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batsutousaiTitle: Dust in the Sky
Part: 3 of 6
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batsutousai
Beta:tsuki_no_suzu
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Harry Potter/Tenth Doctor (minor Rose/Tenth Doctor, Martha/Tenth Doctor and Jack/Tenth Doctor)
Warnings: Slash, minor Ginny!hate
Summary: Sequel to Hanging by a Thread. Harry has a life to live now with a wife and children, but he can still find time for the Doctor, no matter what he looks like.
Third Part, first half
-0-
Over the next year, the men adapted to life on the Valiant, such as it was. Harry was occasionally scorned for his decision to stay with the Master – as Saxon claimed himself to be – but he mostly ignored them. It had helped that he'd eventually found a moment to speak with the Doctor a couple of weeks in:
"Doctor?" Harry whispered into the dark silence of the flight deck. He'd used magic to mask his trip, since the UNIT men were still under watch, but he'd needed to talk to the Doctor. He'd needed to know that he'd made the right choice. For all of them.
An elderly head poked out of the tent and Harry hurried over to help his friend. The Doctor smiled at him tiredly. "I'm glad to see you're alright," he whispered.
Harry hugged him, closing his eyes, and the Doctor hugged him back a bit weakly. "I wish I could have stopped him," he said, helpless. "I wish I could just cast a spell and all of this would be over."
"It's never that easy," the Doctor replied, leaning ever so slightly against Harry.
"No," Harry agreed. Then, "Please tell me you have a plan? Please tell me I didn't just swear my gun to a man I hate for no reason?"
The Doctor laughed a bit weakly. "Ah, my Harry. Always acting without fully thinking things through."
"It's called trusting you, you git."
The Doctor laughed again. "Yes, I know." He smiled at Harry. "Of course I have a plan."
Harry let out a breath of relief. "Thank Merlin. I'd thought so, since you sent Martha back down to Earth, but I wasn't sure."
The Doctor nodded. "I only hope it works."
Harry sighed. "It's our only hope right now," he pointed out. "We'll have to just cross our fingers. And I won't ask what it is you're planning. I don't want Saxon finding out somehow."
"His name isn't Saxon," the Doctor said.
Harry frowned. "You mean he's actually named 'Master'?"
"He's a Time Lord."
Harry's eyes widened in surprise as he remembered one of those stories the Doctor had told him so long ago. "Your childhood friend? And then nemesis?"
"Yes."
"But you said he was dead," Harry hissed.
The Doctor smiled at him. "As you once pointed out to me, things that are supposedly dead have a bad habit of turning back up when I'm around."
Harry sighed. "I know. But still..." He rubbed at his face. "How did he survive the Time War?"
"He went to the end of the universe and made himself human," the Doctor replied. "Hid there until the TARDIS took us there. She was trying to get away from Jack."
"The man strung up down in the boiler room?" Harry asked, frowning.
The Doctor nodded. "Rose..." He swallowed. "Rose looked into the TARDIS and used its power to bring him back to life, only she didn't just bring him back to life, she kept him from dying."
"When was this? And why didn't I ever hear about it?"
"Rose didn't remember. I took the power back from her, but it killed me."
"Your regeneration," Harry whispered, understanding.
The Doctor nodded. "But he's impossible. The TARDIS didn't want him near her and, honestly, he makes my skin crawl a bit." He smiled and Harry smiled back. "So she tried to escape. Took us to the end of the universe. We found the Master – didn't realise he was the Master, myself, until it was too late – and he remembered. He took the TARDIS. We used Jack's Vortex Manipulator to get back here."
"His what?"
"Vortex Manipulator," the Doctor repeated. "Jack is from the fifty-first century. Your lot had learned how to play with time by then."
"Ah. And he has one of their toys, still."
The Doctor nodded.
"Why doesn't he use it to, I dunno, go back the the fifty-first?"
"It's broken."
"But you used it to get back here," Harry pointed out.
The Doctor grinned. "Time Lord."
"Git."
They both laughed a little.
Once they'd calmed down, Harry asked, "Is there anything we can do? Anything on board the Valiant that won't involve us knowing about whatever you've got Martha doing?"
The Doctor considered that, then nodded. "Martha's family. Keep an eye on them. Make sure they're okay." He thought for a little bit more while Harry nodded. "You could always try 'fixing' the ship a bit every now and then," he decided.
Harry grinned. "Of course. But not until they stop watching us so closely, I think."
The Doctor nodded. "That should be enough," he decided.
Harry gently kissed the top of the Doctor's head. "And I'll visit you, sometimes. Not too hard, you know. I'm the only wizard on board. And it doesn't look like the Master has read Harry Potter."
The Doctor laughed. "No. Bit too fantastical for him."
Harry grinned. "His loss."
"Yes. I rather suppose it is," the Doctor agreed.
They'd sat there, talking, for a little bit longer before Harry eventually helped the Doctor back into his tent and ghosted back to his own bed.
Eventually, the watch on the UNIT troops had been lifted and they occasionally sabotaged the ship. Little things, which wouldn't prove too serious if not noticed, but would cause a bit of trouble for the Master and his lot. Even before the watch had been lifted, Harry had managed to cause things to go a bit wrong, so the Master never really had cause to suspect it was UNIT.
Harry did call Hermione every couple weeks and check in. Ginny was never spotted, but a three-year-old James was found wandering around the Ministry building after a few days, in tears. Once Molly had gotten him to calm down, he was able to lead her to where Albus had been hidden, half dead from starvation. Both boys were being cared for by their grandmother and Harry had spoken to James a couple of times when he was nearby when Harry rang.
For the most part, the wizards and witches in the Ministry were surviving. The alien tech in the Department had ended up saving a few lives, Hermione reported, since they could replicate food with the machine Harry had used the first time he was down there.
Harry kept his promise to the Doctor and would occasionally stop to talk with one of the Jones family. Francine had introduced him to her ex-husband, Clive, after Harry had sworn he was only working with the Master for now so he could be in a position later to take him down. Eventually, the three Jones also accepted some of the other UNIT troops and they would sometimes sneak things to the family, such as an extra pillow or some bread from supper, since the soldiers were treated better than the near-slaves.
Harry also found a chance to talk to Jack Harkness almost a month after he'd first spoken to the Doctor:
"So, I've been told you travelled with Rose and the Doctor," Harry commented while on guard duty for the man.
Jack narrowed his eyes at him and refused to say anything.
Harry smiled. He'd already dealt with Francine a few weeks ago, so he accepted the distrust without being hurt by it. "Do you miss her? Rose?"
"Fuck off," Jack had replied.
Harry glanced at him. "I do." He looked away, thoughtful. "I was there, you know, at Torchwood. The day the Daleks and the Cybermen came. Well, really, I was in the city. Live in Surrey, me. But I work in London, and I was there when everything was happening. Couldn't see outside, though. Eventually got through to Rose. On her mobile. She told me a bit about what was happening." He glanced at Jack, who was staring at him like he'd never really seen him before. "Doctor took the phone and told me to stay away."
"Did you listen?" Jack whispered.
"Would you have?" Harry replied.
They both grinned.
"No. Went outside. Almost got hit by a Dalek, mind." Harry shuddered. "But when they all started getting drawn backwards, I went to the building they were going towards." He swallowed, then, remembering. "I got there too late. Rose's grip was already slipping. Doctor said it was her dad from another dimension what saved her."
Jack nodded. "Yeah."
They were silent for a long moment.
"So you know the Doctor?" Jack finally asked.
Harry shrugged. "Travelled with him a bit. Before he met Rose. We still run into each other sometimes." Harry grinned. "He gave me a mobile so he could find me again. After he regenerated, I mean."
"New Doctor, new rules," Jack commented.
"Tell me about it. No more calling us apes. No more accent."
Jack laughed at that. "Loved the accent."
"I think we all did," Harry replied, shaking his head. "Rose and I commiserated for a bit about it. When he'd first regenerated."
Jack chuckled a bit more, then sighed and shook his head. "If you know the Doctor so well, why are you working for the Master, now?"
"Because the Doctor wanted me to," Harry replied, shrugging. "I work for UNIT, and I was one of the troops already assigned up here. When the Master gave us the choice between death and staying alive, the Doctor nodded at me to stay alive. But it's okay. I only swore my gun to him, and I think of them about as well as the the Doctor does."
Jack grimaced. "Yeah. He and I have had talks about that."
Harry snorted. "Yeah? I take it you like your guns."
"Yup."
"No wonder he never talks about you."
"Hey!"
Harry laughed.
After that first conversation, Harry and Jack would occasionally reminisce about Rose and the last Doctor. They'd both laughed to learn that they shared their affection of the Doctor (though Jack did get a bit jealous when Harry accidently let it slip that he'd slept with the Doctor. Harry saved himself the silent treatment by telling him it had only happened because they'd both been smashed and neither remembered much).
It was barely two months into that year of hell when the Doctor stopped talking. It was a bit unnerving, really, but Harry would still come and visit him at night. He would sit there with the Doctor, just looking out the windows and neither of them would speak.
After a month of it, Harry managed to get guard duty for Jack again.
"The Doctor won't talk anymore," he commented.
Jack glanced up at him. They'd just been comparing the Doctor's moods now with how they were during his last incarnation. "No? Wonder if it's just to irritate the Master."
"No, I mean, he won't talk to me anymore. I go up there every few nights and sit with him. We used to talk, but now he just sits there. Won't say a word."
"Did you ask him why?" Jack asked.
Harry nodded. "Wouldn't say. He'd just look really sad and look away from me. I thought I'd done something wrong, at first. But he shook his head when I suggested it."
"But didn't actually say anything?"
"Nope."
"Hmm..."
They were silent for a long moment, both thinking.
"You could stop going to see him for a while. Sorta like you're punishing him, I guess."
"I can't do that to him!"
"No, wait, listen. Harry..." Jack sighed while Harry glared at him. "I don't mean you're actually punishing him. Just that you're sorta giving him your own silent treatment. Don't visit him for a few weeks, then go by again. See if he'll talk you you then."
Harry swallowed. "But I don't want to hurt him like that. He'll think something's happened to me, knowing him."
Jack sighed. "And he's not hurting you?"
Harry considered that. "We'll see," he decided.
A week after his talk with Jack, Harry did, in fact, stop going to see the Doctor. He still had duty on the flight deck once a week, but he always spent it not looking in the Doctor's direction.
Three weeks later, Harry was making his regular call to Hermione when the door to the room opened and he quickly hung up. It was night time and the room wasn't lit, but the hallways were, so it took his some time to recognise the man standing in the doorway. When he finally did, he let out a breath of relief. "Fuck, Doctor," he whispered, waving the man in so the door would close. "You scared me."
The Doctor ambled slowly over to the window Harry was leaning against and poked him in the chest. "You've been avoiding me," he rasped.
"You wouldn't talk to me!" Harry hissed back. "I thought I'd done something wrong."
"You didn't. I told you no."
"No, you shook your head at me. And you looked so sad when you did it I thought you might be lying to me."
"So you decided to avoid me?"
"No, I talked to Jack and he suggested I avoid you. I didn't expect you to come looking for me!" Harry rubbed roughly at his hair. "What if someone notices you're missing? The Master will have a fit."
"I don't care. You've been avoiding me," the Doctor replied, and he sounded so much like the Doctor as Harry remembered him from before the Master that Harry drew him into a hug, unable to help himself.
The Doctor hugged him back, tired but determined, and Harry shook his head. "Why wouldn't you talk to me?" he requested.
The Doctor looked up at him, ancient eyes so very sad. "The Toclafane..." He trailed off and seemed unable to continue.
Harry sighed. "Oh, Doctor... I don't care if you tell me what you've found out. I just don't want to be given the silent treatment anymore. Can you promise me that much, at least?"
The Doctor nodded and closed his eyes, resting his head on Harry's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
"I'm sorry too," Harry replied and kissed him on top of his head. "Let's get you back to the flight deck."
The Doctor moaned at the thought of walking back.
Harry chuckled. "I'll apparate us. Hold on..."
The Doctor continued being silent to the Master and most people who tried to talk to him, but he always spoke to Harry at least some when he came to visit him at night. When Jack had asked him if he knew why the Doctor had fallen silent after Harry thanked him for the idea, Harry had shrugged and said, "Something about the Toclafane. That's all I know." And they'd left it at that.
Eventually, it was time for the launching of the missiles the Master and the Toclafane had been working on. The day before the launch, the Doctor, the Jones family and Jack tried a rebellion, but it had failed. Harry had been off-duty at the time, so he hadn't known about the rebellion until afterwards. He'd been quite cross with the Doctor, but understood that the Doctor didn't want Harry killed or hurt just for helping them.
It hadn't stopped Harry from slipping into the flight deck as soon as the crew left for the night. The Doctor had been aged again, and was about the size of a baby, only he looked so very old. The sight of him cooled Harry's ire some and he walked over to the cage the Doctor now hung in. "Oh, my Doctor..." he whispered.
The Doctor just smiled at him, eyes so very sad.
Harry didn't have a chance to say anything else, for the the door opened. He quickly turned himself invisible and backed away from the Doctor while the Master and his wife, Lucy, walked in.
Harry crouched in a corner and listen in horror as the Master finally explained what the Toclafane were: human beings from the end of the universe.
When the Master and Lucy finally left, Harry crept back over to the Doctor's cage. "It's not your fault," he insisted.
"I fixed the rocket. I sent them out there," the Doctor replied, sounding so tired.
"It's not your fault," Harry repeated. "They would have died anyway. At least sending them to Utopia or whatever gave them hope. Better to face death with hope than with despair."
The Doctor nodded, but didn't look convinced.
Harry took a seat at the table. "Tomorrow is the end, isn't it?" he asked. "Unless..." He glanced up at the Doctor, who managed a faint smile and Harry smiled back. "Miss Martha Jones."
The Doctor nodded, slowly. "If this works, I need that Paradox Machine down."
Harry considered that. He'd seen the TARDIS once, during a late night walk, but it was always guarded by Toclafane. Harry was pretty sure he could get past the future-humans without too much trouble, but the timing would be tricky. "I can be down there and ready," he said very carefully, "but I don't want to set it off too early. And I know you, Doctor. There will be a 'too early'."
The Doctor nodded. "Do you have your sonic screwdriver?"
Harry pulled it out as answer.
The Doctor nodded again. "Give it to Jack. Somehow. I'll have him ring your mobile when it's time."
Harry nodded and put the screwdriver away. "Bit like a pager, then?"
The Doctor smiled. "Just like."
"I'll go get this to him, then," Harry decided, standing. He gently touched the bars of the cage. "Good luck, Doctor."
"You too. Oh, and Harry?"
"Hm?"
"Think of me, during the countdown?"
Harry smiled. "I'm always thinking of you, you git."
"Just... Especially then," he requested, looking hopeful. "And maybe pass it on to Hermione and them?"
Harry nodded and hurried from the room.
-0-
Harry waved to the guard on duty in Jack's holding pin. It was Jacob Ashe, one of the UNIT boys, and he waved back. "Shouldn't you be sleeping, Potter?"
Harry shrugged. "Probably. But I'd like a talk with the Captain here for a moment. Might I?"
Jacob stared at him for a long moment, then nodded and left the cage-like room.
Harry stepped over to Jack. "I've a gift for you, Jack Harkness, but I'll be wanting it back. If you lose it, I might just have your head."
"Which one?" Jack replied.
"Don't be crass." Harry pulled out his sonic screwdriver and showed it to Jack briefly before reaching around and magically attaching it to the middle of the American's back. He added a quick notice-me-not charm as well, to keep anyone else from seeing it.
"Was that what I think it was?" Jack whispered, then, louder, "You just wanted to put your arms around me, didn't you? Can't leave me alone. It's the chains."
"It's the dirty face," Harry shot back, grinning. "You really need a bath. And, yes, it is," he added quietly.
"I'll bathe with you," Jack said, waggling his eyebrows. Harry rolled his eyes. "What am I supposed to do with it?"
"The Doctor will tell you," Harry promised, then reached around and slapped Jack's behind. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll be waiting!" Jack called.
Harry grinned a bit madly at Jacob as he came across the younger man. Jacob looked a bit green and smiled back at Harry a bit helplessly. "Was that really necessary?" he pleaded.
"Keeps the in-laws away," Harry replied cheerfully, then wandered down the hall, whistling.
-0-
The next morning, Harry was up, bright and early, and trying to find a way past the so-called Toclafane. He wasn't sure that stunning spells would work, what with their alien tech shell, and he wasn't sure he wanted to try casting the Killing Curse, which was almost certain to work. So that left sneaking in.
And if there was one thing Harry had gotten good at over the years, it was sneaking about. (Well, that and running.)
He just had to make sure he'd be sneaky enough. That meant silencing charms, scent-blocking charms – he wasn't certain they could smell, but he didn't want to test it – invisibility spells and a body heat-blocking spell Harry had made Hermione teach him over the phone the night before. He just hoped he could manage it well enough to get past the creatures.
Humans, he thought, staring at the metal spheres and casting his spells. There are humans in there. Our future. Terrified of the dark and the fires. So they came here. They came here to kill the rest of us. It's them, or us. I must destroy the Paradox Machine. I must save what's left of my family.
Harry took a deep breath and stepped into the room, moving slowly towards the TARDIS. Holding his breath even though it wouldn't make a sound if he didn't.
The TARDIS doors opened silently at his touch and he darted inside, then leaned back against the doors, breathing.
In front of him, the TARDIS was a mess of wires and mesh plating. "Oh..." Harry whispered, stepping forward and not quite touching the plating. For a moment, he swore he felt a thrum of pain, but it was gone quickly, and Harry turned to walk down the hallway of doors to other rooms.
Harry saw the library and a giant pool. He saw the kitchen and med-bay. He happened across his own room, filled with little odds and ends from his travels that he didn't want to take back to Earth, and what must have been Martha's, if the medical notes were anything to go by. He found Rose's old room, with a stuffed bear sitting peacefully in the centre of a bed made up in pinks and purples.
He found the Doctor's room, stark and without any sense of personality, yet completely filled with the man.
His phone beeped a warning: COUNTDOWN START.
Harry leaned against the doorframe of the Doctor's room and smiled. If he had to be anywhere to think about the Time Lord, it seemed only right that it was in the doorway of the room where they'd made love. He closed his eyes and remembered laying on that bed with the Doctor. Both Doctors. Two faces meshed together to form one man.
Harry was so lost in memory, he almost didn't hear the angry beeping from his phone.
DESTROY PARADOX.
He ran for the control room, pulling out his wand and thinking of all the spells he could use. Needing something that would destroy the machine, but not hurt the TARDIS.
The blasting curse kept coming back to him, no matter what else he thought of, and he paused in the control room, staring at the mess. Yes, he could probably aim that curse so that it wouldn't harm the TARDIS' central pillar. "I'm sorry," Harry whispered, not sure who he was apologising to. "Confringo!"
The Paradox Machine went up in sparks and Harry was thrown to one side as the world started to spin. He held on to the nearest railing for dear life as everything went a little loony for a moment.
When everything had stopped, he poked his head out of the TARDIS and breathed a sigh of relief to see an empty room. "They're gone." He smiled and patted the door of the TARDIS, then hurried off, back to the flight deck.
Harry was almost run into as he walked into the flight room, but he grabbed the Master before they collided and grinned a bit nastily. "And where do you think you're going? Hm?"
"Harry," the Doctor sighed.
"Sure I can't curse him just a little bit?" Harry pleaded, turning the Master around and walking him back into the room. When the Master struggled a bit, Harry placed his wand against the Time Lord's temple. "Oh, please. Give me a reason."
The Doctor shook his head.
"So what'll we do with him?" Jack asked.
"We kill him," Clive Jones suggested, Tish giving agreement.
"No," the Doctor insisted.
"Oh, I think so," said Francine, holding a gun. "Because all those things, they still happened."
"Francine," the Doctor said very softly, "don't. You're better than him." And he pulled her into a hug when she dropped the gun.
The Master demanded to know what would happen to him, and the Doctor told him he would be taking care of him from then on. Perhaps stop travelling, so he could focus more on watching out for the Master.
And then Lucy Saxon shot the Master.
The Doctor tried to make him regenerate, but the Master refused. He laughed at the thought that, by dying, he had finally won over the Doctor.
And the Doctor cried.
-0-
The TARDIS stopped on her favourite street corner and they all piled out.
"Home, sweet home," Harry muttered, glancing across the road at number four.
"Wait." Martha looked around, disbelieving. "This is Privet Drive!"
Harry smiled at her. "Yup. Moved back here after the war. Even live in number four."
"I have got to read these books," Jack said, shaking his head.
They all laughed a bit at that.
"She really won't remember a thing?" Harry asked the Doctor.
The Doctor nodded. "Nothing. All she might know is that the president was shot, and I doubt she'd care about that."
"Tell me about it. Muggle and American," Harry replied, shaking his head. "No offence, Jack."
"None taken."
Harry grinned at him.
"What will you tell everyone?" Martha asked. "I thought you were required to stay on the Valiant for a year."
Harry nodded. "Yes. But it's been a year, for us, if for no one else. Commander Hill said he'll be turning in his own report on that year. Told us all we were relieved. We've got a month off."
"Are you going to take it?" Jack asked.
Harry considered his home. "Depends on how much Ginny irritates me," he admitted.
The Doctor grinned at him. "Just mention me and she'll leave you alone, I'm sure."
Harry grinned back. "Hm. You might be right about that."
The Doctor nodded. "Well, until the next time, Harry Potter."
Harry hugged him. "Git," he said fondly.
"You know where to find me," Jack said, pulling Harry into a hug.
Harry nodded around. "I might even come visit one of these days. Assuming I can find the way in, of course."
Jack winked.
Harry and Martha shared a hug. "Don't be a stranger," Martha whispered.
Harry nodded.
The others piled back into the TARDIS and Harry stepped back to watch her disappear. Then he turned and walked toward home.
-0-
The months following the year that never was, were difficult. Harry found himself ringing Martha more often than Hermione, because the former remembered what had happened, and the latter was still confused about how two months on the Valiant was really one year. (For all her smarts, Hermione had trouble with the concept that an entire year had happened, then been erased from the minds of all but a handful of people.)
Once or twice, Harry rang up Jack and they met down in Cardiff for a drink. There, Harry met a few of Jack's crew, including the adorable Ianto, who seemed almost jealous of Harry for their first couple of meetings until Jack told him that Harry was both married, and so not interested in Jack. (To which Harry replied, when Jack told him why Ianto had changed his tune, "Muggle and American. Not my thing. No offence, Jack.")
Jack had jokingly suggested he might be able to calm Ginny's ever-present ire, and Harry almost took him up on it. It was the most tempting near the end of Ginny's pregnancy, when she just generally hated Harry for being alive and getting her pregnant, again. (Harry, of course, always muttered back that if she really hadn't wanted another kid, she could have cast a couple of protection spells herself. Or just kicked him out of bed, which she did often enough these days anyway. He'd get hit if she heard him, but at least responding made him feel better.)
Christmas that year was rather dull. Practically all the muggles had left London and the nearby cities in fear of another alien invasion, so that left just the brave few. Or the stubborn, such as Ginny. Harry, of course, was on duty during the days coming up on the holiday; since he'd always had a hand in anything alien over Christmas, he figured he might as well be on hand. (Anyway, as previously stated, Ginny was quite determined to stay at home, especially with a newborn, and Harry had already been hexed twice for suggesting she might like it better with her parents, who were travelling to Romania for the holidays.)
Harry was sitting in his new office in the Department of Mysteries when an alarm on his desk went off. Almost simultaneously, an alarm at the back went off.
Harry checked the device on his desk first, since it was closest. It was a creation all his own, which was set to watch for the TARDIS. Currently, it was giving a steady blink as the ship settled onto a plot of land just the other side of the Thames.
Sighing, Harry went to the machine in the back that was screaming. "What do you... Oh." Harry stared in horror at the bits of debris that were burning in the upper atmosphere. Debris meant something got knocked around a bit, and that much debris meant it was something large. So far, nothing that had fallen looked to be a problem, but Harry used his sonic screwdriver to extend the range of the machine and cursed at the ship that was causing the debris.
He pulled out his phone and rang the UNIT headquarters.
"UNIT Control," the pleasant voice of an American woman said.
"Yes, this is UNIT base forty-two. I'm picking up some debris in the upper atmosphere and I was wondering if you were seeing it also?"
There was a pause and the sound of some switches being flicked. "Yes, I see it. There doesn't seem to be any danger from any of it."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, but the ship that got hit and is raining the debris is still up there."
"We're not reading any ships over here."
"Yeah, I know." Harry sighed and rubbed at his face. "I extended our scanners. I'm going to send my readings to you." He flicked a couple of switches and typed in the address of the recipient, then sent it.
Harry could tell when the woman got it because her language got rather colourful.
Harry smiled to himself. "So far as I can tell, the Doctor's up there, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. But I thought I'd best send word. Just so we're not caught out if something goes wrong."
"Good decision," the woman said, trying to regain her calm and pleasant manner. "Send us a report every hour, and call again if something happens." She paused, then, "Did you say the Doctor?"
Harry chuckled. "Yes, ma'am. I'll let you know if anything changes." He hung up. "Such as a call from the git explaining what in all of time and space is going on," he added to himself, then set about telling the machine to send hourly reports and reset the alarm to go off if the ship in orbit started getting any closer.
Then he went back to his desk and pulled out a book to read. There was no use stressing over a ship in orbit until said ship started doing something.
-0-
A couple of hours later, the ship started doing something, and that something was falling to Earth.
Harry shut off the alarms and rang UNIT at the same time. The same woman answered the phone. "That ship's started moving!"
"We see it now. God, it's a big one." There was a pause, then, "It's heading in your direction, base forty-two. I need you to evacuate all your personal."
"Hmm... Will do," Harry replied, then shot a spell at the emergency button against the far wall that would tell everyone in the Ministry to evacuate. "Well, control, lovely talking to you. Hope to do it again, sometime."
"Good luck, base forty-two," the woman replied, then hung up.
Harry groaned and grabbed his coat and the TARDIS Tracker from his desk before hurrying out of the Department of Mysteries. He glanced at the coordinates on the tracker and shrugged, then apparated there, figuring that, if something went down, he'd be safe in the TARDIS.
Outside, Harry could see with the naked eye what he'd been watching on the scanners: A giant ship – which appeared to be a replica of one of the old Earth steamliners, if Harry was remembering what he'd learned in muggle primary school correctly – was moving steadily towards London.
Harry crossed his fingers and kept watching the ship. Hoping, hoping...
Suddenly, the engines ignited and the ship started going back up.
"Yes!" Harry laughed and leaned back against the TARDIS. "He did it..."
Harry's mobile rang and he pulled it out. "Potter."
"Base forty-two?" the American woman Harry had been speaking to asked.
Harry laughed again. "Yes, ma'am."
"Glad to hear you're still alive, soldier. Any idea what happened?"
Harry shook his head. "If I'd have to guess, I'd say the engines reignited and they had one hell of a pilot."
"I'll put that down in the official record, then. As our best guess."
"Yes, ma'am. And happy Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Mr Potter," the woman replied and hung up.
Harry sighed and put his mobile away, then glanced back up at the TARDIS. He had two choices now: He could go back to work for another hour until he was relieved, then go home and spend Christmas with a, no doubt, grumpy Ginny. Or he could wait here, next to the TARDIS, and spend whatever was left of his Christmas with the Doctor when he finally came down to get her.
Harry patted the side of the wooden box and leaned back against her again. "I think I deserve a bit of a holiday," he commented. "Been a long year. If you don't mind, my girl, I think I'll just sit around with you for a while."
The TARDIS door popped open and a draft of warm air with the scent of hot chocolate drifted out to him.
Harry laughed and hopped inside.
-0-
It was evening when the Doctor finally returned, and Harry probably would have slept right through it, but the TARDIS woke him from his nap.
"What?" Harry whined, sitting up from the Doctor's bed, where he'd laid down just to rest his eyes for a moment.
The TARDIS screeched again, sound coming from the control room, so Harry sighed and wandered down the hall to see what she wanted.
The view screen had been twisted so Harry could see it when he stepped out into the control room and it showed a picture of the Doctor, talking to an older bloke just outside. Harry blinked at it for a moment, then shrugged and walked over to the doors. He was just about to open the doors when he heard the Doctor say, "I travel alone."
Harry paused, hand on the door, then pulled back. He wasn't quite sure if the Doctor was saying that just to keep the older gentleman outside from trying to come with him, or because he really did want to travel alone for a while.
The TARDIS lights flashed at him and he felt a sudden feeling of welcome.
Harry glanced at the control panel. "You've gotten awfully talkative since you got cannibalised for a Paradox Machine. Does the Doctor know that?"
Harry got the distinct sensation that he'd just been shown the TARDIS' back side, assuming she had a back side. He laughed and plopped down in the chair. "I think we'll wait to surprise him until he gets rid of the bloke, eh?"
They sat in silence for a long few minutes while the Doctor saw the gentleman off. He opened the door a bit at one point, but didn't actually come in right away.
When he did finally come in, Harry asked, "So, do you travel alone only when older blokes are trying to hitch a ride, or does that count for us younger ones too?"
The Doctor blinked a few times, then grinned. "Harry Potter! How'd you get in here?"
"TARDIS let me in, actually. I think she misses me," Harry replied, grinning and hopping out of the chair.
The Doctor glanced up at the central pillar. "Makes two of us, then," he admitted, then leant back against one of the coral-like decorations. "Are you staying for a bit, then? Or am I just your ride home?"
Harry walked over to him. "Oh, I was hoping you'd let me sign back on for a couple of months. Earth rather bores me of late. I'd like to go out and see the stars."
The Doctor smiled and pulled Harry into a hug, which Harry happily returned. "Oh, I'd hoped you'd say that."
-0-0-0-
-0-0-0-
A/N: Yay, happy moment!
Now, on to the much-awaited return of Donna! XD Aren't you excited? I know I am.
Actually, on that note... Donna's bit is looking to be a long one. Should I split it in half and, therefore, get a bit out to you lot now, or should I wait and send it out all at once? Splitting it means it'll be out in a day or two, depending on how long it takes Shara to beta it and me to get up off my bum and code it for LJ. Keeping it all as one chapter means it won't be out, probably, 'til the end of this week. Thursday, like.
ALSO!! About the lemon? Most of you have said yes, but one or two have said no, and a number seem to have no opinion at all. So what I'll probably do is have a little kiss on FFN, then write a proper lemon for my LJ and, I think HPFandom. (The latter of which I should go post this at now, yeah?)
That's it.
'Til next time!
~Bats ^.^x
Harry & the Doctor Series:
Hanging By a Thread
Dust in the Sky Chapters:
One | Two |Three | Four | Five | Six
The Future Doesn't Scare Me Chapters:
One | Two | ???
The Perfect Sky is Torn Chapters:
One | Two | Three
DISCONTINUED
Adrenaline Rush
Part: 3 of 6
Author:
batsutousaiBeta:
tsuki_no_suzuRating: PG-13
Pairings: Harry Potter/Tenth Doctor (minor Rose/Tenth Doctor, Martha/Tenth Doctor and Jack/Tenth Doctor)
Warnings: Slash, minor Ginny!hate
Summary: Sequel to Hanging by a Thread. Harry has a life to live now with a wife and children, but he can still find time for the Doctor, no matter what he looks like.
Third Part, first half
Over the next year, the men adapted to life on the Valiant, such as it was. Harry was occasionally scorned for his decision to stay with the Master – as Saxon claimed himself to be – but he mostly ignored them. It had helped that he'd eventually found a moment to speak with the Doctor a couple of weeks in:
"Doctor?" Harry whispered into the dark silence of the flight deck. He'd used magic to mask his trip, since the UNIT men were still under watch, but he'd needed to talk to the Doctor. He'd needed to know that he'd made the right choice. For all of them.
An elderly head poked out of the tent and Harry hurried over to help his friend. The Doctor smiled at him tiredly. "I'm glad to see you're alright," he whispered.
Harry hugged him, closing his eyes, and the Doctor hugged him back a bit weakly. "I wish I could have stopped him," he said, helpless. "I wish I could just cast a spell and all of this would be over."
"It's never that easy," the Doctor replied, leaning ever so slightly against Harry.
"No," Harry agreed. Then, "Please tell me you have a plan? Please tell me I didn't just swear my gun to a man I hate for no reason?"
The Doctor laughed a bit weakly. "Ah, my Harry. Always acting without fully thinking things through."
"It's called trusting you, you git."
The Doctor laughed again. "Yes, I know." He smiled at Harry. "Of course I have a plan."
Harry let out a breath of relief. "Thank Merlin. I'd thought so, since you sent Martha back down to Earth, but I wasn't sure."
The Doctor nodded. "I only hope it works."
Harry sighed. "It's our only hope right now," he pointed out. "We'll have to just cross our fingers. And I won't ask what it is you're planning. I don't want Saxon finding out somehow."
"His name isn't Saxon," the Doctor said.
Harry frowned. "You mean he's actually named 'Master'?"
"He's a Time Lord."
Harry's eyes widened in surprise as he remembered one of those stories the Doctor had told him so long ago. "Your childhood friend? And then nemesis?"
"Yes."
"But you said he was dead," Harry hissed.
The Doctor smiled at him. "As you once pointed out to me, things that are supposedly dead have a bad habit of turning back up when I'm around."
Harry sighed. "I know. But still..." He rubbed at his face. "How did he survive the Time War?"
"He went to the end of the universe and made himself human," the Doctor replied. "Hid there until the TARDIS took us there. She was trying to get away from Jack."
"The man strung up down in the boiler room?" Harry asked, frowning.
The Doctor nodded. "Rose..." He swallowed. "Rose looked into the TARDIS and used its power to bring him back to life, only she didn't just bring him back to life, she kept him from dying."
"When was this? And why didn't I ever hear about it?"
"Rose didn't remember. I took the power back from her, but it killed me."
"Your regeneration," Harry whispered, understanding.
The Doctor nodded. "But he's impossible. The TARDIS didn't want him near her and, honestly, he makes my skin crawl a bit." He smiled and Harry smiled back. "So she tried to escape. Took us to the end of the universe. We found the Master – didn't realise he was the Master, myself, until it was too late – and he remembered. He took the TARDIS. We used Jack's Vortex Manipulator to get back here."
"His what?"
"Vortex Manipulator," the Doctor repeated. "Jack is from the fifty-first century. Your lot had learned how to play with time by then."
"Ah. And he has one of their toys, still."
The Doctor nodded.
"Why doesn't he use it to, I dunno, go back the the fifty-first?"
"It's broken."
"But you used it to get back here," Harry pointed out.
The Doctor grinned. "Time Lord."
"Git."
They both laughed a little.
Once they'd calmed down, Harry asked, "Is there anything we can do? Anything on board the Valiant that won't involve us knowing about whatever you've got Martha doing?"
The Doctor considered that, then nodded. "Martha's family. Keep an eye on them. Make sure they're okay." He thought for a little bit more while Harry nodded. "You could always try 'fixing' the ship a bit every now and then," he decided.
Harry grinned. "Of course. But not until they stop watching us so closely, I think."
The Doctor nodded. "That should be enough," he decided.
Harry gently kissed the top of the Doctor's head. "And I'll visit you, sometimes. Not too hard, you know. I'm the only wizard on board. And it doesn't look like the Master has read Harry Potter."
The Doctor laughed. "No. Bit too fantastical for him."
Harry grinned. "His loss."
"Yes. I rather suppose it is," the Doctor agreed.
They'd sat there, talking, for a little bit longer before Harry eventually helped the Doctor back into his tent and ghosted back to his own bed.
Eventually, the watch on the UNIT troops had been lifted and they occasionally sabotaged the ship. Little things, which wouldn't prove too serious if not noticed, but would cause a bit of trouble for the Master and his lot. Even before the watch had been lifted, Harry had managed to cause things to go a bit wrong, so the Master never really had cause to suspect it was UNIT.
Harry did call Hermione every couple weeks and check in. Ginny was never spotted, but a three-year-old James was found wandering around the Ministry building after a few days, in tears. Once Molly had gotten him to calm down, he was able to lead her to where Albus had been hidden, half dead from starvation. Both boys were being cared for by their grandmother and Harry had spoken to James a couple of times when he was nearby when Harry rang.
For the most part, the wizards and witches in the Ministry were surviving. The alien tech in the Department had ended up saving a few lives, Hermione reported, since they could replicate food with the machine Harry had used the first time he was down there.
Harry kept his promise to the Doctor and would occasionally stop to talk with one of the Jones family. Francine had introduced him to her ex-husband, Clive, after Harry had sworn he was only working with the Master for now so he could be in a position later to take him down. Eventually, the three Jones also accepted some of the other UNIT troops and they would sometimes sneak things to the family, such as an extra pillow or some bread from supper, since the soldiers were treated better than the near-slaves.
Harry also found a chance to talk to Jack Harkness almost a month after he'd first spoken to the Doctor:
"So, I've been told you travelled with Rose and the Doctor," Harry commented while on guard duty for the man.
Jack narrowed his eyes at him and refused to say anything.
Harry smiled. He'd already dealt with Francine a few weeks ago, so he accepted the distrust without being hurt by it. "Do you miss her? Rose?"
"Fuck off," Jack had replied.
Harry glanced at him. "I do." He looked away, thoughtful. "I was there, you know, at Torchwood. The day the Daleks and the Cybermen came. Well, really, I was in the city. Live in Surrey, me. But I work in London, and I was there when everything was happening. Couldn't see outside, though. Eventually got through to Rose. On her mobile. She told me a bit about what was happening." He glanced at Jack, who was staring at him like he'd never really seen him before. "Doctor took the phone and told me to stay away."
"Did you listen?" Jack whispered.
"Would you have?" Harry replied.
They both grinned.
"No. Went outside. Almost got hit by a Dalek, mind." Harry shuddered. "But when they all started getting drawn backwards, I went to the building they were going towards." He swallowed, then, remembering. "I got there too late. Rose's grip was already slipping. Doctor said it was her dad from another dimension what saved her."
Jack nodded. "Yeah."
They were silent for a long moment.
"So you know the Doctor?" Jack finally asked.
Harry shrugged. "Travelled with him a bit. Before he met Rose. We still run into each other sometimes." Harry grinned. "He gave me a mobile so he could find me again. After he regenerated, I mean."
"New Doctor, new rules," Jack commented.
"Tell me about it. No more calling us apes. No more accent."
Jack laughed at that. "Loved the accent."
"I think we all did," Harry replied, shaking his head. "Rose and I commiserated for a bit about it. When he'd first regenerated."
Jack chuckled a bit more, then sighed and shook his head. "If you know the Doctor so well, why are you working for the Master, now?"
"Because the Doctor wanted me to," Harry replied, shrugging. "I work for UNIT, and I was one of the troops already assigned up here. When the Master gave us the choice between death and staying alive, the Doctor nodded at me to stay alive. But it's okay. I only swore my gun to him, and I think of them about as well as the the Doctor does."
Jack grimaced. "Yeah. He and I have had talks about that."
Harry snorted. "Yeah? I take it you like your guns."
"Yup."
"No wonder he never talks about you."
"Hey!"
Harry laughed.
After that first conversation, Harry and Jack would occasionally reminisce about Rose and the last Doctor. They'd both laughed to learn that they shared their affection of the Doctor (though Jack did get a bit jealous when Harry accidently let it slip that he'd slept with the Doctor. Harry saved himself the silent treatment by telling him it had only happened because they'd both been smashed and neither remembered much).
It was barely two months into that year of hell when the Doctor stopped talking. It was a bit unnerving, really, but Harry would still come and visit him at night. He would sit there with the Doctor, just looking out the windows and neither of them would speak.
After a month of it, Harry managed to get guard duty for Jack again.
"The Doctor won't talk anymore," he commented.
Jack glanced up at him. They'd just been comparing the Doctor's moods now with how they were during his last incarnation. "No? Wonder if it's just to irritate the Master."
"No, I mean, he won't talk to me anymore. I go up there every few nights and sit with him. We used to talk, but now he just sits there. Won't say a word."
"Did you ask him why?" Jack asked.
Harry nodded. "Wouldn't say. He'd just look really sad and look away from me. I thought I'd done something wrong, at first. But he shook his head when I suggested it."
"But didn't actually say anything?"
"Nope."
"Hmm..."
They were silent for a long moment, both thinking.
"You could stop going to see him for a while. Sorta like you're punishing him, I guess."
"I can't do that to him!"
"No, wait, listen. Harry..." Jack sighed while Harry glared at him. "I don't mean you're actually punishing him. Just that you're sorta giving him your own silent treatment. Don't visit him for a few weeks, then go by again. See if he'll talk you you then."
Harry swallowed. "But I don't want to hurt him like that. He'll think something's happened to me, knowing him."
Jack sighed. "And he's not hurting you?"
Harry considered that. "We'll see," he decided.
A week after his talk with Jack, Harry did, in fact, stop going to see the Doctor. He still had duty on the flight deck once a week, but he always spent it not looking in the Doctor's direction.
Three weeks later, Harry was making his regular call to Hermione when the door to the room opened and he quickly hung up. It was night time and the room wasn't lit, but the hallways were, so it took his some time to recognise the man standing in the doorway. When he finally did, he let out a breath of relief. "Fuck, Doctor," he whispered, waving the man in so the door would close. "You scared me."
The Doctor ambled slowly over to the window Harry was leaning against and poked him in the chest. "You've been avoiding me," he rasped.
"You wouldn't talk to me!" Harry hissed back. "I thought I'd done something wrong."
"You didn't. I told you no."
"No, you shook your head at me. And you looked so sad when you did it I thought you might be lying to me."
"So you decided to avoid me?"
"No, I talked to Jack and he suggested I avoid you. I didn't expect you to come looking for me!" Harry rubbed roughly at his hair. "What if someone notices you're missing? The Master will have a fit."
"I don't care. You've been avoiding me," the Doctor replied, and he sounded so much like the Doctor as Harry remembered him from before the Master that Harry drew him into a hug, unable to help himself.
The Doctor hugged him back, tired but determined, and Harry shook his head. "Why wouldn't you talk to me?" he requested.
The Doctor looked up at him, ancient eyes so very sad. "The Toclafane..." He trailed off and seemed unable to continue.
Harry sighed. "Oh, Doctor... I don't care if you tell me what you've found out. I just don't want to be given the silent treatment anymore. Can you promise me that much, at least?"
The Doctor nodded and closed his eyes, resting his head on Harry's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
"I'm sorry too," Harry replied and kissed him on top of his head. "Let's get you back to the flight deck."
The Doctor moaned at the thought of walking back.
Harry chuckled. "I'll apparate us. Hold on..."
The Doctor continued being silent to the Master and most people who tried to talk to him, but he always spoke to Harry at least some when he came to visit him at night. When Jack had asked him if he knew why the Doctor had fallen silent after Harry thanked him for the idea, Harry had shrugged and said, "Something about the Toclafane. That's all I know." And they'd left it at that.
Eventually, it was time for the launching of the missiles the Master and the Toclafane had been working on. The day before the launch, the Doctor, the Jones family and Jack tried a rebellion, but it had failed. Harry had been off-duty at the time, so he hadn't known about the rebellion until afterwards. He'd been quite cross with the Doctor, but understood that the Doctor didn't want Harry killed or hurt just for helping them.
It hadn't stopped Harry from slipping into the flight deck as soon as the crew left for the night. The Doctor had been aged again, and was about the size of a baby, only he looked so very old. The sight of him cooled Harry's ire some and he walked over to the cage the Doctor now hung in. "Oh, my Doctor..." he whispered.
The Doctor just smiled at him, eyes so very sad.
Harry didn't have a chance to say anything else, for the the door opened. He quickly turned himself invisible and backed away from the Doctor while the Master and his wife, Lucy, walked in.
Harry crouched in a corner and listen in horror as the Master finally explained what the Toclafane were: human beings from the end of the universe.
When the Master and Lucy finally left, Harry crept back over to the Doctor's cage. "It's not your fault," he insisted.
"I fixed the rocket. I sent them out there," the Doctor replied, sounding so tired.
"It's not your fault," Harry repeated. "They would have died anyway. At least sending them to Utopia or whatever gave them hope. Better to face death with hope than with despair."
The Doctor nodded, but didn't look convinced.
Harry took a seat at the table. "Tomorrow is the end, isn't it?" he asked. "Unless..." He glanced up at the Doctor, who managed a faint smile and Harry smiled back. "Miss Martha Jones."
The Doctor nodded, slowly. "If this works, I need that Paradox Machine down."
Harry considered that. He'd seen the TARDIS once, during a late night walk, but it was always guarded by Toclafane. Harry was pretty sure he could get past the future-humans without too much trouble, but the timing would be tricky. "I can be down there and ready," he said very carefully, "but I don't want to set it off too early. And I know you, Doctor. There will be a 'too early'."
The Doctor nodded. "Do you have your sonic screwdriver?"
Harry pulled it out as answer.
The Doctor nodded again. "Give it to Jack. Somehow. I'll have him ring your mobile when it's time."
Harry nodded and put the screwdriver away. "Bit like a pager, then?"
The Doctor smiled. "Just like."
"I'll go get this to him, then," Harry decided, standing. He gently touched the bars of the cage. "Good luck, Doctor."
"You too. Oh, and Harry?"
"Hm?"
"Think of me, during the countdown?"
Harry smiled. "I'm always thinking of you, you git."
"Just... Especially then," he requested, looking hopeful. "And maybe pass it on to Hermione and them?"
Harry nodded and hurried from the room.
Harry waved to the guard on duty in Jack's holding pin. It was Jacob Ashe, one of the UNIT boys, and he waved back. "Shouldn't you be sleeping, Potter?"
Harry shrugged. "Probably. But I'd like a talk with the Captain here for a moment. Might I?"
Jacob stared at him for a long moment, then nodded and left the cage-like room.
Harry stepped over to Jack. "I've a gift for you, Jack Harkness, but I'll be wanting it back. If you lose it, I might just have your head."
"Which one?" Jack replied.
"Don't be crass." Harry pulled out his sonic screwdriver and showed it to Jack briefly before reaching around and magically attaching it to the middle of the American's back. He added a quick notice-me-not charm as well, to keep anyone else from seeing it.
"Was that what I think it was?" Jack whispered, then, louder, "You just wanted to put your arms around me, didn't you? Can't leave me alone. It's the chains."
"It's the dirty face," Harry shot back, grinning. "You really need a bath. And, yes, it is," he added quietly.
"I'll bathe with you," Jack said, waggling his eyebrows. Harry rolled his eyes. "What am I supposed to do with it?"
"The Doctor will tell you," Harry promised, then reached around and slapped Jack's behind. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll be waiting!" Jack called.
Harry grinned a bit madly at Jacob as he came across the younger man. Jacob looked a bit green and smiled back at Harry a bit helplessly. "Was that really necessary?" he pleaded.
"Keeps the in-laws away," Harry replied cheerfully, then wandered down the hall, whistling.
The next morning, Harry was up, bright and early, and trying to find a way past the so-called Toclafane. He wasn't sure that stunning spells would work, what with their alien tech shell, and he wasn't sure he wanted to try casting the Killing Curse, which was almost certain to work. So that left sneaking in.
And if there was one thing Harry had gotten good at over the years, it was sneaking about. (Well, that and running.)
He just had to make sure he'd be sneaky enough. That meant silencing charms, scent-blocking charms – he wasn't certain they could smell, but he didn't want to test it – invisibility spells and a body heat-blocking spell Harry had made Hermione teach him over the phone the night before. He just hoped he could manage it well enough to get past the creatures.
Humans, he thought, staring at the metal spheres and casting his spells. There are humans in there. Our future. Terrified of the dark and the fires. So they came here. They came here to kill the rest of us. It's them, or us. I must destroy the Paradox Machine. I must save what's left of my family.
Harry took a deep breath and stepped into the room, moving slowly towards the TARDIS. Holding his breath even though it wouldn't make a sound if he didn't.
The TARDIS doors opened silently at his touch and he darted inside, then leaned back against the doors, breathing.
In front of him, the TARDIS was a mess of wires and mesh plating. "Oh..." Harry whispered, stepping forward and not quite touching the plating. For a moment, he swore he felt a thrum of pain, but it was gone quickly, and Harry turned to walk down the hallway of doors to other rooms.
Harry saw the library and a giant pool. He saw the kitchen and med-bay. He happened across his own room, filled with little odds and ends from his travels that he didn't want to take back to Earth, and what must have been Martha's, if the medical notes were anything to go by. He found Rose's old room, with a stuffed bear sitting peacefully in the centre of a bed made up in pinks and purples.
He found the Doctor's room, stark and without any sense of personality, yet completely filled with the man.
His phone beeped a warning: COUNTDOWN START.
Harry leaned against the doorframe of the Doctor's room and smiled. If he had to be anywhere to think about the Time Lord, it seemed only right that it was in the doorway of the room where they'd made love. He closed his eyes and remembered laying on that bed with the Doctor. Both Doctors. Two faces meshed together to form one man.
Harry was so lost in memory, he almost didn't hear the angry beeping from his phone.
DESTROY PARADOX.
He ran for the control room, pulling out his wand and thinking of all the spells he could use. Needing something that would destroy the machine, but not hurt the TARDIS.
The blasting curse kept coming back to him, no matter what else he thought of, and he paused in the control room, staring at the mess. Yes, he could probably aim that curse so that it wouldn't harm the TARDIS' central pillar. "I'm sorry," Harry whispered, not sure who he was apologising to. "Confringo!"
The Paradox Machine went up in sparks and Harry was thrown to one side as the world started to spin. He held on to the nearest railing for dear life as everything went a little loony for a moment.
When everything had stopped, he poked his head out of the TARDIS and breathed a sigh of relief to see an empty room. "They're gone." He smiled and patted the door of the TARDIS, then hurried off, back to the flight deck.
Harry was almost run into as he walked into the flight room, but he grabbed the Master before they collided and grinned a bit nastily. "And where do you think you're going? Hm?"
"Harry," the Doctor sighed.
"Sure I can't curse him just a little bit?" Harry pleaded, turning the Master around and walking him back into the room. When the Master struggled a bit, Harry placed his wand against the Time Lord's temple. "Oh, please. Give me a reason."
The Doctor shook his head.
"So what'll we do with him?" Jack asked.
"We kill him," Clive Jones suggested, Tish giving agreement.
"No," the Doctor insisted.
"Oh, I think so," said Francine, holding a gun. "Because all those things, they still happened."
"Francine," the Doctor said very softly, "don't. You're better than him." And he pulled her into a hug when she dropped the gun.
The Master demanded to know what would happen to him, and the Doctor told him he would be taking care of him from then on. Perhaps stop travelling, so he could focus more on watching out for the Master.
And then Lucy Saxon shot the Master.
The Doctor tried to make him regenerate, but the Master refused. He laughed at the thought that, by dying, he had finally won over the Doctor.
And the Doctor cried.
The TARDIS stopped on her favourite street corner and they all piled out.
"Home, sweet home," Harry muttered, glancing across the road at number four.
"Wait." Martha looked around, disbelieving. "This is Privet Drive!"
Harry smiled at her. "Yup. Moved back here after the war. Even live in number four."
"I have got to read these books," Jack said, shaking his head.
They all laughed a bit at that.
"She really won't remember a thing?" Harry asked the Doctor.
The Doctor nodded. "Nothing. All she might know is that the president was shot, and I doubt she'd care about that."
"Tell me about it. Muggle and American," Harry replied, shaking his head. "No offence, Jack."
"None taken."
Harry grinned at him.
"What will you tell everyone?" Martha asked. "I thought you were required to stay on the Valiant for a year."
Harry nodded. "Yes. But it's been a year, for us, if for no one else. Commander Hill said he'll be turning in his own report on that year. Told us all we were relieved. We've got a month off."
"Are you going to take it?" Jack asked.
Harry considered his home. "Depends on how much Ginny irritates me," he admitted.
The Doctor grinned at him. "Just mention me and she'll leave you alone, I'm sure."
Harry grinned back. "Hm. You might be right about that."
The Doctor nodded. "Well, until the next time, Harry Potter."
Harry hugged him. "Git," he said fondly.
"You know where to find me," Jack said, pulling Harry into a hug.
Harry nodded around. "I might even come visit one of these days. Assuming I can find the way in, of course."
Jack winked.
Harry and Martha shared a hug. "Don't be a stranger," Martha whispered.
Harry nodded.
The others piled back into the TARDIS and Harry stepped back to watch her disappear. Then he turned and walked toward home.
The months following the year that never was, were difficult. Harry found himself ringing Martha more often than Hermione, because the former remembered what had happened, and the latter was still confused about how two months on the Valiant was really one year. (For all her smarts, Hermione had trouble with the concept that an entire year had happened, then been erased from the minds of all but a handful of people.)
Once or twice, Harry rang up Jack and they met down in Cardiff for a drink. There, Harry met a few of Jack's crew, including the adorable Ianto, who seemed almost jealous of Harry for their first couple of meetings until Jack told him that Harry was both married, and so not interested in Jack. (To which Harry replied, when Jack told him why Ianto had changed his tune, "Muggle and American. Not my thing. No offence, Jack.")
Jack had jokingly suggested he might be able to calm Ginny's ever-present ire, and Harry almost took him up on it. It was the most tempting near the end of Ginny's pregnancy, when she just generally hated Harry for being alive and getting her pregnant, again. (Harry, of course, always muttered back that if she really hadn't wanted another kid, she could have cast a couple of protection spells herself. Or just kicked him out of bed, which she did often enough these days anyway. He'd get hit if she heard him, but at least responding made him feel better.)
Christmas that year was rather dull. Practically all the muggles had left London and the nearby cities in fear of another alien invasion, so that left just the brave few. Or the stubborn, such as Ginny. Harry, of course, was on duty during the days coming up on the holiday; since he'd always had a hand in anything alien over Christmas, he figured he might as well be on hand. (Anyway, as previously stated, Ginny was quite determined to stay at home, especially with a newborn, and Harry had already been hexed twice for suggesting she might like it better with her parents, who were travelling to Romania for the holidays.)
Harry was sitting in his new office in the Department of Mysteries when an alarm on his desk went off. Almost simultaneously, an alarm at the back went off.
Harry checked the device on his desk first, since it was closest. It was a creation all his own, which was set to watch for the TARDIS. Currently, it was giving a steady blink as the ship settled onto a plot of land just the other side of the Thames.
Sighing, Harry went to the machine in the back that was screaming. "What do you... Oh." Harry stared in horror at the bits of debris that were burning in the upper atmosphere. Debris meant something got knocked around a bit, and that much debris meant it was something large. So far, nothing that had fallen looked to be a problem, but Harry used his sonic screwdriver to extend the range of the machine and cursed at the ship that was causing the debris.
He pulled out his phone and rang the UNIT headquarters.
"UNIT Control," the pleasant voice of an American woman said.
"Yes, this is UNIT base forty-two. I'm picking up some debris in the upper atmosphere and I was wondering if you were seeing it also?"
There was a pause and the sound of some switches being flicked. "Yes, I see it. There doesn't seem to be any danger from any of it."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, but the ship that got hit and is raining the debris is still up there."
"We're not reading any ships over here."
"Yeah, I know." Harry sighed and rubbed at his face. "I extended our scanners. I'm going to send my readings to you." He flicked a couple of switches and typed in the address of the recipient, then sent it.
Harry could tell when the woman got it because her language got rather colourful.
Harry smiled to himself. "So far as I can tell, the Doctor's up there, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. But I thought I'd best send word. Just so we're not caught out if something goes wrong."
"Good decision," the woman said, trying to regain her calm and pleasant manner. "Send us a report every hour, and call again if something happens." She paused, then, "Did you say the Doctor?"
Harry chuckled. "Yes, ma'am. I'll let you know if anything changes." He hung up. "Such as a call from the git explaining what in all of time and space is going on," he added to himself, then set about telling the machine to send hourly reports and reset the alarm to go off if the ship in orbit started getting any closer.
Then he went back to his desk and pulled out a book to read. There was no use stressing over a ship in orbit until said ship started doing something.
A couple of hours later, the ship started doing something, and that something was falling to Earth.
Harry shut off the alarms and rang UNIT at the same time. The same woman answered the phone. "That ship's started moving!"
"We see it now. God, it's a big one." There was a pause, then, "It's heading in your direction, base forty-two. I need you to evacuate all your personal."
"Hmm... Will do," Harry replied, then shot a spell at the emergency button against the far wall that would tell everyone in the Ministry to evacuate. "Well, control, lovely talking to you. Hope to do it again, sometime."
"Good luck, base forty-two," the woman replied, then hung up.
Harry groaned and grabbed his coat and the TARDIS Tracker from his desk before hurrying out of the Department of Mysteries. He glanced at the coordinates on the tracker and shrugged, then apparated there, figuring that, if something went down, he'd be safe in the TARDIS.
Outside, Harry could see with the naked eye what he'd been watching on the scanners: A giant ship – which appeared to be a replica of one of the old Earth steamliners, if Harry was remembering what he'd learned in muggle primary school correctly – was moving steadily towards London.
Harry crossed his fingers and kept watching the ship. Hoping, hoping...
Suddenly, the engines ignited and the ship started going back up.
"Yes!" Harry laughed and leaned back against the TARDIS. "He did it..."
Harry's mobile rang and he pulled it out. "Potter."
"Base forty-two?" the American woman Harry had been speaking to asked.
Harry laughed again. "Yes, ma'am."
"Glad to hear you're still alive, soldier. Any idea what happened?"
Harry shook his head. "If I'd have to guess, I'd say the engines reignited and they had one hell of a pilot."
"I'll put that down in the official record, then. As our best guess."
"Yes, ma'am. And happy Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Mr Potter," the woman replied and hung up.
Harry sighed and put his mobile away, then glanced back up at the TARDIS. He had two choices now: He could go back to work for another hour until he was relieved, then go home and spend Christmas with a, no doubt, grumpy Ginny. Or he could wait here, next to the TARDIS, and spend whatever was left of his Christmas with the Doctor when he finally came down to get her.
Harry patted the side of the wooden box and leaned back against her again. "I think I deserve a bit of a holiday," he commented. "Been a long year. If you don't mind, my girl, I think I'll just sit around with you for a while."
The TARDIS door popped open and a draft of warm air with the scent of hot chocolate drifted out to him.
Harry laughed and hopped inside.
It was evening when the Doctor finally returned, and Harry probably would have slept right through it, but the TARDIS woke him from his nap.
"What?" Harry whined, sitting up from the Doctor's bed, where he'd laid down just to rest his eyes for a moment.
The TARDIS screeched again, sound coming from the control room, so Harry sighed and wandered down the hall to see what she wanted.
The view screen had been twisted so Harry could see it when he stepped out into the control room and it showed a picture of the Doctor, talking to an older bloke just outside. Harry blinked at it for a moment, then shrugged and walked over to the doors. He was just about to open the doors when he heard the Doctor say, "I travel alone."
Harry paused, hand on the door, then pulled back. He wasn't quite sure if the Doctor was saying that just to keep the older gentleman outside from trying to come with him, or because he really did want to travel alone for a while.
The TARDIS lights flashed at him and he felt a sudden feeling of welcome.
Harry glanced at the control panel. "You've gotten awfully talkative since you got cannibalised for a Paradox Machine. Does the Doctor know that?"
Harry got the distinct sensation that he'd just been shown the TARDIS' back side, assuming she had a back side. He laughed and plopped down in the chair. "I think we'll wait to surprise him until he gets rid of the bloke, eh?"
They sat in silence for a long few minutes while the Doctor saw the gentleman off. He opened the door a bit at one point, but didn't actually come in right away.
When he did finally come in, Harry asked, "So, do you travel alone only when older blokes are trying to hitch a ride, or does that count for us younger ones too?"
The Doctor blinked a few times, then grinned. "Harry Potter! How'd you get in here?"
"TARDIS let me in, actually. I think she misses me," Harry replied, grinning and hopping out of the chair.
The Doctor glanced up at the central pillar. "Makes two of us, then," he admitted, then leant back against one of the coral-like decorations. "Are you staying for a bit, then? Or am I just your ride home?"
Harry walked over to him. "Oh, I was hoping you'd let me sign back on for a couple of months. Earth rather bores me of late. I'd like to go out and see the stars."
The Doctor smiled and pulled Harry into a hug, which Harry happily returned. "Oh, I'd hoped you'd say that."
-0-0-0-
A/N: Yay, happy moment!
Now, on to the much-awaited return of Donna! XD Aren't you excited? I know I am.
Actually, on that note... Donna's bit is looking to be a long one. Should I split it in half and, therefore, get a bit out to you lot now, or should I wait and send it out all at once? Splitting it means it'll be out in a day or two, depending on how long it takes Shara to beta it and me to get up off my bum and code it for LJ. Keeping it all as one chapter means it won't be out, probably, 'til the end of this week. Thursday, like.
ALSO!! About the lemon? Most of you have said yes, but one or two have said no, and a number seem to have no opinion at all. So what I'll probably do is have a little kiss on FFN, then write a proper lemon for my LJ and, I think HPFandom. (The latter of which I should go post this at now, yeah?)
That's it.
'Til next time!
~Bats ^.^x
Hanging By a Thread
Dust in the Sky Chapters:
One | Two |
The Future Doesn't Scare Me Chapters:
One | Two | ???
The Perfect Sky is Torn Chapters:
One | Two | Three
DISCONTINUED
Adrenaline Rush
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