So, I have to go to school tomorrow for a final, which sucks. I hope I can get this out soon so I can some happy readers. Happy readers are good. They make me happy. That's always fun.

Anywho, I'm thinking this is the interesting chapter. We'll talk to Dumbledore and get to the alien. By the way, he didn't die...yes, I know that takes away from one of Harry's main Then, maybe Gwen will be in there for a minute...any one who knows me knows that Gwen isn't my favorite person...but, then again, my favorite person died...so...yeah. -sniff-

Here we are, my happy readers. OH! by the way, guys, this was written mostly by my gorgeous beta theviewfromhere. She read the parts I had and I was stuck. She, so graciously, helped me out. I can't write Dumbles (hehe) well at all. She can, as you will very well see.

I don't own Torchwood or Harry Potter or any silly arbitrary reference to anything. Promise.

"Who's gonna knock?" Jack asked as they stood in front of the Headmaster's door. Draco rolled his eyes and Harry chuckled.

"Give it a sec-" the former Gryffindor started, but was cut off by a voice resounding through the door.

"Enter," came the voice. Harry gestured to the door as to say, "See what I mean?" as he reached for the handle. He pushed open the heavy wood and the men walked into the office.

It was a relief to see that, no matter how many changes had been made in everyone's lives since they had last visited, Dumbledore's office remained the same as it had always been. As comforting as the familiarity of their surroundings was, though, the sight of Dumbledore's affable expression was like a catalyst that acted by shuffling a great weight off Harry's shoulders. He hasn't even realized it was there before, but the relief of having it gone must have shown on his face. Dumbledore turned away from exchanging greetings and old-friend pleasantries with Jack and turned his gaze on Harry.

"Harry," his voice was as calmly unaffected as ever, yet Harry detected a tenseness there that snapped him out of his half-reverie, "I trust you and young Malfoy have been well?"

"Yes, Professor, very well actually. Erm… yes. Quite busy with things, nothing new there." He resisted the urge to punctuate the end of the sentence with a breath of awkward laughter and was reminded of his days as a student.

Ianto, Jack and Draco had taken seats on an out of the way, rather tatty old sofa along the wall, keeping well out of the way of the interaction while at the same time managing to appear marginally involved. While Draco had eyes only for Harry's growing Dumbledore-induced nervousness in the middle of the room, Jack and Ianto were trying to inconspicuously hold a conversation consisting of only brief glances and raised eyebrows. The mood in the room had changed barely at all from their earlier shared greetings, but it was a change nonetheless and they wondered what had caused it and what was to come of it.

"I have no doubt, Harry. Inactivity has never been one of your many talents, nor has it been one of mine. It is this that has forced me to call you all here on this fine afternoon, consequentially. I have always rather liked my occasional forays into the Forbidden Forest when all one needs to clear ones head is the majesty of nature and the call of various woodland creatures.' Harry doubted the majesty of any nature that happened to take root in the Forest, but didn't say as much.

"I have found myself unable to partake in this activity as of late, however. There has been certain events that have discouraged both myself and some of the more observant school population from activities in that area."

Harry felt something was expected of him at this point, since Dumbledore showed no signs of continuing his narrative. He was, in fact, moving over to his desk to shuffle papers around on its surface in a pattern that achieved much the same appearance of scholarly disarray as it had before.

"Right, sir, the business with the Caridou-"

"-Caridon-' (A hushed yet insistent Welsh voice from the sofa)

"-In the Forbidden Forest. We know about it already." (A low 'oomph' from the sofa caused by an elbow finding its swift and sharp way to a set of Welsh ribs as Ianto slightly stood to speak up.)

"Of course you do. I just couldn't be completely sure, Harry, considering the distinct lack of reply owls I had received about the situation. I thought perhaps the poor things had lost their way at times, I must confess." Finally Dumbledore's kind eyes met Harry's beneath his half-moon spectacles and Harry immediately felt all the worse for it.

Draco, seeing his husband's distress, jumped in. "We're sorry, Professor, we did get the owls. It's just that… after the constant eventful, er, events of our school days, we had really just planned to recede, quietly, you understand, from the more… heroic aspects of the wizarding world. Um. On account of the children, really, we just don't want them exposed to too much so early on and we wanted to really create a family atmosphere at home, you know… yes. We really would have returned the owls sooner, Professor, but then we decided a personal visit was in order." It was a good thing Malfoys, as a part of their intrinsic gene pool, did not blush. Draco certainly would have been red as a Weasley under the vaguely amused eyes of Dumbledore otherwise.

"I understand completely, Draco. In the future, however, it may be wise to consider a return communication before the esteemed members of the Torchwood Institute begin to feel needed as errand boys. Yes?"

There were murmurs of assent from Harry and Draco, overlaid with Jack's "Right, boys! Remember that, excellent advice if I do say so myself!" and Ianto's pointed silence. Which way the silence was pointing remained to be seen.

Harry and Draco sank into the sofa next to Ianto.

"You two are brilliant conversationalists, eh?" the Welshman chided. Draco turned to his former lover and sneered. Harry told his to stuff it. Ianto couldn't help but smile.

With his permanent smirk still turned up a few extra notches after his last comment, Jack turned his attention to Dumbledore. "Alright. Now that we've got that all sorted out, who's up for some alien investigation?"

"Fine by me," Ianto stood and grinned at Jack.

Sorry for the semi-short nature of the chapter. I promised action, and, well, I failed to deliver. Apologies, my lovely readers. Hope to update soon.

Love you all!

-PBI