with him.

"Now I have more controls in place up here," she commented. "I could tell you so much, where she is, you'd like that, to know," she teased.

"I presume you mean the original one, the one who made the decision to come into the war?" Harry asked her as she spun around.

"Yes!" She exclaimed.

"I worked that out a long time ago," Harry said holding her gaze. "Are you still going to play ball or am I going to have to send their head and hearts back to Gallifrey?"

Her face fell and it seemed she did have association with the Time Lords. "No, don't, I'll comply."

Harry gestured with his wand again as she turned back around. He didn't feel comfortable enough with the level of power he currently had to use another summoning spell on her, it might rip the wand through her back, which would be unfortunate for her.

There were two groups of spiders standing around guarding the two Time Lords.

"Lady Ginny!" One of them exclaimed as they approached.

"Who are you?" The other demanded, his hand going to a holster.

"Our work here is done," Ginny said in a flat voice. "The spiders have reclaimed their planet," she continued in a flat voice. "Return to Gallifrey with what we have retrieved."

"What about-" the first began.

"Neither is going with you," Harry said in a calm voice.

"And who are you to-" the first began.

"The one who has killed 'Molls' and the one who will end her life and yours if you don't comply," Harry explained calmly.

"We're Time Lords we can't be-" the second began.

"I've been in this war as well Time Lord," Harry looked at the first one in the eyes. "If I have to I'll sever your brain stem or stop both your hearts to ensure you're done with this planet."

"But you're letting us go? Why?" the first asked appraising him.

Harry sighed. "My quarrel is with her. You have you own fight and battles against your enemy, I'm not here to stand in the way of that. Just leave the Eight Legs alone, don't come back, they will defend themselves," Harry paused, looking between them seriously "I'll make sure they know exactly how to."

-/

"How do you want to go?" Harry asked Ginny as the battle TARDIS faded away.

She practically hissed at him. "In a blaze of glory and-"

Harry didn't let her finish, the killing curse was much more controlled this time, but her head was still blown away off her shoulders leaving the body to collapse onto the ground.

Then he felt a sudden absence as the Leader slipped off his back. It was…it had been a presence, a participant of…he wasn't sure. He'd certainly found the process pleasant, though indistinct.

-/

He'd ended up just showing them some spells, over and over again so they could 'feel the psychic vibrations', and even let the Leader onto his back again so she could properly understand.

He'd needed to, for some things, there was still a huge hole in the ground and it would take him forever and a day if he were to try and deal with it alone, with the Leader together they'd been able to move a lot more earth faster.

He was walking around the new edge of the pit, now more of a steep slope, which at least was an improvement from before when it was a sheer drop.

"At least we didn't need to blow up the mountain," Oswin said gliding up along side him, now in Dalek form and sounding much more relaxed.

The Eight Legs hadn't cared at all at the appearance of her Dalek form, Harry wasn't sure if they actually saw a difference between her forms.

The Eight Legs were slowly gathering more dirt and sand from elsewhere to fill in the pit. They'd never get their grazing lands back that they had here for their sheep, there was nothing he could do to help that.

But at least they'd stopped the Time Lords, with the minimal amount of death, and by not bringing the attention of the Daleks. He just hoped the Time Lords would take this as a minor bump, not something worthy of revenge.

Although everything he knew and had been told about the Time Lords suggested that they weren't averse to a little bit of that.

"The Leader offered me some of the crystals, some of the ones left behind by Ginny and the Time Lords," Harry said.

"And?" Oswin asked curiously.

"I said I'd think about it, the Doctor took a crystal from here and that led to the whole Great One thing hundreds of years ago," Harry explained as he gestured with his wand to some piles of sand down into the pit. There was no danger in doing so, no one was down at the bottom, they were working at building and chucking stuff down for now.

"Stealing is a bit different from accepting an offer Harry, you could just pop it in a box and never use it," Oswin offered.

Harry looked to her. "Is it something you want?" He asked curiously.

"I noticed how calm being here has helped you, not sure about me," she gestured with her manipulator arm and gunstick. "Feeling more comfortable like this…" he lights lit up, but she didn't say anything more.

Harry through an arm around her in a hug. "I'll accept then, we can always chuck them in a bowl and sit around basking in the blue glow."

"Are we leaving soon?" Oswin asked as Harry stepped away out of his hug of her.

"I wanted to show them some more magic, just in case," Harry paused as Oswin rotated her dome to look at him. "This is the first sort of magical kind of people I've met, and I want them to be safe, and I didn't want to go all Doctory 'this planet is protected'."

"I don't think even he wants to be a god to anyone Harry," Oswin commented.

"Not for most of the lives I've known him for," Harry paused, closing his eyes, remembering being pulled up off the floor of the Zero cell by the man in the leather jacket, that sudden feeling of relief…and panic, the terror of seeing another Time Lord. Then he felt an arm on his shoulder.

"You alright?" Oswin asked now resplendent in her red dress.

"You must have a wardrobe full of red dresses," Harry chuckled.

Oswin smoothed down her dress and smiled at him. "It makes me happy."

"Then that's a good thing Oswin," Harry matched her smile.

-/

"I'll try and come back, maybe, when this is all over," Harry said to the Leader and the other Eight Legs. "Or seek me out, if she ever returns, as unlikely it will be."

"You have given and offered a great deal to the Eight Legs Harry Potter, perhaps more than you know," the Leader said. "I will accompany you to your craft."

"I feel bad that I couldn't help finish the pit works," he said as they walked, Oswin was already back in the Timeship.

"Your teachings have informed us greatly, and your assistance invaluable, few have offered such to the Eight Legs," the Leader said from beside him.

Harry nodded, unsure what to say, he'd felt it a lot during these past few days, not sure what to say, but show as much as he could. It felt good to help some people, some way during all of this…this war and everything.

-/

Harry stood at the spinning screens, watching Metebelis III fade away as they fully departed the time zone and space of the Acteon Galaxy.

"Back into the war proper," Oswin said passing him a mug of tea.

"7 Ginnys down and dead, 5 more," Harry said breathing in the steam from his mug.

"6 surely?" Oswin asked.

Harry shook his head. "5 and the original, and I know where she'll be, always known about that if I honestly thought about it."

"You mean Gallifrey don't you Harry?" Oswin chuckled. "Of course we're going to have to go there."

"Not until we've dealt with the others, and Alvega; one of those questions that's lingering," Harry pondered.

"We'll need to get in with a fleet system to cross reference the name," Oswin paused. "If you're ready to get back into it, we can always go to Barastabon or somewhere for a bit more of a relax…?" She offered.

Harry looked to her and smiled. "I'm relaxed Oswin, we did good, helped some people."

"You did, I mostly pushed sand around and got asked questions about existence," Oswin commented.

"Good or bad questions?" Harry wondered.

"Just questions," Oswin shrugged.

-/

A/N:

I've always had an encounter with the Eight Legs in my plans for this arc, though where it was going to fall I've messed around with a bit.

At one point I had intended there to be a big battle between the two (in one draft it was three) Ginnys and Harry with the Eight Legs on his back.

But as I worked through this chapter and thought about the previous chapters 97, 98 and 99, the trauma Harry suffers at the hands of the Time Lords continued to be something that had long reaching scars.

The abilities of the Metebelis III crystals I've extended to the planet somewhat, in part it's down to the Time Lords' mining of the crystals, and in part it's just because Harry's in a safe place with safe beings and a goal in sight.

He's properly able to clear his mind.

That's also why he's able to have a reasonable conversation in the mining pit with Ginny and then as they climb out she become more rabid.

The flashback to the Burrow with the Doctor is from when the Fifth Doctor met Harry at the Burrow back in chapter 05.

Thanks for reading.