States of Secrecy

XandyNZ: Harry/Torchwood crossover prompt:

IDK, the Weasley's Muggle-ish second cousin, the 'accountant' is actually the 'civil servant' Ianto Jones? IDK, maybe Ianto actually knows so much because he's got all these magical gadgets/abilities to help him out? And then in Season 3, the BubbleHead Charm makes a re-appearance... *weepy puppy eyes*

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What has to be understood, right off, is that it doesn't matter how secret a society or agency is or is supposed to be – in nearly every single muggle intelligence and information network world-wide is a witch or wizard. It could be anyone, from the janitor to an agent to the second in command; or even the head of the department themselves.

They diligently watch the people who are supposed to be watching, and it's their job to make sure no one ever finds out the secret they keep, not merely that the world has magic in it, or that there are a few people who can use that magic – no, the secret that they are to keep is to ensure that it never gets out that there is any significant portion of the world- wide population that not only can use magic – but do in their everyday lives.

Muggleborns most often take up this job, for they have a way of fitting into the world in which they were raised that no pure-blood can mimic fully. A pureblood has more of a chance of slipping up, or of not being trusted by those he is supposed to keep watch of. What is usually expected of a muggleborn, is often times thought to be a disgrace to the purebloods. It's another of those prejudices, but one not without its truths.

Ianto had had to make a choice, his pureblood Prewett family, where he wasn't truly wanted or needed, or a job at Ministry of Magic as an Unspeakable. For both muggle and magical folk it was supposed to be a mystery how they kept apart, so such a job fell into the Department of Mysteries.

Ianto did it, taking up the last name Jones with a glad heart. He joined Torchwood, and met a muggle, Lisa Hallett – and that was when everything became complicated. He fell in love. And, worse, he tried to save her. It had nearly torn the Torchwood that he was a part of remaking apart.

There was no keeping it a secret after that, it had to be reported to the Ministry of Magic ...that in Ianto working among muggles, he had fallen in love, and she had died. He was told to take four weeks off. In those weeks he told his family he was a civil servant, like an accountant, or a stockbroker in the muggle world, he was a Unspeakable, he couldn't tell them the truth about Torchwood.

His sister, Rhiannon told him she was ashamed of him, that he wasn't a Prewett, she didn't want to see him around her children or husband. He'd said fine, that's fine, I'm Ianto Jones; he hadn't said goodbye when the Unspeakable's had sent him back to work.

A part of him wanted to die, what use was he? Torchwood gave him something to do with his life; that was true, he saw things most wizards and witches couldn't dream up, for beyond the Earth there was so much more – and that was what it was all about; the Rift, time and space and all the stuff they tried to put right. What Torchwood didn't look for and never found, was real magic – no, what they looked for was the stuff of Tosh's wet dreams. Mostly they found it too. Yet they weren't a threat to wizards and witches or magic, if anything they protected it along with all the rest of the people they could.

It took time, but he found his footing among the crew, he wasn't a tea boy like Owen accused. He cleans up after them, because they won't and he's used to things blowing up or worse with potions and messes (and he was never so grateful for his second cousins Molly's spells more than when he found out how hard it was to clean up in the ordinary way). He gets them to where they need to be – and if he enjoys research it's for what he learns, not because he's very bookish as Gwen accuses playfully.

Ianto learns what it's like to have a job, to have friends, and…and a family that cares about him, not because he's a wizard, or a pureblood, but because he's a part of their team. He's one of them, one of their own. They are like a family, because family is supposed to watch out for each other, protect each other.

He heals. Ianto watches Gwen with her husband Rys, and when Jack accuses him of staring and stalking, what he says is simple and true.

"I want that." Jack blinks, as if surprised at the ache he hears in Ianto's tone.

"Why don't you go out and date, than?" Jack doesn't miss much, so he couldn't have missed that Ianto spends nearly all his time at Torchwood, even if they don't talk about it.

"Who would I date?" Ianto asks, scathingly.

"Me." Jack smiles, wide, and Ianto knows he isn't being made fun of, but he walks away. He doesn't know what to say.

Jack leaves them, and they don't really know why – there's that sound, blaring and like gravel, and than Jack was gone. He might come back – he might not, but why he went in the first place, why he left what he built of Torchwood to go chasing after some sound (the footage they have, of Jack running into a blue police phone booth, and it disappearing, is stranger than any magic Ianto knows) …the team doesn't know. Ianto does, or he thinks, that it's because he didn't say yes or no, he just…walked away. He blames himself for Jack doing much the same thing.

So when Jack comes back – Ianto Jones doesn't hesitate to say yes to a proper date.

It was that little blue police phone box he should have kept in mind, for it saves them all in the end. In it is the Doctor, a living and breathing legend out of the memories of the magical world; those memories run deep, Ianto calls this man sire, even as all the others hear him say sir, because this Doctor is a Time Lord of Gallifrey, and wizards and witches might one day become them – or might have been like the Time Lord's once, the Doctor doesn't ever just say. What the Doctor does is only keeps watch on Earth, on humans, and on wizards and witches, and he saves them. When they need saving, when they don't, and even when they don't think they do.

It surprises the Doctor to see Ianto there, risking his life beside Torchwood and muggles, but he smiles and seems to approve.

It's why, when MI5 succeeds in attacking Torchwood, Ianto Jones asks his sister to keep a eye out on the government, and it goes without saying he means both muggle and magical. It's Ianto who takes them to the Thames House,thirteenth floor, the tank of the 456 Ambassador. He doesn't tell Jack how he knows, and Jack doesn't ask, assumes it's only that Ianto's good at what he does – and he is – but he is more.

It's why when the 456 Ambassador tries to poison him, he fails, for Ianto Jones is a wizard, and a damned good one, and he knows ebublio spell, called the Bubble-Head Charm. It saves him, even as he has to watch Jack Harkness die again, and he wonders as he holds him, just how many times he will have to watch him die and come back. It's a magic, or something, he hopes never stops, and never fails.

Gwen finds them, and when she asks how, Ianto says he'll tell when Jack wakes up. He does just that, he tells them, his team, his family, because in the end all they have is each other.