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Petunia thrust the box into his hands and pointedly opened the door. He left without another word, pretty sure that he would not be able to rein in his temper if he spoke now. When the door closed behind him, he glanced at it one last time, then turned towars the TARDIS and the little boy sleeping there. |
When Harry woke up, for a moment he kept his eyes closed. He'd had the most wonderful dream last night, about a brown man and a blue box who had taken him away from his aunt and uncle and told him a story just for him. He did not want to open his eyes to see the underside of the stairs and the same old spiders he saw e... |
At least his aunt had not started banging on the cupboard door for him to start cooking breakfast yet, so he could lay here a while longer, pretending the dream was real. |
As he lay there, several observations came to his attention. First, he could hear a kind of hum that was not at all unpleasant, but seemed to be coming from everywhere. He could not remember ever having heard a hum quite like that before. |
The second observation was that he was lying on something soft, softer than the cot in his cupboard. And thirdly, he was wearing jammies. Well, to be fair, that was hardly unusual, but the thing was... he was wearing jammies that fit. |
It was that last observation that caused him to open his eyes, only to see a ceiling way up high, covered with planets and constellations. Propping himself up on one elbow, he saw that the soft thing he'd been lying on was a mattress. As in, he was lying in an actual bed, with a blanket and a pillow and everything. The... |
He dropped back into his pillow with a grin spreading across his face. He had not been dreaming. The Doctor was real. A warm feeling suffused his tummy, and he wiggled his toes happily. |
Eventually the call of nature proved too urgent to ignore, and he slipped out of bed and padded into the bathroom. Remembering the Doctor's kindness, he even took the chance of a warm shower, although he didn't stay in for very long. He wouldn't want to push his luck too much. When he was done, he put on yesterday's cl... |
When he went outside of his room, he found himself in the corridor he'd gone through yesterday with the Doctor, but he was unsure which way to go. The... what had the man called it, console room? Could not be far away, he thought, so he went right. If he turned out to be wrong, he could always go try to the other way. |
A door came up on his left side, and he pushed it open to check if the room behind it was the console room. It wasn't, but it was something equally good. It didn't much look like his aunt's kitchen, but it had a very kitchen-y feel to it, all chrome surfaces and a large rectangular block in one corner that might just b... |
Harry dittered for a moment. On the one hand, he was really hungry, and he thought (hoped) that maybe the Doctor wouldn't mind so much if he just took a little bit to eat without asking first. On the other, he was a guest here, and if the Doctor caught him and -did- mind, he didn't know what would happen. |
Before he could make up his mind either way, the door behind him opened and the Doctor ambled in. |
"Good morning, Harry! Well, I say morning, but really there's no night or day in the Vortex – nevermind. Did you sleep well?" |
Harry nodded, too shy to verbalise his answer. |
"Good! I see you found the kitchen. One of them, anyway. You're probably hungry, you slept twelve hours straight. Humans usually need food after that, young humans especially. I'll show you how to work the food dispenser, and then you can grab something every time you feel peckish, ok?" |
Well, that answered that question. If the Doctor minded his taking food, he wouldn't have said that, right? |
The Doctor led him to the fridge-like block, which on closer inspection had an opening in the middle and a bunch of buttons just below that. The Doctor punched in some numbers, and a bowl fell into the opening, followed by cereal and milk. |
"The dispenser can get you many things, so long as they're easy to fix," the Doctor explained as he handed Harry the bowl. "The cereal is hardly standard fare, but I've had a couple of companions who liked it, and I'm rather partial to it as well, so I added the option. For more extensive meals we do still need to cook... |
When he saw Harry was done with the cereal, he punched in another code and handed the child an apple. "You'll soon get the hang of the combinations," said the Doctor, "but feel free to experiment a bit, see what comes out that you might like. Now, another little problem that we're facing... clothes. Correct me if I'm w... |
Harry shook his head, looking down at the threadbare t-shirt and baggy trousers held up with a bit of string. "They're my cousin Dudley's," he said. |
"Yeah, that'd explain it. Come on, wardrobe room, I'm sure if we can find you jammies that fit, we can find you decent clothes as well." |
A few dizzying turns later, they were standing in a cavernous room, even bigger than the console room. Harry almost forgot they were still inside that blue box. It seemed nearly impossible, and he had the impression he'd only seen the tiniest fraction yet. |
The Doctor was searching through the piles of clothes, muttering to himself and throwing some things at Harry. Some of these suggestions Harry immediately discarded again, but eventually he was dressed in jeans, red t-shirt and a black hoodie, with black combat boots that were the most comfortable shoes he'd ever worn.... |
"Thank you thank you thank you!" he said into the Doctor's jacket. |
The Doctor smiled and hugged him back, not letting go until Harry did. "You're welcome," he said. "You're free to come here any time and find some other clothes, anything that you like you can keep in your bedroom. Anyway, there's something I want to show you. Come with me to the console room?" |
Taking a bite from his apple, which he'd saved for after the clothes fitting, Harry nodded. |
As they opened the wardrobe room's door, Harry glanced up at the Doctor. There was something he'd like to do – like the story before bed, it was something he'd often wondered about, what it would be like. He'd seen kids at the park do it, and aunt Petunia tried to do it with Dudley, although he rarely allowed it. And w... |
Feeling brave, as well as a little apprehensive in case of rejection, he slipped his small hand in the Doctor's larger one. The Doctor looked surprised for a moment when he felt something, but when he realised what it was, he just winked at Harry and curled his fingers around the boy's hand. They walked through the cor... |
A warm feeling spread through Harry, and he almost thought his heart might burst. If nothing else had convinced him that he was no longer at his uncle's house, the warmth around his hand and the casual acceptance of the gesture certainly did. He found himself grinning as they entered the console room, and he resolved t... |
He hoisted himself up on the battered pilot seat next to the console, looking around the room with more attention than he'd had energy for last night. Next to the pilot seat, one of the pillars was growing up, so out of curiosity he touched it. It felt warm, alive. The whole console room had this warm feeling pervading... |
The Doctor took something from the other side of the console. When he came around to Harry's side, the boy saw a box. He looked up at the Doctor with a question in his eyes. |
"I went to your aunt Petunia's house while you were asleep. She knows you're with me, and she gave me this. Everything in this box belongs to you." |
Harry's eyes widened, and he reverently took the box from the Doctor. It was just a bit too big to hold it in his lap, so he put it down next to him on the pilot seat. Slowly he lifted up the lid to look at the treasures inside. |
The first thing he saw were the tin soldiers he'd rescued from Dudley one time. They were lying on top of a light blue blanket, so he lifted them out and put them in his pocket. |
The blanket, when he took that out of the box, was the softest thing he'd ever felt. He closed his eyes and rubbed his cheek over it for a moment. He wanted to hug it to his chest and never let go, but there were more things in the box. When he hung it over the back of the seat, he noticed that in one corner there were... |
Next were some carved wooden figurines, looking almost life-like enough to start walking any moment. There was a stag and a doe, as well as a fawn. A big dog and a wolf, and a sleek grey rat. They were nicer toys than anything he'd ever had. Next to the figurines, there lay two stuffed toys, a grey wolf and a big black... |
He looked at it intently for long moments, but he could not read well enough yet to be able to understand the flowing script. |
He held out the letter to the Doctor, who'd been puttering about the console to give Harry some space. |
"What does it say?" he asked quietly. The Doctor took the letter and scanned it quickly, his brows drawing together. He went back to the top and started reading out loud. |
To Petunia Dursley,I hope this letter finds you in good health. The baby boy you just found is your nephew Harry James Potter. I regret having to inform you that your sister, Lily Potter, died last night at the hands of the Dark Lord known as Lord Voldemort. |
The letter went on to explain how Lily's sacrifice had protected Harry, rebounding something called a Killing Curse at the caster, thereby vanquishing him. The sacrifice allowed the writer of the letter to place blood wards on Petunia's house, which would further protect Harry from those with ill intent, so long as he ... |
Some home that turned out to be, the Doctor thought but did not say out loud. He was a bit confused about some of the words in the letter, and even the wording of it, but if he had suspicions about what it all meant, he kept them to himself. |
The writer expressed hope that in taking in her nephew, she would help protect him from Voldemort's followers, and raise him as if he was her own. |
Most of the letter's contents went over Harry's head, but one thing was very clear. |
"My aunt and uncle, they told me my parents were drunks, that they died in a car crash. But the letter says they were killed? So what happened really?" |
The Doctor leaned against the console, crossing his arms in front of him. |
"I don't know. This Dumbledore person seems fairly certain about the facts, but I imagine there were no witnesses there that night. Still, I am inclined to believe this letter over anything your auntie dearest might have told you." |
Harry scrubbed at his eyes, which were burning. He'd always secretly blamed his parents for their supposed car crash, leaving him in the care of his aunt. To find out now that they'd had no choice, and indeed that he was only alive at all because his mother had given her own life... well, it was a lot to take in. |
"It's ok to cry, you know." |
Harry looked at the Doctor with wide eyes. Despite last evening in his cupboard, when he'd soaked the Doctor's brown jacket with his tears, his first reaction was still "crying is for girls', a lesson the Dursleys had imprinted on him, notwithstanding Dudley's crocodile tears. |
The Doctor came closer. "Do you want a hug?" |
Harry silently nodded. The Doctor opened his arms, allowing Harry to hide his face. The burning in his eyes eased when he allowed the tears to drop. |
After a while he sat back up, just a little bit embarrassed. "Sorry," he mumbled. |
"Don't worry about it," the Doctor said, wiping away the wetness on the boy's cheeks. "I've done my fair share of crying, no matter what some of my faces might tell you." |
Harry leaned back to look up at him. "Faces?" |
The Doctor waved a hand. "Not important right now. I'll explain later. Now, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. You remember the tests I ran, and the particles I found?" |
"There seems to be a concentration of them in your scar." |
The boy subconsciously touched the raised skin on his forehead. It was shaped like lightning, a jagged streak with several forks branching off, running from his hairline down to just above the bridge of his nose, thus covering most of the right side. It always looked just a little bit inflamed. |
"Aunt Petunia said I got burned in the car crash," he explained. |
"Yes, well, we've established we weren't going to believe anything your aunt said. Which means something else must have caused it. May I see it again?" |
Harry liked that about the Doctor. When he wanted to do something, he asked first. If aunt Petunia had wanted to see his scar – although why she should want to, he had no idea – she would have grabbed his head and looked. |
Harry combed back his fringe, exposing the scar. Normally he kept it covered, mostly because aunt Petunia made him. |
The Doctor ran cool fingers over his forehead, following the forks of the lightning. |
"There's... something, a sense I'm getting... Harry, my people have some telepathic abilities. Would you allow me into your mind? I promise, I'd only try to find out more about what caused your scar. Anything you don't want me to see, just imagine it behind a closed door. I won't snoop." |
If the conversation had been less heavy, Harry would have laughed in delight. See, the Doctor was magical! He might deny it, but telepathy was one of those forbidden words that uncle Vernon didn't ever want to hear. |
Instead, he nodded seriously. He wanted to know. He didn't even try to hide anything. The Doctor had already seen his cupboard, and had taken him away from there. He could see the rest of it too, as far as Harry was concerned. |
The Doctor placed his hands on either side of Harry's head and closed his eyes. "Let's see what we have here, hmm?" he muttered softly. |
When he entered Harry's mindscape, it was to see the typical chaos of the unorganised mind. He saw no doors, and felt touched about the trust the small boy had placed in him. It was no evident thing to allow a person unfettered access to your mind, especially if you'd only just met them. The glimpses he saw of the way ... |
He turned around and extended his mind's senses, since he didn't need eyes as such. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he would know it when he saw it. |
Sure enough, after a while he could separate the mind that was distinctly "Harry" from... something that was most definitely "not Harry'. When he examined the anomaly closer, he could see a big black... blob, or maybe a shadow, surrounded by a golden net. |
There were tentacle-like protrusions trying to reach out and root themselve in Harry's mind, but every time one of the tendrils so much as touched the golden net, it withered away, only to be replaced by a new one trying to get through. |
The Doctor carefully withdrew and let go of Harry's temples, although when he opened his eyes he saw the boy fighting back a laugh. |
"Tickles," he explained succinctly. The Doctor was impressed. Most humans – in fact, most species – would not have detected his presence in their minds, even knowing he was there. Was the boy a telepath? |
"Ok, so," he said, "there's definitely something there. I'm assuming the... whatever it is, lets call it the Anomaly, has something to do with your particles." |
"What's an a... alomany?" |
"An anomaly? Something that is present where it should not be." |
"So I am a Freak?" Harry looked down as he asked that question, evidently afraid of the answer. The Doctor mentally sighed, cursing the boy's family yet again. Whoever had left him on their doorstep, likely this Dumbledore fellow who had written the letter, had a lot to answer for. |
"No, Harry. Never that. The Anomaly is trying to gain a foothold in your mind, but something else is stopping it." |
"Another alo... anomaly? |
"I don't know, but I don't think so. Whatever it is, its sole purpose seems to be stopping the Anomaly. No Anomaly, no protection. I think it'd be best if we got a friend of mine to take a look at it. I don't want to do it myself and risk making it worse. But that's not a decision to be made lightly. The protection is ... |
Harry blushed. He was not used to a grown-up remembering a promise, and acting on it. He had a feeling he might just have to get used to it though – and how he loved that feeling! |
"Can we go somewhere far away?" |
The Doctor grinned. "Far away! My favourite! We can do that, can't we, old girl," he said to the empty air. He whirled around to the console and started pushing buttons. "Allons-y!" |
When they had landed and exited the TARDIS, Harry could see immediately that they were no longer on earth. He wasn't sure which was the biggest giveaway: the trees, which were tall with a silver bark and blue leaves, the sky which was closer to purple than blue, or the fact that there was a moon right next to the sun, ... |
Harry slowly walked a bit further, eyes wide in delight. He could only imagine what his aunt and uncle would say about something so obviously not normal. They were standing on something that vaguely resembled grass, except it was yellow and looked softer, somehow, than the grass on Earth. The little flowers that peeked... |
"Far away enough for you? Welcome to the planet of Slinkor. Not inhabited yet, but in about... oh, five hunders years from now, give or take a few decades, a colonisation ship will land here. Well, crash here, more like, they were actually aiming for a planet about five-ish light-years from here, but their instruments ... |
Harry let the Doctor's voice wash over him. Everywhere he looked, he noticed something new. They walked around a bit aimlessly, until behind a pink bush he could see something moving. He tugged on the Doctor's hand and pointed. "What's that?" |
The Doctor peered at the indicated spot, but he could not make out anything except leaves, as the foliage was too thick. "Local wildlife?" he suggested. He wondered for a moment how Harry had spotted it, what with his needing glasses already, but dismissed it as unimportant. Instead, he crouched down facing the bush, e... |
"Come on out, we're not going to hurt you. We know you're there, we'd just like to see you for a moment. Nothing's going to happen." His words – or perhaps the soothing tone of voice – soon had an effect, as the creature peered around the bush at them, and then seemed to decide they were not a threat. |
It was an odd-looking thing. It had the general build of a horse, but its size was closer to that of a big dog, not even reaching the height of a shetland pony. Its face looked a little more squashed than a horse's, with huge yellow eyes. Its purplish-brown fur looked very soft, a fact they could verify once it came cl... |
"It's a Torvian Neirka," the Doctor told Harry, delight evident on his face. "I had no idea they even lived here at this time. They're usually found on Torvan II, hence the name. This knowledge might just upset a whole lot of academics half a galaxy away." He looked thoughtful. "Hmm, maybe I should go tell them." |
Soon, neirka and boy were playing a complicated game involving chases, although it wasn't always clear who was chasing whom. The Doctor leaned against a silver-barked tree, watching the spectacle. Harry was obviously enjoying himself, laughing and looking relaxed. He'd have to take the boy to more places like this, alt... |
After a while, two more neirka joined the game. They were slightly larger than the first one, possibly its parents, and a few minutes later they started herding the smaller animal away from Harry. |
The boy seemed to notice as well, as he came over to where the Doctor was standing, breathing heavily and smiling widely. He waved at the animal one last time when it looked back, and then the neirka disappeared in the underbrush and they were alone again. |
"That was FUN!" Harry laughed. |
"Looked like it. Come on, lets go see what's around the next corner." |
They explored the planet a bit more, eating some berries as they found them. The Doctor talked a lot, explaining future history to the boy, and naming the different plants they could see. He knew Harry probably wouldn't retain all that knowledge, since he didn't have a Time Lord brain, but whatever he did remember was ... |
With the sun nearing the horizon, it was time to head back to the TARDIS. The Doctor parked in the Vortex, allowing the TARDIS to recharge, and fixed dinner for them. He noticed Harry's wide eyes when he put a full plate of mashed potatoes and carrots in front of him, with a bit of fish. He'd decided that Earth food wo... |
"Something the matter, Harry?" |
"Is... is this all for me?" |
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