Author's Note: Finally, the site's stopped giving me an error message every time I try to log on. Also, you already knew I'm rubbish at endings, so don't be too surprised here. I love you all, even if you don't review... though I'd be even happier if you did.

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Chapter 4: Full Circle

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From the Doctor's perspective, it had only been about five minutes since he left Earth. He hadn't set any coordinates, because he wanted to wallow in self-pity in the void for a few decades. This was not to be, however.

"You know that nice little cafe just around the corner from Torchwood 3? Five days after the Dalek thing, at four in the afternoon."

The handwriting on his psychic paper was unfamiliar. Not that he was especially surprised by this anymore. Not after River and the Library.

When he arrived at the location in question, he found a familiar young man sitting outside the cafe. He had seen this man on the Valiant during the year that the Master had ruled the Earth, and was fairly certain the name he had used then was not his true name. Of course, the Doctor really had no right to call anyone out on that count.

Five days after the Daleks. He must have deliberately waited till the first sunny day to call the Doctor. The atmospheric disturbances had caused it to rain solidly until this very morning.

The man, who had once called himself Damien, didn't looking at him as he approached, but there were three drinks already set out on the table in those take-away paper cups that hot drinks are often sold in these days. The Doctor took a seat, opposite Damien, and waited.

"You forgot something, you know." he informed the Doctor.

The Doctor blinked, "You didn't tell me to bring anything."

"No. How did he word it? 'the basics of centrifugal effects on seismically active planets'."

The Doctor turned very pale very quickly. Only Time Lords referred to things so vast as being basic, especially in the offhand tone that implies they're an everyday thing. There was only one other Time Lord the Doctor could possibly think of that Damien might be quoting. Not only that, but the point was quite valid, he had overlooked that little detail.

Speechless, the Doctor didn't do speechless often, but here it was.

This elicited a bemused grin from the human, who picked up his own drink and said, "You gonna drink that, it'll go cold."

The Doctor realised that in front of him, in one of those paper cups, was some very nice-looking steaming hot tea. Reluctantly he picked up the cup and took a sip, wondering who the third drink was for. "How did you know-?"

"Well the earthquakes were a bit of a hint." the Doctor flinched when that was said, "Besides, we had help."

"We?"

"The golden trio didn't trust me to go off on my own, and then... well." he pulled an object out of his pocket, "Do you recognise this?" he set a golden ring with a cracked red stone on the table, so that the stone was facing the Doctor.

"So you are Draco Malfoy." he muttered. Between the reference to the 'golden trio', and the design of and damage to the ring, it was obvious he was at least a wizard. Not to mention the big clue that had been handed to him the previous year, though he'd not been a hundred percent certain until now.

A nod was the only answer to that rhetorical question.

"And who helped you, then?" the Doctor asked.

"Two people, but one I can't tell you about, because I'm pretty certain it will mess up the time-line if you know too soon." Draco began.

Just at that moment, another familiar face arrived. Captain Jack. So this was why he picked Cardiff, right next to Torchwood. Jack was invited.

"Hello, Captain." Draco said cheerfully.

"What're you doing here?" Jack demanded.

"Talking. Is there a law against that?" Draco asked innocently.

"No, but there's a law against the Imperius Curse." Jack pointed out.

"I'd like to see you try and enforce punishment for something that never happened, Captain." Draco said, smirking brightly.

Jack grumbled under his breath, but then smelled the coffee and sat down, taking the third cup without bothering to ask if it was for him or not.

Draco sat back smugly, for a moment, while Jack inhaled the caffeine. Then he spoke again, "Now that I could have poisoned both of you and politely chose not to-" the Doctor laughed, and Jack choked on the last drop of the coffee for a second, before glaring. "See the shiny thing in the middle of the table, Captain? We were taking about that."

"That's the Master's ring." Jack said flatly, "He tried to gouge my eye out with it one time."

"Lovely. I really needed to know that." Draco muttered.

"Well you have a worse imagination, buddy." Jack grumbled, "A rusty spork and a cheese grater, I believe was the most creative one."

Draco laughed, and the Doctor stared between the two, wondering exactly what they were talking about.

"This is the Hallowed Stone." Draco said rather bluntly. Jack blinked in surprise, then stared at the ring with renewed attention. "Now you get one guess who helped us to fix the little mistake the Doctor made five days ago."

Jack stared blankly, not having been there for the part of the conversation that explained what the Doctor had forgotten to do. The Doctor was also staring rather fixedly at the ring, but he was tense, as if waiting for very bad news.

Draco picked the ring up, and concentrating carefully he turned it over three times while the other two watched.

"You cannot be serious?!" came an angry yell next to Draco as the echo of the Master appeared.

"Sirius was my cousin." Draco retorted. Another standard response that the Master did not see the humour in. Everyone was glaring at him now. The Master then noticed the other two sitting there, and went for his weapon out of instinct.

"See, this is where I'm smarter than Lucy." Draco said, smiling as the Master failed to find his laser screwdriver, "I summoned you unarmed." he glanced to the other two, "The laser toy of his worked even though he was incorporeal."

"She needed someone to kill Daleks." the Master muttered, folding his arms defensively, "And I was led to believe that once she released me that was the end of it?"

"You should be so lucky." Draco muttered.

"So he helped you fix the rotation?" the Doctor asked.

"The what?" Jack asked.

"The planet stopped spinning while it was being towed." Draco said bluntly.

"You can thank me now." the Master said smugly.

"Hey, shouldn't you be in London?" that was Ron Weasley. Ron had apparated almost right on top of the Master, who glared at him for it and stepped to one side. Just because he wasn't physically there didn't mean he didn't value his personal space. "The Minister wants a report about why there was a representative of the Time Room involved in something that clearly related to Space. Or something like that. I wasn't paying attention. He mentioned something called Torchwood, too." Jack looked up more attentively at this idle remark.

"And you got the fun job of coming to find me. I'm flattered to hear they think I'm important enough to waste your precious time, Weasley." Draco snarked.

"Who're they?" Ron asked, pointing to Jack and the Doctor.

"They're some of the people who defeated the Daleks and towed the Earth back."

"Oh, they're the ones who caused the earthquakes, then?"

At this, the Master doubled over with laughter, then when he spared a glance at the Doctor's chagrin expression he actually fell to the ground in hysterics.

"Would you have preferred we all died of the cold, left out light years away from the sun?" Draco asked innocently. That failed to shut the Master up, but it made Ron look less smug.

"Did you only call us here to point out my mistake?" the Doctor asked coldly.

Draco shook his head and smiled, a genuine smile instead of his usual smirk, "No, to tell you that you told me this was going to happen. You know, so you could know to tell me when you meet me a decade or so ago."

Ron stared, "This is why you work in the Time Room, isn't it?"

"Partly." Draco said dismissively, "Also, let's see. You told me all about last year, too. That's how I knew to apply for the job of assistant to the Prime Minister before he even showed up on Earth-"

"You said that before." Ron noted, "How'd you have that job and still work in the Time Room, anyway?"

"Because I work in the Time Room." Draco held up a time turner for everyone to see, "One of the perks of the job."

"So how old are you, relatively?" Jack asked suddenly.

"About thirty-two."

"No you're not-" Ron started, knowing that he himself was twenty-eight.

"Counting a year in the nineteen forties- that's your fault, Doctor- a year that didn't happen, during which I doubled back about a month, or so. Not to mention holding down two full-time jobs for over a year before that, and being intelligent enough to account for sleep unlike your wife in our third year at school, Weasley. Yes, I'm about four years older than my birth-certificate would say."

"He talks almost as fast as you when he's on a rant." Jack noted, nudging the Doctor.

"You'll understand why a year or so after you first meet me." Draco said, looking at the Doctor to indicate whom he was speaking to. He was grinning, a bit evilly, at the memory of that day.

"Sounds like fun." the Doctor said, glancing at the Master, who had recovered from his laughing fit about half-way through Draco's rant, to stare at the human in question.

"I know what it is about you, now." the Master said, still staring, slightly stunned by some revelation, "Of course, if I say what I'm thinking it'll change things, won't it?"

Draco grinned, "Now you're allowed to go." and with that he picked up the ring to turn it back to dismiss the illusion. Now that the Master had actually seen the fact that Draco had- however temporarily- been him, he didn't need to stick around.

"Wait." the Master said, holding up his hand. He stood up and approached Draco, whispering in his ear, a question.

Draco nodded, and the Master whispered something else to him. As he said it, the Master smiled. If the Doctor didn't know him better than that he'd have thought it was a genuine, warm smile. Draco looked a little shocked, but seemed to easily accept the statement as fact, whatever it was. He stared at the echo of the Master for a few seconds, wide-eyed, then also smiled, and he nodded. "Good to have my suspicions confirmed." he said, a bit too brightly.

"Now you can let me go." the Master said calmly.

Draco turned over the ring three times, and the Master disappeared.

"I'll see you sometime in the past?" Draco said, grinning as he stood up, pocketing the ring. He shook the Doctor's hand and smiled at Jack. "And you, Torchwood. You need to call me." Jack grinned and winked cheekily at Draco.

"Is he gay?" Ron asked, suddenly, and rather rudely.

Everyone stared at Ron for a second, then Draco answered in as diplomatic a tone as is possible, "Captain Jack is what I think we should probably call omnisexual, if it's sentient and willing he's up for it."

"What, even a centaur?" Ron asked, clearly trying to think of the most unlikely possibility.

While Jack got a thoughtful look on his face, and Ron mimed vomiting, Draco grinned and noted a bit too cheerfully, "Imaging the pillow-talk with a centaur, 'the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars'."

The Doctor snorted with laughter. Ron continued his impersonation of a bulimic.

Jack, on the other hand, drawn out of thoughts best left unsaid, asked, "I recognise the song, but what-?"

"Centaurs are big into astronomy." Draco explained. "Time to go now." And he grabbed Ron's arm and disapparated them away.

"So we're gonna meet him again, huh?" Jack asked.

"It seems so."

Still, there was no one who would stay with the Doctor when it was over. They all had their own lives to go back to.

Maybe he should just go directly to nineteen-ninety-seven? No waiting, no moping. Yes, he'd do that. But if he was going to Hogwarts, there was someone else he needed to pick up first. With that in mind, he bade farewell to Captain Jack, and headed back to the TARDIS.

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The End.