Chapter 108
"And remember, Project Peru."
Harry tapped his notebook, it was one of many things he'd learnt during the Time War that was on his to investigate list, not to mention the various things he'd left in the air before he'd gone on his sojourn into the Time War.
He recalled that Alistair had been off to Peru every now and then, for UNIT stuff, nothing untoward, so maybe it was nothing, maybe? Maybe they were just psychic projections through the æther or something? Maybe...?
Daphne had told him he needed to rest and recuperate.
Judith had told him that there would be a period of 'acclimatising to the normal world', she implied he might be sleeping with a gun under his pillow.
He never had fears like that, even after…after what Voran and Waym did.
"And Tannis and Andro," Harry pondered, his internal musings coming out as a vocal musing, he wasn't sure if that was better to be talking to himself rather than internal monologuing it.
-/
He'd apologised profusely for missing it…his funeral to Kate, he didn't know what else he could say, he wasn't going to say he'd chatted to his ghost on a planet of ghosts.
"Are you alright Harry, you seem…" she trailed off.
Harry leaned back in the easy chair, he was sat with Kate in an anteroom of her offices within UNIT. "…" He tried to begin.
She gave him a look. "Off saving the world? That's what dad would say," she smiled.
"I met him," Harry blurted out. "On a planet of ghosts," he admitted as he explained the dream, the planet of ghosts, although not who he was sharing the planet with.
"The Time War?" She repeated watching him carefully.
He nodded.
She continued to watch him carefully, not reacting much to this new information, her expression neutral, with a hint of worry. "Something happened in it, something that's changed you," she paused. "I won't say sorry Harry, it's not something I can forgive, I learnt that, taking on all of this, I can't be responsible for everything."
"Alistair would probably agree with you, 'I'm just doing the best I can'," Harry smiled in remembrance of him. "Often with terrible resources and just a sergeant and a captain by his side," he finished with a slight chuckle.
Kate smiled and gave him a sincere look. "There are some people you can talk to, those who know, and who are under the tightest contracts, and the Official Secrets Act, if you want to…" she trailed off.
Harry smiled, nodding slightly. "But would they understand Kate?" He wondered emphatically.
She shook her head. "Not all of it Harry, but some things, that might be troubling you, you may find solace with that."
Harry nodded. "I'll consider it, maybe-"
He was cut off as there was a quick knock on the door and a woman in glasses and a question marked shirt came in. "Kate I've just off the phone with our offices in, oh."
"Osgood, this is Harry Potter," Kate introduced looking to Harry.
Harry rose offering her his hand. "Harry Potter, League of Paranormal Investigations."
Osgood's eyes went wide. "I've read reports about you, you're the ones with the…" she trailed off looking to Kate for confirmation. "Magic, we're not meant to investigate anything with your lot."
Harry looked to Kate and mouthed 'my lot?'. "After Liz gave up the Preternatural Research Bureau to go run the Moonbase someone had to pick up the slack, especially during that era when UNIT was under less capable control, before Kate was in command," Harry nodded in Kate's direction.
Osgood grinned at him. "Not many people know about P.R.o.B.e.," she paused and looked at him. "It was run on a shoestring even more than UNIT."
Harry laughed. "Better now, back in my UNIT days…" he smiled and shook his head. "Probably all classified now."
"Osgood has full clearance Harry, but perhaps now isn't the time," Kate said as she rose from her chair gesturing back towards her office.
Harry nodded. "I'll leave you to whatever invasion it is that's befuddling you," he said making for the door.
"Wait, how do you know it's an invasion?" Osgood asked.
Kate shook her head looking at him. "Harry I meant what I said, if you'd like some help…"
Harry nodded to her. "I'll think about it, thanks Kate," he smiled. "Osgood, nice to meet you, we can chat some other time about the Shoreditch Incident or World Peace Conference with Sir Reginald," Harry began as he opened the door to depart.
-/
Kingsley Shacklebolt leaned back into his chair. "Dealt with Potter?"
Harry shrugged. "What fiction you decide on is up to you Minister," he sighed. "I would prefer not to have a fractious relationship with the Weasley family," he paused for the briefest of seconds adding "any more so than it is."
Kingsley gave him a look. "Something we would all wish for," he paused and fixed Harry with a look. "If I asked you, would you tell me what happened with her?"
Harry met and held his gaze and wondered if he would try anything, that...that question felt like a threat, maybe? "Seems so long ago, Hogwarts, when I was a student, when everything was simpler Kingsley," Harry sighed sadly re-appriasing the man before him. "Yes, I would and you wouldn't like the answer," Harry paused. "I don't like the answer, and I have to live with it," he finished with a grim tone.
Kingsley studied him for a few moments, the silence sitting like a fog over both of them. "None of this will be recorded, not the supplies given to you, they were lost to a water leak, I made sure that there were no records of anything, your meetings with me Potter are concerning the muggles' Olympic Games," he paused giving Harry a look. "The Prime Minister wants it all to go smoothly, no magical interference. Ms Granger has been of valuable assistance."
Harry nodded. "She has," Harry gave the Minister a look. "And the fact she's disappeared from the unspeakables' watch?"
"That was a life sentence," Kingsley intoned "she knew that when she went in, there are few monastic lifestyles within our world Potter. She accepted that, her family knew this was a possibility."
"Rarely taken up?" Harry enquired curiously.
"It is not impossible," Kingsley replied with an awkwardness verging on uncomfortable.
Harry gave him a look of doubt and shrugged. "Very well, I had not thought about her much since I retrieved her and brought her back, and this I hope is the final end," he made to stand.
"Are you alright Potter, from your venturing to deal with this?" Kingsley asked with some concern present in his voice.
Harry smiled carefully. "Some experiences and time has passed for me Kingsley," he gave the older man a look. "I thought, facing Voldemort had prepared me, and that my life up until I went on my sojourn had also…"
"I see," Kingsley paused.
"And I discovered," Harry paused and sighed "well a lot, a friend of mine said it takes time to decompress, to acclimatise to the regular world, where one doesn't sleep with their wand under a pillow, and a deadly curse on their lips," Harry paraphrased, he gave Kingsley a half smile as he stood. "I never needed to do that, the dangers were a little more ephemeral some of the time, but the sentiments are similar."
"I see," Kingsley said again, although his tone suggested he was just filling in the conversation.
"I'm not sure you'd want to Kingsley," Harry paused at the door. "But thank you nonetheless."
-/
"You're back," a voice said as he was leaving the Minister's offices. Hermione Granger beckoned to him.
"I am?" He queried as he paused at a door that proclaimed this was the Department of Historical Research and Response, and under it an older sign stated 'Archaeological Response Team' and then followed Hermione within.
"Your friend Judith said you were 'indisposed on an important assignment' and fobbed me off to your Wales team," she shook her head summoning a teapot from somewhere as Harry took a seat near the fire within the sizeable office space, already full of books, papers, maps and Merlin knew what else.
"You met Ros, we worked fine with you and that Stonehenge business," Harry commented as he tried to remember how he had conversations with normal people about secretive things. He'd spent a few months, or maybe it was longer? Talking to Daleks and Oswin. Plus the occasional Time Lord and mad woman.
"You're not going to be honest with me and say where you were?" She asked sitting down opposite him looking brightly at him.
Harry opened his mouth to make a dark joke and thought better of it. "No."
Hermione looked at him surprised. "Just 'no' Harry? I thought we worked in the same circles."
"Vaguely," he admitted, and mused that he hadn't expected to be confronted by Hermione so soon, he'd hoped to come up with a reason he'd been indisposed for a few months. Well, a month or so to everyone else, a few months to him, ignoring the times spent outside time which didn't really count. Except where it did.
"Harry?" Hermione prompted.
"Caught in my own musings, sorry Hermione," Harry replied. "Just something that needed sorting out, it wasn't too eventful," he lied, too easily he thought for a moment.
"You seem different," she said leaning forward to look at him. "And not just the haircut," she raised her eyebrows. "Very short, different from the floppy hair."
"Found myself dragging my hand through it too often," he commented running his had over the close cropped hair. "Need to cut it back short every now and then, clear the decks."
"Nothing dangerous during your time away?" Hermione asked curiously.
Harry tilted his head in thought, the sounds of a Dalek saucer in his ears, the smell of mud, of energy weapons sizzling through the air, the screams of engines as time torpedoes impacted with a saucer, the pain at the hands of a Time Lord and the dull satisfaction in another Ginny's death.
"Dangerous in your rather broad way of looking at things," Hermione added lightly.
Harry shook his head taking the cup and saucer of tea. "No, nothing all that dangerous, I'm still here aren't I?"
Hermione watched him carefully for a moment before nodding. "I hope so Harry."
"Got your new offices I see, filling them up" observed with some humour as he looked around.
"And someone who gets to be all name and deal with the paperwork," she smiled. "Ward Lock, and he actually enjoys sparring with the Ministry!" She exclaimed shaking her head. "I'm now Field Head of the Department of Historical Research and Response," she raised her eyebrows. "More excitement and not as much paperwork!"
Harry laughed. "It's good, can't have a boring life," he said going to bite his nails before stopping himself.
"Have you thought about a break, after your sojourn wherever it was Harry?" She asked with concern, eyeing him carefully.
"It was a break of sorts," he sighed. "Maybe I should get away somewhere, do something easy as there's nothing too dangerous creeping over the horizon to disturb."
"What a wonderfully bright turn of phrase Harry, anywhere in mind particular?" She commented.
Harry nodded. "South America."
-/
Daphne had been unsure that he should go gallivanting off across the globe so soon after returning from the Time War.
But he couldn't just sit around and do nothing, that might be the death of him, he also couldn't sit around ruminating on things of the near future.
He'd asked Judith to come with him, this had the feeling of being her sort of thing.
"Secret Brigadiers, who you were informed about by a ghost?" Judith repeated to him as the Xecotcovach X-2 settled down on a tiny patch of land that was only vaguely flat.
The second iteration of LPI's Concorde-based space-plane slash aircraft still had a lot of work needing to be done to get it to space-worthiness and to make it more capable than the X-1. It also cost a small fortune, but with this one he'd told Ioan not to compromise in his ideas, theories and everything else. The X-1 had needed to be a cargo plane to fulfil his agreement with Osric for the Greengrass business. A rather failed offering Harry had admitted. He still had some ideas to pay Osric back for his trust, but that was on the 'need to draw some plans up and investigate' pile for now.
"Is it safe for it to be making that noise?" Judith jabbed a thumb back to the aircraft that was doing a good job of blending in with its surroundings. It was unfortunately on quite a slope. There was a very low hum from the anti-gravs.
Harry shrugged. "Probably, they've got their orders," he said as he fished his binoculars out of his dimensionally transcendental bag. Both items had been through the Time War and out the other side with only a little bit of wear and tear.
"And somewhere around here is a secret base," Judith commented as she looked around. "Your contact didn't say anything more than this?"
"My contact didn't say anything at all, this mountain range has unusually high levels of certain minerals that seem to attract meteorite strikes," Harry pulled the binoculars away from his eyes.
"Wishing for a fleet to scan from orbit?" Judith wondered.
"It'd be nice," he admitted looking to her. "But was frequently useless, otherwise I wouldn't have been shot, spelled and blown up numerous times, and you can say his name, he was a ghost at the time Judith," Harry shook his head.
"Seemed normal at the time?" Judith wondered.
"Being challenged by alternate universe Daleks ghosts which were pretty real, yeah, it did," he bent down to pick up some of the rubble and dirt. "I've fought my way through alien sands and strange new worlds," he let everything in his hands fall through his fingers and smiled at her. "But it's good to be home."
"To be shot at somewhere new?" Judith challenged with a smirk. "You still carry yourself like you're at war Harry," she said in a more serious tone. "That's what everyone's thinking when they're looking at you, reading that preparedness in your body language, I had to learn to drop that around people," she paused and gave him a look. "and learnt not to have it."
"Unless when the situation required it?" Harry asked.
Judith didn't say anything.
"Spying wasn't something I needed to do a lot of, creeped around some of the time," Harry reflected. "The times we did creep around it didn't turn out well."
"As in you got shot at or-" She began.
Harry cut her off. "Blew up a facility by accident, the Doctor was involved."
Judith rolled her eyes at him. "Of course he was."
-/
"This doesn't look like much of a base," Judith commented idly as Harry pushed open the door, they'd just disabled the lock a combination of electronic and some sort of logic gate, Judith had dealt with the latter part.
"You know I'm starting to think that I shouldn't take the advice of ghosts," Harry wondered out loud as he gestured around with his wand, the powerful lumos spell illuminating large chunks of the space they were in. There were a handful of dusty computers, and not much else. Harry sighed. "Maybe I should just let Project Peru, whatever it is, slide, maybe it's not even in Peru..." he trailed off with a sigh. "Alistair's dead, there's something else to it? Maybe there's a duplicate, maybe not? Maybe it doesn't matter?" he shook his head and walked out of the facility corridor and through the door they'd just opened and sank down onto the ground outside to look back out onto the valley.
The facility was buried into the rock face.
"Probably just a crashed spacecraft," Judith commented sitting down beside him.
"Perhaps," Harry exhaled a sigh. "Don't know what I'm meant to be doing Judith," he admitted.
"Was so clear while you were off? You had your mission, direction, and now it's back to your old life?" She asked.
Harry nodded.
"You could call up your friend, go off in your time craft, no one would know," Judith suggested.
Harry looked to her as she smiled at him and shook her head.
"Of course not Harry," she said gently. "Maybe reconnect with some others who escaped?"
"Escaped?" Harry wondered.
"The life," she said simply.
-/
Harry knocked on the door and half wanted to run off, but he had called before asking if he could come around.
"You going to come in or just stand at the front door?" Amy Pond asked watching him from within the house, she'd opened the door while he was mid-muse.
"I've not quite decided," Harry admitted.
Amy made to close the door, "Suit yourself."
"Fine," Harry exaggeratedly sighed as he walked across the threshold of the building.
"Is he here?" Asked a male voice inside.
"Yes Rory, don't need to sound so eager," Amy shook her head.
"Ran into a friend of yours while I was out and about," Harry began as he followed Amy through to the kitchen where Rory was stood filling the kettle.
"The Doctor? He's been popping in here and there," Rory commented idly as he prepared a pot of tea.
"Your daughter," Harry said in an even voice.
"River?" Amy asked. "What happened?" She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Are you alright?" Rory asked looking at him carefully.
"I should be. She pulled a gun on me, threatened me, we bantered, it was all fine," as far as I know, Harry answered, the latter part being unsaid.
"And the rest," Rory pressed as the kettle clicked off. "What's the matter?"
Harry breathed in and shook his head. "Made some mistakes, did some things, feels weird, coming back to normal life."
"Tell me about it, getting a job and everything after the Doctor dropped us back here," Amy commented flopping down into a chair. "Got myself a lot more high end modelling work."
Harry nodded surprised. "Better than the stripper work wasn't it?" He teased.
"Watch it you, it was kissing, I wasn't a prostitute!" Amy countered playfully.
Harry laughed and held his hands up in mock defeat. "Sorry, mis-remembered."
"Still, Harry I-" Rory started as the phone started to ring.
Amy fumbled her her pocket. "Agent, sorry," she said rising from the chair, kissing Rory's cheek as she did so.
"Come on, it's still nice out," Rory gestured towards the rear of the kitchen and the outside back garden.
Rory brought the mugs of tea over with a plate of Jaffa Cakes. "I know that look Harry."
"Oh?" Harry asked.
"I've got all these memories, of being an Auton, dying and everything else, I know when I see this sort of thing," Rory gave him a look. "Amy knows, some of it, most of it," he frowned. "Some of the time."
Harry wasn't sure how to react to this, he sort of knew some of it, they hadn't really had a really proper deep and meaningful about it. "Did the Doctor ever talk about a big war he was involved in?"
"Where he killed all of the Time Lords?" Rory asked.
Harry nodded. "That sounds like it."
"Yeah, when we were trapped in the TARDIS…" he began to explain.
Harry couldn't help but smile. "Had my own trapped in a TARDIS experience, mine also involved a lot of dying over and over, and a psychotic vampire ex-girlfriend, it's weird where life takes you sometimes isn't it?"
Rory laughed. "Wish you'd been there then, to put it all in perspective," he looked at Harry. "But you wouldn't would you? You and the Doctor you're really good friends but…" he trailed off.
"I doubt that he and I could travel together for very long, got rescued by him a few months ago," Harry commented.
"You don't seem like you'd need rescuing Harry," he looked back to the house where Amy was on the phone gesturing around. "Like Amy, in control all the time."
Harry nodded. "Something I got myself into, protecting a good friend of mine," Rory looked at him knowingly. "And the mission. Some things happened, not amazing things. I'm sure Tegan's mentioned the amazing stuff, but sometimes the shit hits the fan, out there travelling."
Rory nodded reaching for his mug. "That's what he said, that we're still breathing, that's why he dropped us back."
Harry nodded and looked to Rory. "Even after what happened, I still wanted to get out there, finish the mission, but the…"
"Excitement? There's nothing like it, and wonder," Rory mused with wonderment.
Harry nodded eagerly. "Yeah, after everything growing up, and then this, it was one hell of a rush."
"And now? Trying to relax back down?" Rory asked. "Nothing feels as real as it did?"
Harry looked to him. "What about you, if you were an Auton, and knowing what you experienced…?"
"Sometimes feels like a dream, and a nightmare, and everything," he rubbed his wrist.
"Would you go back out there?" Harry wondered.
Rory gave him a look. "With everything you're feeling, would you?"
Harry leaned back into the garden chair and nodded. "Even after it all, yes," he didn't add that he could, easily do so. He'd made his friend take that away, because he knew he shouldn't be doing that sort of thing.
Rory looked back to the house where Amy seemed to be finishing her phone call. "I would too."
-/
"Wondered when you'd come and see me," Tegan said as she walked out to meet him.
"I called ahead!" He exclaimed.
Tegan laughed. "And I told you not to tell me anything," she said studying him. "Wanted to wait for you to come down under to have a proper conversation. Rory said you looked worried."
Harry didn't say anything, just let himself be led into Tegan's home and be settled in with a drink.
"Well? Or do I need to get out the Bundy?" She challenged.
"Went and killed my ex-girlfriend a dozen times or so to stop her from influencing the Time War and potentially destroying the Earth," Harry paused. "Got tortured by the Time Lords along the way."
Tegan looked at him for a few long moments of silence. "You're serious."
Harry gave her a look. "Very."
"I see," she said as she sipped her beer.
"Yeah," Harry said with a sigh.
"You run into him?" She asked.
"The Doctor?" He asked.
"Well I'm not asking about the bloody Master now am I?" She looked at him. "You ran into him as well didn't you?"
"On a planet of psychic daffodils," Harry answered idly.
Tegan looked like she wanted to ask if he was joking.
"And I met the Doctor," he added "he had a beard."
"A beard?" She repeated questioningly with some incredulity.
He nodded.
"And now?" She wondered.
"It's a lot, coming back from," he took a sip of his beer. "Tried getting back into things."
Tegan shook her head. "You need to relax, or whatever you thing you should be doing that'll help you get back into things, something simple, work out where you direct yourself."
"Like your campaigning and outreach?" Harry wondered.
Tegan gave him a look. "I don't know if that's for you Harry, don't you have a secret empire to run?"
"Want to come and work for me?" He asked curiously.
"You're still being serious aren't you?" She asked curiously.
Harry nodded. "One of the things I learnt, can't be everywhere, sometimes it's better to have a few teams to do things."
"More people to get shot at," Tegan muttered and shook her head. "I had my time in the TARDIS Harry, twice."
"Rory said he'd go back," Harry mused.
"They would, they're allowed hanky panky in the TARDIS, my Doctor wouldn't have," she said with a chuckle.
"Given how that turned out I'm sure he had a good policy," Harry muttered quietly.
"They've mentioned Melody, or River Song," Tegan gave him a look. "They said you've met her, what's she like?"
Harry breathed in a deep breath as he formulated what to say to that question.
"That bad?" Tegan asked.
"We've met three times, the first two in the wrong order," Tegan gave him a look. "First meeting for me was second for her, second for me was first for her."
"Time travel, it was hard enough in a straight line," she shook her head draining the bottle of beer. "And the third?"
"During the war, she pulled a gun on me, threatened me, tried to break into my Timeship, my friend stunned her."
Tegan was nodding along with his story and stopped. "Wait, 'your Timeship'?"
Harry nodded. "Did I omit that?"
"Yeah, you did Harry, you have a TARDIS?" She asked incredulously.
Harry shook his head. "Not quite, it is bigger on the inside, just not infinite like the TARDIS, and it does travel in time."
"So? Why aren't you off exploring like the Doctor?" Tegan asked tilting her head looking at him.
Harry shook his. "Because I'm not the Doctor Tegan," he abruptly stood up, feeling ansty. "I don't…I shouldn't be off rambling around the universe, I don't know what I'd do. Oswin, I told her to take the Timeship back to where she lives."
"And that is?" Tegan queried.
"Dark Space 8, it's in the future, in deep space," Harry explained idly.
Tegan shook her head. "Of course it is, you're good at the casual bullshit like the Doctor used to do."
"I suppose I am," he looked over to her. "So that's a no then?"
"Work for you Harry?" Tegan laughed. "Definitely a no, but I appreciate you asking, still some life left in me then."
"Not just a mouth on legs Tegan," Harry teased.
"Watch it Harry," Tegan warned with humour.
-/
Harry closed his eyes and breathed in as he felt the sea spray and sea water hit him in the face.
The wind was whistling around the ship and he could hear some people people behind him working to change and adjust the sails.
He braced himself as another wave hit the ship, he was used to feeling the ebb and flow of energies and whatever around a ship. Except this one felt much more connected with its surroundings than a space craft. And of course he didn't need to worry about blacking out when the ship leapt to light speed. Just…
The ship thumped against another wave, interrupting his train of thought.
Just…the passage through the water, wind in the air.
And what a wind! He opened his eyes again.
This was meant to be summery weather.
He'd asked, or Daphne had offered, he didn't remember. A quick trip down to Ghana and back. The Greengrass' business had been contracted to take a lot of prepared dittany and schooling cauldrons when another ship was found to have root rot through its hull. How a ship made of timber got that he'd not asked.
Nor had he asked what else they were transporting, that was Daphne's business, or her family's. "You've probably got confidences to keep and all that," he'd said and she'd indicated an affirmative.
Harry looked up at the sky and cried with laughter as the ship his another wave and the wind felt like it increased another 15 per cent.
"Maximum power!" He muttered to himself.
-/
Daphne stood near the wheel at the stern of the ship as she kept a careful eye on Harry.
"He keeps his balance well," said the captain beside her.
"Indeed," she agreed. "He's enjoying it."
"He's carrying a lot of tension, seen it in the crew when a storm's comin'," he continued.
Daphne focused her gaze more so to where Harry was stood and just nodded.
"Even when the storm's passed there's always the backwash that'll get you," he continued.
Daphne nodded again, she had considered that Harry was still in the backwash of his experiences. But she was unsure how much he wanted or needed to be pushed to bridge the chasm between then and now. That he had asked to accompany and see one of the ships had seemed like a perfect opportunity.
Watching Harry turned away from the bow of the ship and walked calmly along the deck, even though the ship was heaving in all directions as the wind buffeted them.
"He is very adept at keeping his balance," she commented idly to herself, the captain had moved away to observe the compass.
"Enjoying yourself Harry?" She enquired.
He nodded eagerly. "Just feeling the sea, the salt, that's something you don't get with space," he muttered the last word. "It's amazing, tasting it."
"We were just marvelling at you balance, the captain said you've got remarkable stance for someone who's spent more time on land than at see," she gave him a look.
"Spent a lot of time on ships recently," he said looking upwards to the sky. "But I love this, being here," he said this sentence with such passion, such joy at such a simple thing, Daphne couldn't help but smile at him.
It was the first time since he'd returned that he seemed truly relaxed, quite a feat given the movement of the ship.
"Thank you," he said having taken a step closer to her as she mused on him. "Would it be improper to kiss you in front of the crew?" He asked a devilish smile on this lips.
Daphne laughed and kissed him. "No."
-/
Lying in the bed in the private cabin, Daphne was off to the side writing in a journal, Harry relaxed. There was still quite background noise of the waves as the ship continued on through the early evening.
"It's nice, to have a bed to lie in," Harry said looking over to Daphne who'd paused in writing. "So often I would just bed down on the floor of a saucer, I'd go back into the Timeship when I could."
Daphne looked over to him curious, though openly waiting for him to continue.
"There was more than once I blacked out, Oswin teased me about that," he paused smiling. "Just got used to catching sleep where I could, or dropping into bed exhausted from whatever it was that we'd needed to do," he sighed. "It's nice, feeling the motion, hearing stuff," he paused for a while.
"Taking time in arriving?" Daphne challenged lightly.
Harry chuckled. "Yes, not something we really indulged in, ironically considering the war we went through. Can relax now..." he said shifting on the bed and gestured with his wand at the folded pile of blankets on a side table; summoning them to the bed. "Nice to have a meal," he mused lying back, "and did I say? Nice wine," he said with a drowsy smile looking to her. "Nice just being able to slowly relax."
Daphne smiled gently at him as she closed her journal. "Yes Harry, you relax."
-/
There was a noise of something against the hull.
"Lumos," said someone beside her who had already thrown off his blankets, dressing and was tying up his shoes.
Daphne slipped on her clothes and her own shoes with practised quick movement.
"What was that?" Harry asked, a calm controlled tone to him, his body language had shifted. He still seemed relaxed, not tightly wound as he had, but this stance now was one she had not seen within him before. She had in some of the crew of this and other ships her family owned, a calm control of his body and wand.
"We shall investigate Harry," she started towards the door and turned back to look at him.
-/
The moon was illuminating the water; but there was definitely something below the surface.
The ship rocked again and he heard stress on the timber of the ship.
Looking from the deck up to the sails they looked slack, so they'd stopped moving.
But there were sounds of movement.
Harry looked over to the wheel where there were witches and wizards around Daphne and the captain.
Then there was another squelching sounds and the ship moved downwards followed by a disconcerting creaking and splintering noise. He was sure he could make out the sound of water in-rushing.
Then he felt a presence beside him.
"It's a kraken," Daphne said in a low tone beside him.
"I've got some explosives in my bag," he offered, pausing in thought. "But I don't think we want to go down that route," he looked to her, she gave him a look of 'no'. "Protected, or bad luck like bananas?" He wondered curiously.
"Harry destroying a giant of the sea is not something as simple as bananas," she chastised. "The captain thinks it's the muggle shipping lines disrupting it," she looked up. "With no wind we are within its grasp."
"As a cephalopod it'd be its suckers," Harry idly mused. "We need to get out of here?"
"That is the idea Harry," she looked to him. "Do you have an idea that doesn't involve explosives or muggle mechanisation?"
Harry seemed to muse for several moments, turning around looking at his surroundings afresh in deep thought for a few moment.
"Do you have any spare sails and rope?" Harry finally asked as he finished looking around him.
Daphne called over the boatswain. "We've got all the sails out Harry," she started to try and explain.
Harry just shook his head as he dug around in his pockets, pulling out a dirty looking bag and put his hand deep into it pulling out a broom.
"You cannot pull a ship with a broom Harry," she tried again.
Harry just shook his head. "I'm not going to to, I'm going to transfigure the sail, we'll use that to move the ship."
The spare sails were large affairs which she couldn't see how Harry could use them to capture the wind, but she gestured for one of the larger ones, summoning it from its storage box nearest to the stern.
"I saw an advert for it on..." Harry started as he saw the people around him and looked to her. "My travels," he paused as he gestured with his wand unfolding the sail so he could see its full size.
"You can't transfigure that, they're treated to be-" someone behind her began as Harry started twisting and weaving a spell, colours twisting and spun from his wand as he gestured over the length of the sail laid out on the deck. It wasn't transfiguration, not in the traditional sense, Harry was weaving, shifting and altering the design and shape threads pulled in from the side, twisting and bunching it up.
He was murmuring to himself in low tones as he concentrated, focused not quite on the sail or the spell itself but some inner design that he could see within his mind's eye, it was a sight to behold, especially against the dead of night. It was enough to almost forget about the kraken that was sitting suckering below the ship. That it was that which they were attempting to escape.
And then Harry abruptly stopped and walked over to the sail he'd crafted, seemingly ignorant to those watching him. "How much rope do you have?"
"There's no wind, we can't be using anything you've created," the captain walked over saying, looking to Daphne as he did so.
Harry just shook his head and jabbed a thumb up. "Up there, should be higher wind currents," he grabbed for his broom. "Get together all the rope, I'll just have a look."
Daphne gaped as he disapparated. He didn't even get on the broom as he disapparated.
-/
Harry pulled the broom underneath him as he started to fall towards the ocean. He was right, it was windier up here. But they wouldn't have enough rope to get all the way up here. The ship looked like a toy from where he was sat.
He hoped there was nothing to see him up here, in the excitement he'd not bothered to don an invisibility cloak.
Flying the broom almost felt like second nature, this one had been through temporal war zones with him. Being back on Earth it felt...weirdly weird. He let himself and it drift down to a lower height to test the amount of wind lower down, aware they did not have an infinite amount of rope.
-/
Harry apparated back onto the deck of the ship.
Daphne looked up in surprise either at him or another creak and shattering of more wood.
"That doesn't sound good," Harry commented casually as he assessed the pile of rope.
"That's everything we can spare Harry," she presented gesturing.
Harry nodded as he gestured with his wand at it, feeding into the sections on the transfigured sail and climbed onto his broom. "Fix the other end to a forward solid point, it'll probably yank pretty hard," he paused summoning the sail into his hand, and balancing it on the top of his broom.
-/
Daphne watched a Harry took off with practiced ease from the deck of her ship, rope un-spoolling as he did.
Moments later the rope, affixed to the front sail support was taut. Looking through omnioculars she could just make out Harry on his broom wand held aloft and above him the sail he'd created as a curved inflated shape taking to the wind.
"They're making repairs," the captain said beside her.
"And our cargo?" she enquired as she looked up.
"Dry for now," the captain had a grim tone "but if he hadn't, we might've had to incur the wraths of the sea gods and take more extreme action."
"That is what he wanted to do," Daphne mused. "Harry is quick to the explosives path."
The captain laughed. "A proper adventurer always is."
-/
Harry landed back on the deck of the ship and was pleased to see the taut rope and the sensation of movement. He'd seen an advert briefly on the planet of neon and irritating adverts for something like this, but never thought it would be useful to put into practice.
"How strong is that rope?" He wondered.
"It's some of the finest and strongest rope available, and with it you've just successfully rescued my ship Harry," Daphne praised. "Maybe you should accompany me more often," she finished.
Harry turned and embraced her. "Nice to fix something with creativity."
"Your transfiguration and spell work have vastly improved," she praised.
"Mmm," Harry said non-commitantlly. "Plenty of time to learn a few new things."
"Your time away not just improving your offensive skills?" She asked softly.
Harry looked to her. "I spent a surprising amount of time talking I realised when I spoke with Draco," he paused and nodded up "Doing that didn't feel like doing magic, not like when we learned in school, or ever..." he trailed off shaking his head. "Just a problem to solve."
"That is the mark of a wizard Harry, one comfortable and capable," she praised again.
Harry seemed pensive, almost uncomfortable. "It was something I wielded in combat and confrontation against her mostly..." he trailed off. "And I guess learnt from her as well," he admitted in a conflicted tone.
-/
A/N:
This chapter is sort of part 2 to 'Harry returns from the Time War' of last chapter. With his wider circle of friends interacting with him.
Project Peru, was something I put into the dialogue with the ghost Brigadier just in case I wanted to explore it in the future. It's still more of question mark than a real and present thing to be deal with sort of thing for Harry.
There's still a lot of plates spinning that were in motion before the Time War arc that I want to get to, and Project Peru is a distraction which for now wouldn't add to the story.
Even though the updates are a little less frequent, I have slowly been spooling back up, creativity wise. I still have lots of plans written for future chapters. And of course there's still Doctors to visit Harry which are still coming in future chapters.
