Chapter 113

Harry stood, pondering his canvas and holding a paint brush as Daphne sat down near him.

"Are you still worried about Rory and Amy?" Daphne asked from behind him.

Harry tapped the canvas with the end of his paint brush. "No, I met Rory's dad when I went round to their place to investigate, he said they'd started travelling with the Doctor again," he smiled in thought adding "Good for them."

"Good that they have resumed what they clearly enjoyed," Daphne paused and added "Our brief sojourn was enjoyable."

Harry looked back and grinned at her. "Do you think I should have pushed Draco to celebrate the end of 2012 with us?"

"Do you not already have a get together planned, this estate that you and he have possession of?" Daphne asked in an amused tone.

Harry turned around to chuckle, as he did so she floated him a flute of sparkling wine. "It's more a sort of convenient location that we fell into possessing, it's the crown that manages it we're just...names on the list of owners?" Harry shrugged. "Draco said he's going to go wild this new year's eve, really rock in 2013."

Daphne laughed. "That's a lie, Draco would never 'go wild' in that way."

Harry smiled as he sipped the wine. "Hermione and Ross are off doing something, Ron is still on some sort of shit list with the Ministry so he's working."

"Or maybe he has volunteered to work?" She wondered "Dedication to his career working during celebrations, I am sure you suggested that to him, you are 'always on call' as you say," she reasoned.

Harry nodded and looked back to her, putting his wine on a side table beside him. "That does sound like something I'd say to try and convince Ron he's doing something good..." he mused turning back to the canvas to put down the paint brush. "We could be doing something more exciting to end 2012, other than sitting, watching the night come on," he said sitting down into her arms.

"We could go to Dark Space 8, call up Panda and have a party?" Daphne wondered in an amused tone as she embraced him.

"Did you get Panda's number?" Harry asked playfully.

"He gave me telex details if we needed to contact him," Daphne responded quickly enough that Harry wasn't sure if she was joking.

Just to be sure Harry twisted around to look at her, she had a playfully serious look on her face. "I can call up Oswin, she'd be here immediately," he looked across the outside of the house expectantly. "Or even now."

Daphne shook her head. "A peaceful evening together Harry, we don't need to be adventuring off into space tonight."

"Maybe we should go inside, the warming charms are nice," he paused. "I think I cast them too much around the canvas, was making the oils a bit runny," he said looking at the half finished landscape painting.

"Had you decided what it was going to be?" Daphne wondered.

Harry looked at it again and shook his head. "Maybe our adventure to break into the bank."

"Storage facility," Daphne corrected in an amused tone.

"Or maybe Barastabon? Got distracted," he twisted around to kiss her. "Maybe we could stay out here, it's quite warm."

"I applied the warming charm to the chair Harry, instead of your liberal approach," she teased.

Harry kissed her again. "A warming chair."

"I think the fire inside is much more appealing, maybe we can watch the television of the muggle celebrations?" She kissed him again as he shuffled as they stood up in an embrace.

"Watching the New Year's celebrations on TV? How delightfully mundane," he chuckled as he gestured at his paint box and canvas with his wand, bringing it inside as Daphne gathered their drinks.

"You," Daphne paused "And I to some degree spend our lives-"

"Swashbuckling?" Harry pondered with amusement.

"A little decorum," Daphne continued "Occasionally can be therapeutic."

"I'll save venturing to the moonbase for next New Year's then," Harry offered playfully.

-/

"'The 3W Institute meet and greet event'"," Judith read from the newspaper she turned it over and wrinkled her nose. "The Tally Ho."

"'Death is not an end'," Harry quoted.

"Where does it say that?" Ioan asked, he had another copy of the newspaper.

"It's what's written in the swirls around the border of the advert," Harry explained.

Judith gave him a look.

"It's Gallifreyan," Harry revealed. "At least I think that's what it says, I hadn't really got beyond learning how to threaten Time Lords and ask for directions in their native language."

"Common phrases of course," Ioan shook his head with an amused tone.

"It's a trap," Judith said and then added. "An obvious one."

"Of course," Harry agreed. "But a trap for whom?"

"One would assume someone who can read Gallifreyan," Judith reasoned.

"And who reads the newspaper," Ioan added.

"It's got a decent following for those who like their village politics," Judith commented idly.

"It's a trap, probably for the Doctor," Harry mused. "I still kind of want to go along," he grinned.

"Of course you do," Ioan shook his head.

"And your other spinning plates?" Judith wondered.

"The drugs have waited this long, there's still things to investigate, I've got my anti-Time Lord gun, I can always shoot whomever it is," Harry added brightly.

-/

He was dolled up in one of his jackets he'd got when he and Draco had travelled with the Doctor, it should stop most weapons fire, at least up to a lethal degree, possibly beyond. His coat that had gone through the Time War, and which would be nice to wear here instead resided in the Timeship, where he felt like it belonged, it was his time travelling coat. Mostly because he spent a lot of his time travelling being shot at. Here on Earth he spent time being shot at...but with spells, so it was a different sort of being shot at.

Looking at the coffee house, or maybe it was a tea house? It was in a fashionable building really close to St Paul's Cathedral.

Much to Harry's annoyance it was also an absolute bugger to park around here. Unfortunately it was also fairly dangerous to apparate around this general area as well. He suspected it was the result of the Cybermen's invasion attempt in the late 1960s, or the early 1970s. He still had the photos the Doctor gave him when the Doctor had been travelling with Jamie and Zoe, he'd used copies over the years as collateral for some negotiations here and there.

According to Draco wizards were more interested in art than religion, so the Tate Modern was the closest they were likely to need to apparate, and that had plenty of room around it to apparate close to.

Fortunately, at least for Harry who'd decided to bring the smaller Lotus Exige into London for a drive he had a government pass, and was able to find some government buildings within walking distance to this fancy tea shop for what seemed to be a trap.

While it wasn't obviously magical he'd had Ioan here before he arrived because there were few approaches for apparition, it meant there would be pinch points for movement, and they had had a tip off a while ago about the 3W Institute. Harry wanted LPI to continue to investigate, even if he had sent off a preliminary report to the Ministry saying currently there's nothing amiss. He had added that if anything else came up they'd continue to look into it.

"Anything?" Harry asked sitting down next to Ioan who was sat on a bench wearing a hat and reading a newspaper, he looked like plenty of the other people in business suits reading papers, eating and drinking as they busied along in their lives.

Ioan looked to him and smiled. "Lots of things, people coming and going, and even some wizards," he chuckled at Harry's look of surprise. "You were right to be cautious and paranoid."

"Don't say that, it'll make Harry more so, or smug," Judith commented idly as she sat down on the other side of Ioan.

Harry gestured at their feet casting something like a notice-me-not but more subtle, made his feet tingle a little bit. "Don't worry about the tingling," he explained offhandedly.

"Will they notice us?" Ioan asked nodding ahead to the doorway where someone who was possibly a witch walked through into the interior.

"It's a lesser used charm because of the weird tingling, more a sort of fog of disinterest, it's not as effective," he explained "at least not at super close range, but it's better for where we are I think," he explained.

"Susan Bones went in a few minutes ago," Ioan started.

"I wonder why the Department of Ministry Investigations is investigating," Harry pondered. Mostly Susan Bones was just up to working out what the Ministry was doing with a lot of its old projects that it continued to spend money on. Like that Sea Fort they'd investigated, that had been a pit of money, technology and old objects and relics for Hermione to enthuse over, and be annoyed that LPI had confiscated so many of them.

He'd also been upfront in the past with her about LPI and why it got the funding it did from the Ministry, lest she suspect anything untoward. She'd agreed it was better that some outside contracts with the Ministry existed, rather than it trying to do everything.

"Any aurors around?" Judith asked curiously.

Harry looked around carefully and looked to Ioan.

"One or two arrived just after Susan, but they walked off after a quick number of spells and charms," he snorted. "Nothing to see here, least everyone knows not to apparate around here."

"More reason for your map Harry," Judith teased.

Harry shook his head. "I'm not going to make work for myself, I've learnt the hard way not to do that, and done it too many times," he paused adding "growing up and as an adult."

"And not learnt so far," Judith teased.

Harry pushed himself up dramatically and patted his coat down. In addition to his wand was his 'Time Lord crossbow' that he'd designed during his sojourn in the Time War. He'd decided not to have anything else within his pockets, just in case there was something more complicated scanning people as they came in.

"I'll see if I can go in via the trade entrance," Judith said as she stood up.

"And I'll continue to watch in case anyone decides to crash through the front doors," Ioan finished.

"And because Susan's turned up it's even more something for us to investigate, thought the 3W might just be a trap," he grinned. "Now it's much more interesting."

-/

Harry wrinkled his nose. It was all very tasteful inside.

No one had checked to see an invite. There were just some electronic scanners at the entrance where he assumed people were scanning in. He ignored them and walked in like he was supposed to be there.

Looking around he was sure there was a spy or two he'd seen in passing, including a politician or two he'd seen in security bulletins. The latter wasn't too much, at least for LPI to worry about, it was low level corruption, or ongoing investigations into their finances and other dealers. Nothing magical, nothing alien in all of that, just regular crime. He was still keeping half an eye on that side of things, given the messy side of drugs that LPI had found itself in.

"What brings you here Potter?" Susan Bones asked casually walking up to him, she had a glass of something sparkling in her hand, but hadn't apparently drunken any.

Harry smiled at her as someone with a tray walked past in an almost unearthly way. "You're here, there's politicians, and other people from around the adjacent scenes," he countered.

"Your organisation said this was of no concern," Susan continued in a quiet tone and watched him gauging his reaction.

"Yet. There wasn't anything amiss when we were asked to look into it, but..." Harry trailed off as someone caught his eye. He wasn't sure who she was, but he was sure he recognised her. "that doesn't mean things won't come out of the woodwork. LPI is thorough," he raised an eyebrow of enquiry at her. "And what brings you and your department here?"

Susan snorted half a laugh went to sip the whatever it was she was drinking and thought better of it. "The same, there's been a few wizarding families who have been passing money into groups which might have been passing money to this group, money that was promised to the Ministry."

"In a long standing arrangement?" Harry pondered. "Need that in writing."

"It is," she said. "That's why we're looking into it."

"Don't want money going elsewhere?" Harry wondered.

"It's when money that was promised to the Ministry goes somewhere else that we need to start worrying Potter. Families who are dedicated to legacy and the working of government and law of rule only shift their allegiances for a few things."

"Their philosophies could change," he gave her a look.

She nodded. "That is usually obvious, this seems sudden and unusual."

"Unusual is what LPI specialises in Susan," Harry paused. "But you're right, something feels off, I think LPI will need to drill down on whatever this is," he paused as another slightly unnerving waiter walked past. "Had a bit of a habit of going too broad."

"Fighting too much with the muggles?" She wondered.

"Being too on demand for every alien incursion only peripherally related," he looked to her. "Which is fun too."

"You have a deranged sense of fun Potter," she sighed. "But I knew you at school, and so that's understandable."

"There's politicians and other people related here, so there must be a lot of people worried," he mused softly.

"Or a lot of people with their fingers in pies," she commented going to drink the drink.

"I hope you're not actually drinking that," he looked to her.

She gave him a look. "Of course not, and I have got a balm on my lips, just to be sure."

Harry smiled broadly. "Very clever," he praised and then in a more concerned tone finished "and it's worrying how big this pie might be."

"Just our sort of thing then?" Susan asked curiously as she pretended to sip her drink.

As a waiter passed Harry grabbed a drink from it, sniffing the sparkling wine and wrinkling his nose.

"Something amiss?" Susan asked.

"It's decent sparkling wine, but nothing ostentatious," he mused as he weighed the drink in his hand.

"You look like you want to throw it across the room," Susan wondered. "It would not do well to draw attention to ourselves at this juncture Potter."

"No, you're right, but the temptation is strong, but there's too many players in the room at the moment," Harry looked around for somewhere to put a glass and instead turned away from the group of people and extracted his wand carefully.

"What are you doing Potter," Susan hissed. "In front of muggles?!"

Harry muttered a quick identification spell at the glass. It fogged and then went clear. Harry walked a short distance away from Susan and left the glass on a table with some brochures for an investment group, supposedly linked to The 3W Institute, he grabbed one just in case.

"Well?" Susan asked. She'd disposed of her drink while he'd walked off. No one seemed to have noticed either of them.

"It's just sparkling wine, there's nothing amiss about it," he paused as he pretended to be distracted by the brochure. "But there's something in here, very low level."

"You got that from your spell?" Susan appraised him.

Harry smiled at her carefully. "No, I get that from experience, it's not even a notice me not, it's something really subtle, almost like a perception field turned all the way down to almost nothing."

"A what?" Susan shook her head. "Now isn't the time or place to discuss this."

"No," Harry said stuffing the brochure into his pocket and looked around the room and wondered why he'd not been surprised by Judith. Then his phone vibrated.

Grabbing it from his pocket he looked at the screen 'It's odd, they locked the staff entry'. "Your place or mine?"

Susan gave him a withering look. "I hardly think you have a place to host Potter."

"You would be surprised," Harry looked around the room carefully watching the staff glide around almost ethereally and frowned.

-/

She watched her old friend, just not the one she was expecting not drink the really quite expensive sparking wine. Not champagne, those naughty producers calling it champagne, they'd been taught a good lesson about authority, she smiled to herself. Back when she'd had a beard it had been delightful discovering all this on Earth, now though she had greater things to be playing with.

She wanted to go and properly have a chat not just bump into him on the side of the road, quite unexpected to find him roaming the streets, he didn't realise she was his old friend.

Sad, perhaps, when she'd known him before he'd never told Harry that they could change like she had.

Always the most accepting of her old friends, even more so than the dear Doctor.

They had such fun in the old days, she hoped they would have more fun soon.

She couldn't keep holding parties waiting for them to turn up, the Doctor didn't always read the newspaper. But the occasional party did yield results, and this was certainly a turn out.

Everyone vying for attention and wanting their succour from the Institute.

-/

Susan looked surprised when she stepped out of the lifts. "This is not what I was expecting Potter," she commented.

"I found this space useful during the ghosts incident, and the League of Paranormal Investigations required a London space," Harry explained.

"And this was going cheap? I wonder if I should investigate the League's payments from the Ministry?" She mused with slight amusement as she walked over to one of the windows.

"I can probably tell you within a few knuts or pounds how well the Ministry pays for the League, we do a lot," Harry answered looking to her. "And all of this is owned by the government, we just inhabit it."

Susan Bones nodded and looked to him. "I know, and that's why you're trustworthy Potter, you've got enough personal wealth and have done enough to not to care about influencing the Ministry, and what you do for the Ministry and the muggle government is far out weighed by the deals you've done with the Minister for funding."

Harry frowned with his eyebrows and half smiled. "I don't know if that's a compliment or a criticism," he paused then wondered "or that I should go and ask for more money from the Minister?"

"How did you initially get funding from him?" She wondered curiously.

Harry was about to answer when he stopped and chuckled. "I almost forgot that we are two heads of our own groups; Department of Ministry Investigations Susan Bones, you're far too good at idle conversation."

Susan smiled at him. "Part of the job Potter, and yours is seeing shadows in the corners moving and thinking they're something untoward and not just a flickering candle?"

"Could be someone in an invisibility cloak, could be someone a quite extreme variant of a notice me not, not to mention all the other thing beyond the æther that it could be too,"" he paused "waiting to devour us in the darkness."

Susan looked archly at him.

Harry shook his head "We're not here to discuss what might be lurking, we're here to discuss money, and where it's going," Harry gestured to the other side of the room where there was a meeting table that he Ioan and Judith infrequently used.

"Harriet Jones set it up?" Susan seemed skeptical.

Harry shook his head. "That was just the initial funding, we're still trying to get into their computers, there's a surprising amount of cryptographic protection for what we found in Flydale North," he paused. "I admit there's other things I've been managing this wasn't much of a priority."

"And it has become now?" She asked curiously.

Harry shook his head. "As I said I was curious Susan, something about that meeting peaked my interest, but I have other more dangerous things on the boil as well."

Susan nodded. "I agree Potter, the Ministry could easily pressure those wizarding families who have found elsewhere to place their money, we could recover debts, if it comes to that, but I would prefer to continue to gather information, even with Ministry Investigations."

Harry smiled knowingly at her. "You don't want to go in heavy handed with those wizarding families that have the cash, I bet the Minister or whoever else in the Ministry who's worried is even more worried about going in heavy handed and scaring anyone else away?" He finished in a cynical tone.

Susan looked at him and raised and eyebrow. "That's quite a cynical approach to this situation Potter..." she paused for an inordinate amount of time.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "But...?" He prompted.

She sighed. "But an accurate summation of the situation," she leaned back in her chair. "This is one of several investigations Ministry Investigations is engaging in."

Harry nodded. "I know the feeling," he chuckled. "Plus plenty more things on the 'to do list' that probably won't make it ever to being on the done pile."

Susan smiled. "Yet you still do, that's why you're trustworthy Potter, you don't need to be working."

"By that measure a lot of wizarding families could also be described as such," he wondered.

"They still seek influence," she paused and have him a look. "Or something else as your friend does."

"My friend?" Harry wondered.

"Malfoy, how you two ended up friends after Hogwarts," she shook her head. "Not my business."

"No," Harry said flatly. "It isn't."

There was an extended silence as Susan looked around the room before looking to him.

"I didn't mean to suggest-"

Harry shook his head. "No, and don't worry yourself, I suspect Draco would not were you to raise a similar topic of conversation with him he wouldn't respond much more."

Susan nodded. "What about your other contacts Potter, you've been remarkably resourceful in the past, what of this 3W Institute?"

Harry looked to her. "LPI will put out feelers, I'm still not sure what it is, or what it's about..." he trailed off.

Susan looked to him for a few moments before prompting. "Which means...?"

Harry exhaled a breath. "It either means it's something very big and the 3W is just the tip, and any wizarding involvement is tiny compared to the larger scope," he paused.

"That's worrying," Susan began and looked to him. "Or-?"

"Or we're both barking up the wrong tree, this is just a scam or some fleeting interest by a lot of people."

"I see," Susan said.

"Or it's something else, outside of those two which we're blind to at the moment, all we have is a suspicious meeting or rich people, some average sparkling wine and a phrase," he paused and looked to her, "something LPI came across 'death is not an end'."

Susan looked at him seriously. "That is a worrying phrase."

Harry wrinkled his nose. "If all those people are going down a horcrux route perhaps, but he was a psychopath, and a dedicated one at that."

"You're very circumspect, given the past Potter," she observed.

Meeting him as a ghost in a possible dream, and visiting the past not once but twice when he was knocking around does lend a different perspective on things, he thought to himself. "Time, and its passage puts things into perspective Susan, he's dead, I killed him and I went through hell to do it, I can consider his actions in a present context without becoming a wreck," Harry said simply.

"Other people under estimate you Potter," she commented.

Harry looked curiously to her. "I hope that's a good thing."

Susan nodded and rose from the table. "This has been an enlightening meeting Potter."

Harry rose with her and walked with her to the lifts. "LPI will continue its various investigations," Harry paused as Susan pushed the button for the lifts. They wouldn't have gone anywhere so the doors opened immediately. "And you know how to contact me if there's something of concern."

"Until then and we just meet at the same parties?" She asked as she stepped into the lift.

"Perhaps?" Harry wondered as the doors shut and the lift started to descend.

"Interesting casual chat," Judith stepped out from the side area.

"Yes, I guess I'll have to go and have a chat with Pearce and UNIT," Harry mused and pointed towards their tea area, it wasn't really a room.

Judith nodded. "That is what you get paid the large amounts as she suggested for."

Harry nodded. "Suppose so," Harry hummed as the kettle clicked off and he chucked tea bags into two waiting mugs and poured the water in.

"Still wishing to be on the battlefield?" Judith asked softly.

Harry looked to her and smiled, shaking his head. "No, too much to do here," he paused. "Oswin and Daphne, and Iris sort of were right," he half scowled.

Judith laughed. "Now that you've been out battling in the universe you need an occasional adventure out there?" She finished, still laughing. "Being shot at and being in danger?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "That makes me sound like an adrenalin seeker, just...a little bit of otherworldly excitement to break up the dangerous danger here."

Judith nodded still grinning through her amusement and bend down to the fridge. "I get it Harry, some people are cut from different cloth, we all work out stresses differently."

-/

"The 3W Institute?" Kate wondered as she looked at the file he'd prepared with the small amount of info he'd so far collected. "I've just got done briefing Harry Pearce about this, just to keep a look out as there's wizards involved."

Kate nodded. "Good of you to brief them Harry, UNIT still has a somewhat testy relationship with the security services," she looked to him briefly. "We've never properly gone over Osterhagen business" she looked to him "not one of my predecessors' finest moments, or the choices made, a military-philosophical one," she smiled briefly. "The scientists only involved to make it function."

Harry breathed in through his nose slowly, unsure what to say for a moment. "That will be a long chapter in a history of UNIT book."

Kate smiled. "Dear Kadiatu, most of those are in the Black Archive," she mused to herself.

Harry frowned. "What?"

Kate shook her head. "Doesn't matter, just family matters."

"I've also got some computers that I'd like UNIT and probably Osgood to take a look at," Harry said as he explained where he'd gotten them from.

Kate looked at him. "I'm curious why you're bringing this to us now, and how you found this party?"

Harry nodded. "The Ministry of Magic contacted me a while back about it, maybe involving necromancy," Kate raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything as he continued. "We didn't find much when we first investigated, just some computers in Flydale North."

"As in Harriet Jones?" She asked curiously.

Harry nodded. "In a business park she set up there to develop the area," he paused. "Place was empty, we liberated some computers from there," he sighed and gave her a look. "Things got in the way and it ended up on the back burner, there wasn't anything really world ending and not many leads, so..."

Kate nodded. "I know the feeling Harry, and whenever the PM calls because there's been an extraterrestrial landing that we've not turned up to, they're always annoyed. Not every encounter needs the whole kit."

"Sometimes it just needs a Captain and a jeep?" Harry asked with amusement.

Kate nodded smiling. "And this party? I assume it's all in your report?"

Harry nodded. "Was browsing The Tally Ho the other day, saw an advert for the party, the border of it was in Gallifreyan."

Kate looked at him surprised. "And that's something you can read?"

Harry made a pinching motion with his fingers. "A little bit, and that same phrase."

"I see. That is concerning if there is a Time Lord involved, not the Doctor I would assume?" she mused.

Harry shook his head. "Not quite his thing," he paused. "But there's plenty of others out there," his tone making Kate look to him, but she didn't say anything. "Is it alright if I go see Osgood?"

"To brief her about this?" Kate gestured the report.

Harry half shrugged. "And something else."

-/

"Sounds worrying," she paused and smiled. "And interesting, if you've failed to break into these computers."

"I'm more of an amateur compared to the might of UNIT's scientific department Osgood," he praised.

She turned away to look at something, Harry hoped he hadn't embarrassed her.

"There's something else Osgood," Harry said as she turned back, puffer half depressed.

"Oh?" She asked with a curious and worried expression.

"I walked out being mysterious about languages the other day" he looked towards the door. "Kate will give you the full profile which says I deciphered a bit of Gallifreyan."

"The mathematical one or the one with all the circles and swirls?" She asked immediately.

Harry grinned. "I love that's the question, the latter."

Osgood nodded, and then looked to him curiously. "But that's not the alien language you can speak and read?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "It isn't."

Osgood looked at him. "So?"

"Dalek," Harry said simply.

"Dalek?" Osgood repeated.

Harry nodded.

Osgood frowned in thought. "There was an incident between the RAF and UNIT a while back, reported you were in a field with Daleks."

"Tales of them from the Doctor, telling me about them, and then there's their poetry, and one thing led to another and..." he trailed off.

Osgood just looked at him.

Harry looked around. "If you think it's weird I won't come by, I know, armour plated killing machines etc, their poetry and psychology probably isn't all that interesting."

Osgood was shaking her head. "NO!" She exclaimed "It's not that," she shook her head. "It's really interesting, you know learning a language, especially one so..." she trailed off.

"Unique?" Harry offered.

Osgood frowned and then nodded. "What do you do with knowledge like that?"

Harry shrugged. "Threaten them," he grinned. "It surprises them when you do that in their native language, they don't expect that," he paused in thought. "I've also talked to them, and threatened other people," he wrinkled his nose as he thought. "I don't think I threatened them in Dalek."

Osgood looked at him. "Who were you threatening that would have understood Dalek aside from them?"

"The Time Lords, dropped a spaceship on them," Harry commented wistfully smiling at the memory.

Osgood stared at him. "You're serious."

"Often," Harry agreed. "So, that was me trying to apologise about being rude the other day."

"How many people are you threatening regularly?" Osgood asked curiously.

"Including Time Lords?" Harry asked.

"After what happened in recent years are there enough? For you to go around...?" Osgood trailed off.

"Time travel and all that opens a lot of doors Osgood," Harry challenged.

"And the Doctor?" Osgood wondered.

"Haven't threatened him too much," Harry responded jovially. "Once fired time torpedoes at his TARDIS though," Harry mused. "That's threatening isn't it?"

Osgood looked at him. "If anyone else talked like you Harry I might think they were plotting to take over the world."

"Give me some dramatic lighting and I can try a good 'nothing in the world can stop me now' if you'd like Osgood," Harry commented playfully. "I remember joking with Benton one day about that sort of thing, I think we might have been a few pints to the wind."

Osgood blinked. "As in John Benton?"

Harry nodded. "Got on better with him than Mike Yates, maybe because I knew how he'd fall out of UNIT," Harry pondered.

Osgood gave him a look.

"Or is this me, being stuck in the past a bit," he gave a half laugh. "Quite literally. UNIT for a good amount of time wasn't exactly a group I wanted to work with as LPI."

Osgood was nodding. "The Osterhagen system can't have helped your opinion of modern UNIT Harry," she paused. "It was a devastating system," she looked to him and nodded. "Expertly sabotaged too," she smiled. "I'd have helped if I'd known anything about it."

Harry nodded. "That the system was even put in place made me have very little trust in UNIT until Kate came along, and were it not that I knew her father and that he'd introduced her, I might not have trusted UNIT again."

"That would have been unfortunate Harry, UNIT and the esoterics," she nodded to him. "Because of your actions in the past have had a good working relationship here."

Harry nodded. "If there's nothing else," he gestured towards the door.

Osgood looked pensive. "Just...you said poetry, what's the poem called?"

"The poem?" Harry asked.

"The Dalek poem?" Osgood prompted.

Harry grinned. "The Lament of the Non-Operational, it's got 28 stanzas."

"Is it any good?" Osgood asked curiously.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "It's what it says about the Daleks, that the poem exists means they have a much more complicated social structure, psychology and society than people like the Doctor might suggest."

Osgood looked to him. "You're his friend?" She asked him curiously.

"And I've known him a long time," Harry answered calmly. "I've seen him when he's been young, and old, I've met him in war and he's saved me in my own, he is like a dangerous thunderstorm and a dapper kitten in a bow tie. That doesn't stop me from criticising him occasionally Osgood."

Osgood smiled. "I think I would like to read your Dalek psychology book one day Harry."

Harry laughed. "If I get some time between being shot at and striking things off my to-do lists I might give it a go starting to write it."

A/N:

Originally, at least in my notes this was going to be a simple trap (for the Doctor) which Harry walks in to. He sees the notice in the newspaper, with something in Gallifreyan saying 'meet here at this time'. He decides to arrive early before Missy, and he's waiting in an old tea house / coffee shop.

Missy comes in and sits down opposite him, Harry pulls out the Time Lord killing crossbow and conversation happens.

Somehow tea is brought, and Missy goes to use the sugar pot on the table, Harry says something along the lines of 'don't use that, it's laced with aspirin, I didn't know what sort of Time Lord I was facing'. Hilarity ensues, Missy cackles.

But in actually putting this chapter together it didn't quite work like that. Was a bit too much of a retread of The Magician's Apprentice.

Decided the eventual meeting with Missy would be more interesting with these half meetings already having happened.

I was also asked by a reviewer to include a 'the story so far' as my update schedule isn't exactly conducive to following the narrative of the story so far (apologies for that, this past 1-2 years have not been great for me creatively speaking).

The current year in the story is 2013 (this chapter starts New Year's Eve 2012).

Harry has met Doctors 1-11 (plus War and Cushing's Dr. Who), and Masters Delgado to Simm, and encountered Gomez's Missy but didn't recognise her on that first meeting. Harry has also met River Song and Iris Wildthyme.

Stories during the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor eras are vague with years, for the most part I've decided the broadcast date equals (around) the date it's set. But I try to include dates when I can.

At the moment there are a few main plot lines in various levels of activeness.

The 3W Institute as featured in this chapter, but was introduced mostly for a bit of backstory to it in chapter 83.

The drugs, Rubasdpofiaew and Vraxoin which started in a chapter 88 as a random death of a wizard, who'd managed use some powerful magic in a mundane way, but there are things working from several angles which will be revealed in the future.

Notable arcs / chapters ranges are:

Chapters 1-10 - the Hogwarts years

Chapter 19-27 is the UNIT arc set in the 1970s

Chapter 33 is set in 2005, during Rose.

Chapter 46 is the first inferred reference to Rubasdpofiaew and Vraxoin being used, although Harry doesn't give it too much thought at the time.

Chapter 47-52 the mini Hyspero arc takes place, additionally my (recently published) separate story Visited by a Doctor - The Missing Shalka Adventures takes place between chapter 52 and chapter 53

Chapter 53-64 covers 'the Year That Never Was' where the Master and Toclafane ruled the Earth

Chapter 89-106 is the Time War