==== ==== Harry Sullivan ==== ====

This time, as the door to the professor's office at Amberton opened, it was neither the Doctor nor his young assistant who entered the room, but their next closest common friend. For the first time Harry had found his way to the university of Amberton, but he had not come to meet the other time travellers, or else he might have picked a day when the two of them were actually present. On a Saturday morning, they usually were not. It did not matter that much, anyway, since the medical officer had arrived with the intention to collect yet another mirror and so bumping into his friends would have been but a nice bonus.

Harry admired the old-fashioned look of the office for a little while before stepping in. Sarah had already told him that the furniture really belonged to the Doctor's predecessor and how they had only inherited it. It was also her who had remembered that this previous professor's name was on the list of people who had vanished over a month ago. In this case, too, a mirror had been present, because in a corner of the room a small, simple frame had been leant against the wall. Since it was not facing Harry, it was so inconspicuous that he would have failed to notice it had he not specifically arrived to look for the mirror. Even Sarah had completely forgotten about it until recently, when the two of them had been pondering together about the stranger properties of these mirrors. But now, just as Harry approached the piece of decoration, another person appeared unexpectedly in the door frame behind him.

"Ooh! I also get curious when I find an unoccupied office.", exclaimed a female voice, which caused the former Royal Navy member to spin around.

He was met with the sight of a young, pretty woman with very dark brown hair shorter than Sarah's. Much like most of the other students she was wearing a red skirt and a dark jacket on top of a blouse. A perky smile spread on her lips after Harry had turned to face her. Something about that shimmer in her big brown eyes seemed so challenging that he felt almost a little bit intimidated.

"Oh.", he just replied at first before he found his speech again. "I'm not prying about if that's what you're thinking..."

As the woman walked into the room, Harry felt how she eyed him with interest. "No, of course you're not.", she jokingly replied before cocking her head, then asking: "You're looking for the Smiths, too?"

"Not really. I'm just here to retrieve the office mirror for them. I'm a friend of both, you see." He smiled and held out his hand to greet the stranger properly. "The name's Harry Sullivan."

"I'm Clara Oswald. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Sullivan" She shook his hand, before she casually brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. For a few moments she just kept smiling at him, before she suddenly remembered the reason why she had come into the professor's office. "Wait, if you're a friend of Dr. Smith… would you mind to give him this for me?" Only now Harry noticed that she had been holding a small object in her hand the whole time. Out of the closed fist dangled the part of a chain. "It's a pendant I found on the desk of a lecture hall the other day and I believe it belongs to him. I really wanted to return it sooner, but I kept forgetting about it."

But it was not just a pendant. It was so much more. As Clara opened her palm, Harry immediately recognized the strange shape of the silver pendant. "You found the TARDIS key!", he blurted out in pleasant surprise.

She frowned at him, confused for but a moment. "What's a TARDIS?", she demanded to know.

"It's a, uhm… blue police box sort of… thing that's bigger on the inside? Very difficult to explain, really." A feeling of awkwardness crept into him as he struggled to find the words. He should not have mentioned the TARDIS at all, that was a mistake.

Thankfully, Clara did not seem to mind. She just chuckled. "You just made that up, didn't you?"

"Uh… yes." Harry nodded and laughed with her, just desperately trying to mask his lie. "Well, anyway. The old chap's probably looking for it already." As he held out his hand, Clara dropped the spade shaped key into it without hesitation.

"And you will make sure he gets it?", she questioned him then, whereas she raised her brows sceptically. "I mean, you really are a friend of his?"

He blinked at her, surprised by the question. "Of course I am! We were at the Royal Navy together." The lie came almost a little too easily, which he only realized as he began to feel awkward again.

Clara's eyes widened and she quickly scanned his outfit again. "So you're a sea captain?"

"That's flattering, Miss Oswald, but no, I'm more of a Surgeon Lieutenant."

"Another doctor? Why, I don't think I can keep up with all the intellect this room attracts.", Clara laughed, then turned around to leave. "Not yet, anyway. Guess I'll better be off to study some more."

"All right. Good-bye, Miss Oswald. And good luck with the exams!"

"Thank you, Mr. Sullivan." Giggling quietly, Clara walked out of the office and pulled the door shut behind her.

Oddly enough, something about her happy nature reminded him of Sarah, although the feisty journalist had never shown as much interest in him – unless maybe she did it by the use of cheeky comments and jokes, in which case, he would have failed to notice it. Still it was delighting to meet someone whom he could still sort-of impress with his career choice.

Harry walked over to the corner to lift up the oval mirror. He barely dared to take a look, but even as he peered over the frame's edge, he could see the palm-sized tetrahedron shimmering in the reflection of the wallpaper.