Chapter 109

It felt weird to be driving again if he was wholly honest. But it felt good to be doing something for himself, to be getting out and doing things himself. Not just entering coordinates or being shot at and threatened by lords or cows, or anything like that.

Just regular normal things.

"I'm glad you're here Harry," said a voice he was dreading hearing as he stepped out of the Lotus Exige.

Harry distracted himself by methodically getting his bigger on the inside bag out of the boot and slinging it on as he tried to think of what emotional expression to use.

Then as he was thinking he appraised the area of Cardiff around him, the vehicle he'd arrived in and a few other things. That it had been nice to go out for a drive, to re-acquaint himself with the vehicles he owned, those that had been stored in the barns during his seemingly brief (to some) sojourn.

He mused, maybe he should have remained sitting and talking with people? Or maybe he could have accompanied Daphne more on her ships, she'd even said it could've been of benefit for someone such as he with his creative skills.

But no, he couldn't do that, he didn't want to be the problem solver on sailing ship, he...they had their own spaces that they operated in, that they lived in. That was her business, her domain.

Fortunately, he was happy to be presented with work still to do. LPI still had work to do, the League of Paranormal Investigations along with the security services had been directed in quite firm language that 'nothing can go wrong' with the London 2012 Olympics.

Which included the torch relay, a report had been completed before he'd gone away, had concluded that Land's End where it would start wouldn't pose a threat from the point of view of LPI's focus. However they would be providing a final check over things for Cardiff and London, plus anywhere else that the Ministry decided they were worried about, but lay outside their expertise which intersected with LPI's.

Section D and the rest of the security services hadn't indicated anything specifically they were worried about.

Which felt like months ago, but was realistically, or rather relativistically, in the chronology of Earth not much over a fortnight or so ago.

"Hardly a tricky drive to get here," he paused, he was going to continue on and say 'I come here all of the time. There's this nice restaurant Draco and I eat at regularly' before Harry stopped himself being so overly chatty.

From the reports from Ros and Torchwood there didn't appear to be anything amiss with the rift, but he was going to go and have a proper look at it with his new and improved temporal scanners, and newfound knowledge of temporal stuff he hoped to make a few tweaks to the temporal monitoring equipment to make it a little less jittery and to keep it more stable. He now realised every time something alien, temporal or even a wizard who did something quite 'loud' near the rift it seemed to jitter a little bit. He hoped to tame the beast a little bit more.

"Have you identified any threats with the local environment?" Harry asked the other man as he looked around carefully. "Beyond all the common ones I mean," Harry finished with a look. "The projected crowds and the urban environmental effects on apparition would limit any aggressive incursions around here," Harry gestured the road they were on that led into the Cardiff city centre. Harry frowned. "Worst case scenario was identified as low level mischief on the crowd, not something LPI would need to deal with."

"You're being very professional about all this Harry," said the man before him who had been shifting slightly awkwardly in his muggle clothing as Harry looked around.

Yes, Harry thought, that's because I'm hoping that if I keep talking I won't accidentally blurt out I've spent the last who knows how long bumping off your sister through time and space.

Instead he smiled. "Isn't that a good thing Ron? The Ministry and the muggle government want this to go off without a hitch, it's big business and prestige."

"More for the muggle government," Ron Weasley commented. "Wizards can't compete in the muggle games," his tone was edged with annoyance.

Harry held up a finger. "But it still brings in lots of families many of whom have wizarding relatives, think of the cash injection to the economy."

Ron wrinkled his nose. "You sound like a politician."

Harry shrugged. "You and the aurors should still have plenty to do."

"What about that Blaidd Drwg thing? That is your organisation's concern," Ron asked looking to him carefully, a slight tone of criticism.

Harry smiled broadly at Ron. "Yes it is. You wanted to meet bright and early, so I met with you first, it's next on my list of things to do."

Ron wrinkled his nose. "So can I tick this off and take it back to my boss? You're handling it?" He asked as he pulled a small leather bound notebook out of his jacket pocket.

Harry nodded. "Is it still Æthelflæd Fenwick?" He wondered.

Ron had a fixed expression as he nodded. "Yeah, that's right Harry."

"Then you should relax Ron," Harry began in a light tone patting Ron on the shoulder. "Æthelflæd's head's on the chopping block for any trouble, along with mine if anything goes tits up here," Harry paused in his casual tone. "Anyway the Ministry will be more worried about it all going smoothly and controlling wizarding numbers in London, you can focus on the auroring duties."

Ron seemed pensive at this suggestion.

"If you want to think of it another way, the games will provide ample opportunity to demonstrate your abilities, there'll be plenty of visitors in London both magical and muggle and you'll need to ensure, along with the rest of the Ministry that the magicals are behaving."

Ron nodded slowly looking to Harry. "You think that Fenwick will let me?"

Harry shrugged, he didn't know how far down the management slide Ron had actually been pushed, and whether he remained there. "Sometimes there's opportunity in not being in charge Ron, sometimes it's nice not to have to think about everything." He managed not to sigh on this as he thought of the past.

Ron looked at him strangely. "Are you alright Harry? You seem...I dunno, tired?"

Harry smiled a controlled smile and tried not to think about what he'd been up to recently in case he suddenly blurted out something about mad cows, time wars and weirdly enjoying banter with a version of his mad sister. "Just a few bad night's sleep, all this," he gestured around him with a shrug. "Don't worry about me."

-/

Ros Myers walked into Torchwood and saw literal red tape up around the the rift.

"He's been here since early this morning says he's doing 'updates and repairs' on the rift," Gwen Cooper said as she brought over a mug of tea.

Ros smiled a thanks. "Potter mentioned that he was going to be here."

"Final checks for the torch relay, aside from the rift we shouldn't have any problems," Gwen reported.

"Martha's not back from her UNIT work?" Ros wondered.

"She assures me it's better than them wanting direct feeds from us, Harry says they're in a better position than they used to be," she explained with a slight tone of doubt pausing and then adding "But I'm keeping control here no matter what the bloody UN says."

Ros chuckled.

-/

Mickey was looking at Harry Potter's temporal scanner 'new and improved' while he worked underneath the rift control interface.

The scanner was a big advancement on the one Ros had to use, which itself was well above what Torchwood had, although he'd been working to improve their own tech. Harry hadn't specifically said he couldn't. He'd been going through the remains of Torchwood's archives looking for battery tech, it was the thing he was hopeful they'd encounter. Batteries were the enemy of all tech they had; drained them fast.

"You have got to tell me how you came up with these improvements Harry," he said to the legs attached to the man under the equipment.

"If I told you, you'd think I was mad," the man's muffled voice said.

Mickey grinned. "Yeah, mad like the rest of us here."

Harry pushed himself out from under the rift control system and took the scanner out of his hands.

"Oi, was looking at that," Mickey exclaimed.

Harry gave him a look. "It's here to help me, you get your own toys Mickey," he paused and gave him a look. "You've been around this enough, that's how I got inspired to improve this," he said before going back underneath the rift controls.

"What," Mickey queried "by being around time travel?"

"That and more, I had a lot of time to kill..." he trailed off before continuing "amongst other people recently."

At least that's what Mickey thought he said. He looked at Harry's legs for a moment, sometimes Harry Potter, like Ros joked about very dark subjects.

-/

Ros looked at him, they were sitting having some tea in the corner of Torchwood next to the tiles he and Ioan had personally repaired and put back together after the destruction of Torchwood Three.

"What happened Harry?" She asked in a softer tone than she would usually use with him.

Harry smiled glumly. "Judith says the people who are asking me that are reading into my body language," he gave her a look. "Kate said there's people, in the know, signed the act and all who I could talk to about it."

"It must be serious," she commented "If you're thinking about psyches."

Harry looked to the former spy, who now worked for him, for the League of Paranormal Investigations and drew his wand to begin casting. "Do you want to know, or are you just worried about my turn and change?" He finished casting some spells towards around them so they wouldn't be overheard.

Ros looked watched as he finished casting his spells. "Worried we're going to be overheard?"

Harry smiled at her. "I'm impressed you knew what I was doing."

She gave him a look. "I can guess, well?"

Harry looked to her and sighed. "Went to into a war, assassinated someone I dealt with in the past to ensure she didn't drastically affect that war, it ended up being a bigger job than I anticipated."

Ros looked at him. "And?"

Harry sighed. "And got tortured for my troubles," he paused. "I got my revenge."

"And how was it?" She asked curiously.

"I enjoyed it more than I think I should," he admitted. "And I got to see him squirm before crashed several craft into him."

Ros chuckled softy. "Judith is right, you are carrying a lot, even if you're trying hard to be relaxed."

"You think I should go and see someone?" Harry wondered.

"Do you trust anyone enough to talk to them about what you experienced?" She asked.

"I've talked to my friend Draco, he's been through some stuff, enough that he understands a little," he admitted. "Had to sort out all this Olympics stuff," he finished with a vague gesture with his mug of tea.

"I bet some people have suggested a holiday," she paused and gave him a look. "I've been given that suggestion Harry, it doesn't work for our sort of people."

Harry smiled slyly. "I weirdly enjoyed it, despite being in danger most of the time. There was this thrill of power and danger, injuries galore and a lot either side. Never lost sight of the mission, it gave me a reason to keep going," he paused to sigh again. "I even have the chance to just escape from all of this...stuff on Earth and just..." he just gestured with his hand. "away," he gave Ros a look. "That's not an option, there's still the Vraxoin and Rubasdpofiaew that's got into the population, I doubt that just because we found one or two examples that's it. Plenty of other plates in the air."

Ros nodded. "I could give you some work here, the rift even with your modifications still throws out some weird things, even if we're better aware now, there's still magical elements here trying to exploit things," she gave him a look. "I am even discovering more to these psychic abilities you and Owen are so sure I have."

Harry watched as she focused on his mug and it slowly rose from his hands into the air, rotating slowly and then slipped back into his hands. Gripping it with his thighs he clapped softly. "I've got something that might help you clear your mind."

She shook her head. "My mind is clear enough Harry."

He nodded. "If you want I can introduce you to some people who are good with the psychic powers."

"People you met during your journey away?" She enquired.

Harry nodded. "Might be a bit of a trip though, they're in another galaxy."

"You surprise me Potter," she shook her head.

Harry grinned at her. "In a good way I hope?"

-/

"You know I didn't trust you for a long time," Harry said by way of greeting.

"But you still recommended me for Torchwood," Martha Jones squatted down and pulled herself into a seated position opposite him.

"Was too nice of a day to meet indoors," Harry mused as he looked over to the Roath Basin. He'd spent the night in Cardiff rather than going home, after having a meal with Draco he'd not felt like he wanted to apparate home. There was a feeling of getting things done if he stayed here and then went onto to London in a day or so. "And I did, you're correct."

"You've been through something, Mickey noticed, not your usual self, something more," Martha observed. "I've felt that Harry."

Harry nodded but didn't say anything.

Martha watched him for a while.

"The Doctor must've mentioned the Time War to you," he said finally.

"Yeah, against the Daleks and..." she trailed off watching him. "You've been travelling with him?"

Harry shook his head.

Martha narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"

"I appreciate your mission that the Doctor sent you on much more now, and the trauma," he said in short tones.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Martha asked watching him.

Harry sniffed in amusement. "Isn't that what I'm doing?" He sighed. "Been talking about it to those I trust."

"Has it been helping?" She asked curiously as she watched him.

Harry shrugged. "Everyone says there's something about me that's changed, I know that Martha, I've changed, but I still feel like me. I don't know what bearing my inner mind to someone will do, I don't think it'll make me feel any better," he explained emphatically. "I got the mission done, I didn't die in the process," he gave her a look. "I enjoyed it, I was relieved when it was all done," he stopped, then leant back to look up at the sky. "I saw a lot of different planets, a lot of same-y looking space craft and one or two interesting coloured skies, and you know what, even knowing the pain, the danger," he sat back up and looked at Martha "the trauma, I'd still do it again."

Martha had a grim expression on her face. "I used to think that's what the Doctor exploited in me, to get me to do that year Harry, but I wanted that too, I believed in what he was doing, what we all did for that year."

"Even if I was a cynic?" Harry wondered.

Martha gave him a look. "I still don't know how you know about that," she paused. "You had your reasons."

Harry smirked. "I'm a wizard, we can be mysterious."

Martha looked like she was going to say something.

"If you're going to offer me someone to see-" Harry began.

She cut him off by shaking her head. "No. I assume you've already been talking to your friends, and others who'd understand," she smiled "That's what was great getting to know Mickey."

"Been there, done that, seen a parallel universe?" Harry wondered.

Martha laughed. "You're the only one, other than the Doctor who can say something like that with such a casual tone."

"Mickey's been there, can't he talk casually about dimension jumping?" Harry asked with frown.

Martha shook her head. "For him it was like that time spent there was a...not a gap year, but" she paused and looked at him. "We've seen some stuff Harry, especially, talking to you now," she breathed in a long breath. "It changes, but Mickey" she smiled. "Stays positive, it was a mission to work out."

"Daphne, my-" he paused and looked to Martha. "I'm never sure how to talk about her in that context, girlfriend sounds a bit too" he wrinkled his nose. "Partner feels clinical."

"Companion?" Martha asked with a laugh and smile.

"No, thank you Martha," Harry said with a smile. "I trust her, and care above all for her, yet I told my friend the grittiest of details because we both sort of revel in that gritty detail, he's a bit of a dark soul in that regard."

Martha nodded. "You can't share everything Harry, we all carry secrets," she gave him a look. "Like that Osterhagen thing, UNIT made me think that was a good idea, like that was the best option in the worst situation," she paused again. "I know the others got out of UNIT because of that, because of how they made us think, to get to that point where we could," she shuddered in recollection.

Harry nodded. "I can only say it's better. With Kate Stewart in charge, I worked with her father back in the 1970s, and I've worked with her now."

Martha was nodded before she stopped. "Hang on, what did you say? The 1970s?"

Harry shrugged. "It's a long story," he sighed. "Feels like a lifetime ago really, where I was fighting terrorists and trying not to trip up in time, and then..." he trailed off.

"And then this most recent thing?" Martha prompted.

"That was fighting war lords and trying not to trip up the timelines, occasionally eating porridge while fighting ghosts and discovering that paintings are paradoxical, but realising it probably is okay," he finished.

Martha looked at him for several moments. "You're serious."

Harry smiled. "Most of the time."

-/

Harry looked through the omnioculars around the cityscape. He'd received a message from a Ministry courier this morning; the Ministry wanted to have aurors, on brooms in the air over London when the final parts of the torch relay came through, and on the outskirts of the opening ceremony, as well as them on the ground if possible.

Supposedly it had all been cleared with the Westminster, but it was all very short notice.

Why LPI was involved was the ongoing problem, which remained on his 'to investigate' list, an ever pressing one which he knew they'd have to properly investigate at some point; the apparition and other magical black spots all over the city. Very probably from various alien and temporal incursions.

"Well?" Harry asked Ioan who was stood beside him as he looked down at the map. They didn't have a hope in hell of doing his 'to do list' of coverage, but they only needed to do the locations the Ministry wanted, or around abouts. As far as you could effectively see with omnioculars or other forms of enhancement.

"As long as we mark the maps carefully, we could do it, my mates are going to want a bit of hazard pay though Harry," Ioan said. "We've been using them more often, not that they mind..."

Harry nodded. "Pity they don't want full time work."

"Could you ensure they had enough to do?" Ioan asked curiously.

"I'd leave the air wing in your hands Ioan, a proper air team?" Harry wondered with some amusement.

Ioan looked up at the sky with a smile and shook his head. "That ship sailed."

"Mixing the metaphors there Ioan," Judith commented behind them.

It annoyed Harry she'd managed to climb the several flights of stairs and not even break a sweat. Both he and Ioan had needed to, this was one of the dead zones for a lot of magic, the omnioulars however weren't effected.

"I approve paying them whatever you think is fair Ioan," Harry said adding "they'll need invisibility cloaks, we can't do what we did in Cardiff."

Ioan wrinkled his nose. "Fine, and start as soon as possible?"

Harry shook his head. "We need to walk the streets below where they want to be stationed, so we can establish if it's a street level disturbance, then up any buildings and then the sky, just in case there's an accident and they have to apparate."

-/

"You're feeling more centred now," Judith observed as he unpacked equipment from the back of the Lotus Evora, he'd parked his other vehicle at the Post Office tower and retrieved the marginally larger sports car for their work within London. "Lot more focused."

Harry gave her a look. "Is it a good thing?"

Judith mused. "We'll see."

-/

They'd managed to identify a lot of places where apparition would be possible and also secluded from the eyes of most people, the alley ways between the bins and such. But there were some which were annoying in that they couldn't pin down a place to do anything.

While inner London was the worst there were plenty of places outside the City of London that would cause problems, mostly identified by Ioan's flying mates nearly dropping out of the sky on their brooms. There would be extra hazard pay in their payment envelopes for their work Harry had promised.

Here in Lambeth Harry idly wondered if it was the London Eye and its past exploitation by the Nestene that was causing big problems for apparition here. It could be so many things he wondered if it was something magical, left over from before LPI's time when the Ministry tried to cover up something alien.

They'd encountered a lot of examples in inner London of that, a lot of long decaying notice-me-not charms around former sites of alien incursion. Huge swathes of London had it seemed, been bombarded by charms following Xznaal's stint as King, he had wondered if that was why so many people had seemingly forgotten the Ice Lord's short reign.

Harry dug around in his bag and emptied a bag of chalk in a wide circle.

"Bit old school Harry, I like it," Ioan commented as Harry finished his work, and started carefully casting within the circle.

"Just trying to work out if there's any reason this is a completely dead zone."

"Beyond null?" Judith wondered holding up the energy scanner. "And this is definitely where they want it."

"We might have to disappoint them, again," Ioan mused watching Harry.

"Just to try and get a clear reading," he looked up at the sky and looked to Judith.

"Definitely where they want it, I can see why," she paused and gestured up and around them. "Plenty of places to land, and good viewing distances even with the naked eye."

Harry nodded as he stepped into the circle he'd created and looked at the energy scanner and then sighed and brushed away the chalk circle. "I'm an idiot," he said by way of explanation. "They can't have a circle here on the ground or above," he explained to his associates as he banished the chalk away.

"Too clever," Judith commented as she fished out her energy scanner and gestured around with it. "You two check out the buildings there and there," she said beside her and across the street. "They might be alternative locations for the aurors, not ground level but good sightlines."

"Yes ma'am," Harry said raising his eyebrows to Ioan who grinned.

"I saw that look boys," Judith challenged playfully.

-/

Harry stretched out as he walked back to the Post Office Tower, he'd given Judith the Evora to go...wherever she was going for the night. They'd gotten through more than half of the Ministry's list of locations, many of which would need slightly adjusting to make work.

He wanted to double check what he had in the back of the Exige before he apparated home.

It had taken him a few moments to remember that he could apparate home, that he wouldn't just need to find a comfortable space in LPI's London base inside the Post Office Tower to bed down for the night. He actually had somewhere he could go back to rest.

That hadn't stopped him still thinking about remaining here in London, embedded into everything.

"Anything the matter dear?"

Harry twitched, he didn't jump, but this woman had managed to sidle up beside him and was looking at him with a curiously interested expression.

"No...?" He answered curiously.

"Just you were looking up at the sky for a long time," she had quite a curious accent, Scottish sort of accent, but there was something else, like a memory tickling at the edges of recognition.

Harry looked at her carefully tensing, she didn't appear to be a witch, or a replicant, but you could never really tell, until something happened.

She was looking up at the skyline and towards the Post Office Tower. "Bit of a tingling in that big one," she gestured vaguely, "Prickling sensations and all," she mock shivered.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Get these sensations a lot do you...?" He wondered, again if she was a witch, he got a weird vibe from her, something he couldn't place, there was a familiarity, weirdly off putting.

She smiled seductively at him, or maybe dangerously. "Naughty boy," she laughed a false laugh. "Only Bedfordshire does this to me...and other places to tantalise," she turned away from him. "Be seeing you," she said with a tip of her hat she walked off.

Harry stood in the middle of the footpath and looked as the woman walked off with an odd gait. "What an odd woman," he said out loud to himself and frowned, he was getting like the Doctor; talking to himself when there was no one around to share his travels with.

-/

A/N:

Apologies again for a delay in posting. Was all motivated, then another lockdown, weirdly more time to write, but less creativity to channel, and motivation drops away.

I was asked in a review about the "spinning plates" that were still in the air pre-Time War chapters, they are;

The 3W Institute, which Harry and LPI concluded wasn't anything for the Ministry / wizarding to worry about at that point.

The Drugs - Vraxoin and Rubasdpofiaew. Who's been dousing wizards with it, and why?

There's also the remains of Cohort Dow that might be lurking, off shoots etc.

And now also a creepy vaguely Scottish sounding woman.

Next chapter is a bit of another epic one at just under 20,000 words (this chapter is a bit under 5,000). It also (briefly) features a Doctor no one will be expecting.