Mid-October 2015, London

Regina awoke the next morning. Robin was looking down at her.

"Morning, beautiful!"

"Morning, love!" Regina replied, leaning up to kiss her fiancé. "What time is breakfast?"

"Servings start in twenty minutes and finish two hours later. We don't have to be there until the last serving. Why?"

"So, we have two hours and twenty minutes. It takes an hour or so to get ready. We have an hour to spare. Any ideas on what we could be doing…?"

"Oh, I think I know what you are after…"

Breakfast was a full cooked meal. Bacon, eggs cooked how you liked them, hash browns, mushrooms, Cumberland sausages, baked beans, grilled tomatoes and something that looked like blackened sausage segments.

"What's this?" Emma asked bemused.

"Black pudding," Mac said. "It's pigs blood, suet and oatmeal. Very tasty!"

"You eat pigs blood?!" Henry asked horrified.

"It's a delicacy in the West Midlands, Lancashire and on the Scottish island of Stornoway," Joe told him. "It is often served fried as part of a cooked breakfast over here. You should try some."

Henry declined the offer, passing his to Joe. His friend smiled and rapidly devoured the extra helpings.

To finish, there were rounds of toast, accompanied with a selection of preserves including orange marmalade, strawberry, raspberry and blackcurrant jams and honey.

"Where's the peanut butter?" Henry asked.

"This is a high-class establishment!" Mac announced in horror. "They would never serve such a foul concoction here!"

"So pigs blood is a delicacy and peanut butter a foul concoction? Boy, British tastes are weird!"

"Funny," Mac commented "that recent delegation from the Carpathians loved black pudding! Do you like spicy food? It's curry night tonight! They do a really good lamb biryani here."

After breakfast, they were taken to Harrods of Knightsbridge. "They claim that, if you are willing to pay for something, they will supply it!" Joe told his friends.

"A girlfriend?" Nicholas asked hopefully.

"I suspect that's covered by the anti-soliciting laws!"

David, Killian, Robin, Henry and Nicholas were fitted for tailored evening suits and ruffled white dress shirts. They were also furnished with black bow ties and silver-plated cufflinks. Regina, Emma, Ava, Grace and Mary Margaret emerged with a selection of new outfits, as were Lois and the Amazons. Even Neil was provided with some smart new togs. Clark also was fitted for a new suit and dress shirt.

"You're not buying bow ties and cufflinks?" Killian asked Clark.

"I'm a reporter, remember?! We do sometimes have to cover high society events, like…"

"Hatches, matches and dispatches!" Joe suggested brightly, being fitted for a new suit himself. Having recently undergone a slight growth spirt, his old one seemed slightly tight and short.

"That sort of thing!" Clark agreed. "Did you see the news from Gotham…?"

"That billionaire Bruce Wayne has just got engaged to socialite Selina Kyle? Yes, I did." Joe paused, before adding sotto voce "So the cat finally got her claws around her bat!"

"We visited Wayne Manor last week. Selina was overjoyed. Bruce was the same, when he wasn't Batman! He is as grouchy as ever!"

"As if he would be anything else…"

Once their shopping was completed, they went back to the hotel, where they changed into some of their new clothes. They were then taken to Downing Street for a reception. A light ploughman's lunch was provided.

"Take a couple of pieces of bread, spread on some of the butter and take some ham and cheddar," Joe told his friends. "There's Branston Pickle, pickled onions, hard-boiled eggs, sliced onion, lettuce, cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Assemble them as you like for a simple, but tasty, meal.

"There are also chicken drumsticks, cold sausages, potato salad, quiches, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Scotch eggs and sausage rolls. Tuck in!"

They did so. Henry did try most of the foods on offer and found them to be tasty. The hard-boiled eggs cooked in sausage meat and breadcrumbs that Joe had identified as "scotch eggs" were good, as were the small crusty pastries containing pork and a jelly-like substance referred to as "Melton Mowbray pork pies". This was served with water, soft drinks, ale, cider and wine.

A number of people they knew were in the small gathering. Modesty Blaise was elegantly eating her bread, cheese, ham and pickle, whilst Willie Garvin was speaking with a tall man with strands of his thick dark hair forming a comma over his forehead. The tall man in the long blue airman's jacket and the almost equally tall grey-haired man who was talking to him in a strong Glaswegian accent were unmistakeable as Captain Jack Harkness and the Doctor. Finally, Harry and Ginny Potter were chatting to Rex Milligan, The Quibbler's muggle correspondent.

"No Goth Lady?" Ava asked Harry and Ginny.

"Wednesday's back home in the States, as is Zee," Harry replied. "She's good friends with both Henry's Mums, so you should see her often."

Ginny merely grinned, before starting a conversation with Joe and Mac. Since no Storybrooke folk or Amazon (even Chloe) could decipher the thick West Country dialects that the Devonian lass and her friends from Dorset had slipped effortlessly into, they were left to get on with their chat.

Hippolyta approached the Doctor and Jack. "Well, hello!" the latter greeted her.

"Jack!" his friend hissed.

"I'm just saying hello! By the way, your majesty, where's that man toy of yours? I would love to play with him!"

"And with me as well, no doubt!"

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"She has met you several times before?" the Doctor offered drily.

"That's cheeky! Maybe I should see how merry I can make Robin and Regina…?"

"And that is how she knew what you were after!"

"SPECTRE currently seems to be emerging again. No longer one organisation, but a handful of splinter groups, most claiming to be led by a descendant of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. They all use the symbol of the octopus."

"Thank you, matey," Willie Garvin replied to James Bond. "You throttled old Blofeld to death on a Japanese island all those years ago, didn't you?"

"Yes, he had my wife murdered en route to our honeymoon!"

"Another glass of champagne, loves?" Modesty Blaise asked. "How did your last mission go, James?"

"It was a success. That mole won't leak any more state secrets, I can guarantee that. Unless they were included in his will, that is…"

Meanwhile, in a nondescript warehouse in the London Docklands, a large, bloated man was addressing his team.

"It is a pleasure to be here at SPECTRE's main London base. How are our plans proceeding, Number Twelve?"

"Very well, Number One! We have identified an opportunity for the joint abduction of Regina Mills and Queen Hippolyta tomorrow lunchtime. The double execution has been provisionally scheduled for the following morning."

"Excellent, Number Twelve."

After a meeting with the Right Honourable Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, the party were taken to a rather unusual looking pub, the Leaky Cauldron. Harry Potter led them all inside.

"This is Hannah Longbottom, the landlady. You may remember her and her husband Neville from the wedding back in March?

"The pub has been here for centuries, with charms so most non-magical people don't notice it. Now, I've arranged for us to meet Kingsley here."

"Good to see you, Harry, Ginny, Rex!" came a deep, warm bass-baritone. A tall black gentleman approached. "Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic. Welcome to Wizard London! I thought here might be a more intimate setting than the ministry."

"It's a bit dusty and full of witches," Ava noted. "No offense, but I've had a bad experience with a witch back home. I'm Ava, but you may have heard of me as Gretel. This is my brother Nicholas, or Hansel."

"Witch killers!" somebody yelled, in a blind panic.

"They are OK!" Harry reassured everyone. "Well, Ava can be a bit cheeky sometimes. She calls Wednesday Addams "Goth Lady", but she's really good company when you get to know her."

"Yeah, she, you and that Zee woman are good people, for witches and wizards anyway!"

Harry grinned, before ordering butterbeer for the youngsters and firewhiskey for the adults. After a few sips, most of the Storybrooke folk bar Emma and Killian switched hastily to butterbeer. It seemed the Amazons and Lois could handle their drink. Clark could probably have drunk several vats of pure alcohol without getting affected, unless it was laced with Kryptonite.

After they had finished drinking, Harry tapped some bricks in the rear wall and led them into a street that seemed to have been designed by someone trying to capture the entire history of London for a Walt Disney theme park.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley! This is the main magical shopping and other business quarter."

Rex grinned. "After some of the things you have seen, it's probably tame, but I still get a thrill every time I enter the alley. I never thought when I was busy recording the madness of school life that I would end up chasing werewolves for a wizard paper."

"Amongst other things!" the Doctor agreed. "Your interview with Dr Fu Manchu was very revealing."

"I remember! Stark raving crackers, of course, but he was good company. He was honourable enough, in his own way. Did you see my interview in The Quibbler with his son?"

"Shang-Chi? Yes, I did. Part of your muggle martial artists' series. That one with Hayashi Kato was my own favourite."

"I thought his name was Kono?" Ava asked puzzled.

"Hayashi's his uncle. He's Paul Reid's uncle Britt's valet, chef and chauffeur. Not to mention wingman and driver to Britt's Green Hornet back in the day. Their nephews' continue that legacy, of course."

"Indeed," Harry agreed. "Now for some shopping wizard style."

Whilst most of the shopping opportunities were limited, Regina, Emma and Henry did get some magic books. With some tips from Wednesday Addams, not only could Henry do some basic magic, but Regina and Emma could use magic outside Storybrooke, as they had demonstrated in the Caribbean. Unless they were in contact with squid ink, as that seemed to affect Wednesday, Harry and even Zatanna Zatara, with only the likes of Harry Dresden, Stephen Strange and Baron Mordo able to perform any serious magic. They also bought some potions ingredients and a couple of cauldrons.

"Of course, books that wriggle, whisper and try to assault you are unusual even by our standards," Emma grumbled to Regina. "As are chocolate frogs that hop away! Do they sell anything normal here?"

"That shop sells brooms, Swan!"

"Yes, but I don't fly mine at home. Do you?"

"Well, it is rather clichéd, Emma. I'm a modern woman!"

"You fly a vacuum cleaner?!"

They returned to the hotel. As Mac had announced, it was curry night.

"Are you used to Indian food?" Mac asked. "If not, stick to the korma options. It is the mildest option."

Most of the Storybrooke folk stuck to his advice. The Amazons, Clark and Lois went for the tikka masalas, biryanis and jalfrezis. For one Storybrooke resident, however, that option seemed tame.

"What's the hottest item on the menu, Joe?" Ava asked.

"The vindaloo, why?"

"I'll order that, then." She smiled at her friend's horrified expression. "Relax, Joe, I've had Tex-Mex! I can handle spicy food!"

"Seriously…?" Emma asked, eyebrow raised. "I've heard curries are a very different type of hot food."

Once their meals had arrived, Joe tucked into his favourite lamb biryani with garlic naan bread. He then heard a distinct sloshing of water.

"No, Ava! Don't gulp down the water! It will only make things worse. Take a few sips, or better still drink milk, and have plenty of ice cream to follow."

His friend ignored him again. After drinking what seemed like gallons of water, she finally abandoned what was left of her chicken vindaloo. After plenty of ice cream, she seemed to be getting back to normal, before something sent her running for the ladies.

The following morning, the party gathered for breakfast. One member of the party was pale and seemed to have had little sleep.

"Are you OK, Ava?" Henry asked, leaning in for a quick kiss.

"I'm just waiting for Joe to say "I told you so"!"

"She was in our en suite all night!" Grace complained, once she and Sappho had shared their own kiss. "What was she thinking? That korma was tasty and didn't cause severe vomiting and diarrhoea, unlike the vindaloo!"

"Yes, the korma had a pleasant coconut flavour," Regina agreed. "What's for breakfast?"

"The same as yesterday," Mac noted. "I've arranged for the buffet, so you only take the black pudding, kippers or whatever if you like them."

"Kippers?" Henry asked.

"Smoked herring," Joe informed him. "They have them in the United States, I believe. Best served with poached or scrambled eggs, toast and tea."

One look at the herring sliced butterfly fashion, gutted and smoked red, plus smelling the smoky aroma, sent Ava back to the ladies in a hurry.

"Something must have upset her stomach," David noted.

"Really…?" his wife asked rhetorically. "You don't say!"

"We have kippers in Maine, Henry," Emma told him, "Just not served like that. They are popular in Canada. I'll try a couple with poached eggs and toast, I think. They look delicious!"

Hamleys is one of the largest toyshops in the world. From cuddly toys to dolls and from educational games to Galaxy Quest and Nebula 9 action figures, everything could be found. Other than a few toys for Neil, little was purchased. Joe brought a teddy for Chloe and was rewarded with a quick kiss. Since there were few computer or console games, Henry and his friends found little to interest them.