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The Doctor felt his eyebrows rise. "Yes, it is. I have made more than enough. You're a growing boy, you need all the vitamins you can get. Eat up, if it's not enough you can get more." |
Harry took his fork, hesitantly eating a bite, as if he could not quite believe he got such a large portion. When the Doctor nodded encouragingly, he sped up a bit, and before long he'd finished the whole plate, and quickly worked his way through a second helping. |
After dessert, which Harry again didn't seem to expect, the Doctor showed him the library, where they spent some time reading together. At first Harry was reading, with the Doctor helping him where necessary, and then the Doctor read him a story. By the time he was finished, the small boy was leaning against him, half ... |
"Come on, up you get. Time for bed." When he stood up, Harry wrapped himself around him like a little monkey, arms around his neck and legs not quite reaching all the way around his waist. The Doctor laughed and adjusted his grip so that he could carry him more easily. |
They spent the following weeks in a similar manner. The TARDIS would take them to a nice planet, and they would get out and explore, play with the local population (sentient or otherwise), and then back with little to no mishaps. It all felt very holiday-ish to the Doctor. He hadn't had to run for his life in ages, it ... |
Where in the first days he'd hardly dared venture away from the Doctor's side, and seemed startled every time he spoke louder than a whisper, he was growing increasingly loud and boisterous, and even starting to push at rule #1 (Don't wander off. It wouldn't be until his next face that rule #1 changed). It was a good s... |
And if he was being honest, the holiday was good for himself too. He was not too proud to admit that after Donna, and the guilt over what he'd done to her, he'd been a bit lost. Or a lot. He'd caught himself entertaining thoughts some of his regenerations would have been horrified by. Taking care of the boy, and wantin... |
He didn't really want to know what he'd be doing right now if he'd stayed alone much longer. Like Donna had said, way back when he'd first met her: he needed someone to stop him. He'd almost forgotten that in his guilt over wiping so much of her memory. |
It was after one of these easy trips that they made the discovery. They were sitting in the library again, as they'd made a habit of doing in the past weeks. Harry didn't feel much like reading, instead taking his toys, both the tin soldiers and the wooden animals, and installed himself on the rug to play with them. So... |
The Doctor watched him for a bit with a smile, then he took the book he'd been reading (one of the tomes he'd managed to rescue from the library in Alexandria) and let the boy play. |
After a while he glanced up and watched the wooden stag and doe prancing about with their fawn, while the wolf and the dog ran around playfully nipping at each other. The rat scurried around, exploring a bit but always returning to the boy's hand. The tin soldiers were performing drills on one corner of the rug. |
The Doctor blinked. |
Then he looked again, a bit closer, although he did not change his position. He didn't want to alert Harry to his presence, as the boy seemed to have quite forgotten him. The Doctor was glad, on one hand, that Harry trusted him so implicitly. Not many children who had grown up like he had would have forgotten an adult ... |
Whatever the cause, though, did not change the fascinating spectacle before him. These toys, by all rights, should not be moving. They might move in Harry's imagination, but that should change nothing for the Doctor's observation. In the expected situation the tin soldiers would be standing in neat rows, not practicing... |
They shouldn't be able to do this. He'd handled those tin soldiers, they were just the regular toys you'd expect. He hadn't been able to examine the wooden animals, but he was fairly sure that if he soniced them, nothing would happen. His screwdriver still did not do wood, he really ought to add a setting. They were ju... |
He wondered if this was how Harry had played in that infernal cupboard, where he'd known nobody could see him. There was no doubt in the Doctor's mind that Harry was the one to cause the movement, and he was determined to find out how he did it. |
"Hmm?" the boy responded, although most of his attention was still on his game. |
"Are they supposed to be doing that?" |
Harry looked up at him, then down at the moving toys. His eyes went wide, and a second later every last toy snapped back to their original position and froze. There was nothing left to show they'd been moving at all, but Harry scrambled away from them as if to distance himself. |
"I'm sorry!" Harry was curled in on himself, like a cornered animal. |
The Doctor kept his expression open, although he'd really like to frown. He supposed it was a bit much to expect the Dursley influence to have dissipated completely in the weeks they'd spent together, despite the leaps and bounds Harry had made. |
"Why are you sorry?" he asked. |
"I did a freaky thing. I'm sorry, I didn't think they were really moving." |
"Let me stop you right there, Harry. This... whatever just happened, that's the reason your family – and I use the term loosely – treated you so abominably?" |
Harry nodded fearfully. |
"But... it's brilliant! Harry, don't you see?" The Doctor slid down from the couch in his excitement, to be more eye-level with the nervous boy. "Do you know what this means? Harry, you made wooden toys move without any mechanism. I think... I think we won't have to visit lots of planets to prove your uncle wrong – bec... |
The Doctor took the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and pointed it at the animals. Other than the typical high-pitched whirring, absolutely nothing happened. |
"See? The sonic doesn't do wood. These are solid wooden figures, they should not be able to move at all, and yet you made it happen. Harry, magic is real!" |
He carefully didn't mention that normally he was the first to deny the existence of magic, maintaining that it was no more than technology that he didn't know yet. Even aside from the fact that for now he really did not have any other explanation (regardless what he might find later), that was just not important right ... |
Harry sat for a moment with open mouth. Slowly he started grinning, first when he realised the Doctor was not angry, and then wider when his words registered. Magic was real! All those things that tended to happen around him, they were actually magic! And he made them happen! And uncle Vernon hated magic, so of course ... |
"Come on, lets see if you can do it again!" |
Under the Doctor's direction, Harry tried again, but he didn't succeed in making the toys move again. When he expressed his frustration, the Doctor waved a hand. |
"It doesn't matter that much, it might just be an unconscious thing. You were kinda distracted. You're very likely to do something again soon, though. Now that you know it can happen, you should try and see if you can feel anything happening, and try to replicate that. I can teach you some meditation tools, a technique... |
Some days later, Harry broached the subject of the Anomaly. They were parked in the Vortex after an adventure on Crespallion, and Harry was sitting thoughtfully in the pilot seat. When the Doctor asked him where he wanted to go next, he hesitated. "You said you had a friend who could help me with... the thing in my hea... |
The question was proof that the topic was occupying the boy's mind, considering he remembered that stray remark from two months ago. |
"I did say that, yes," the Doctor confirmed. "No guarantees that he'll be able to help, but he's spent more time studying telepathy than I ever did. Too much to do, me." |
"Do you think we could go there?" Harry asked. |
"Sure thing, if you want. At the very least we can go and listen what he has to say about it. Is it bothering you? Can you feel it?" |
"No, but... it's not normal. I just want to be normal." |
The Doctor scoffed, although with a smile to show he was only joking. "Psh, normality is overrated. Just look at your aunt and uncle, what did being normal ever get them, eh? But I do understand what you mean. Normal or not, that thing is up to no good, so it's probably best to get rid of it sooner rather than later. Y... |
Harry stepped out of the TARDIS with some trepidation. It was one thing to ask for a solution for the Anomaly, but another entirely to potentially get it. |
They had landed in a cave, apparently, although the floor was smoother than he'd expected. He could see the cave roof, despite there being no obvious light source. He did see some structures that might be houses – or might be something else enitrely, for all he knew. |
The Doctor followed him out and put a hand on his shoulder. |
"Come on, it's a bit further on." |
Harry followed willingly, although he did grab the Doctor's hand. |
They had not gone far when a humanoid figure came towards them. Harry had seen enough aliens in their travels up to now that he hardly blinked at the pitch-black colour of the person's skin, or the striking contrast with their white hair. He did note with some curiosity the pointed ears, but even that failed to hold hi... |
"Doctor! I thought I heard your ship. It has been many turnings of the planet since you last visited us. To what do we owe the pleasure?" |
The Doctor smiled back and touched their fingertips with his own. |
"Ulrir, well met! It has been a while, for both of us. That business with the berserker mushrooms, wasn't it? With that Gygax fellow? I was... what, on my third face? Must have been, I'd only just got my exile lifted. |
"Listen, I've come across something of a mystery, and I was hoping you'd take a little gander, tell me what you think." |
Ulrir inclined his head. "Of course, Doctor. Anything for an old friend." |
"Is there somewhere a little more comfortable to talk? We're a bit out in the open here." He looked up at the cave roof. "Well, relatively speaking." |
Ulrir laughed. "Certainly. We will go to my dwelling. Who is your friend?" |
After introductions had been made and Ulrir had enquired after some people he'd met last time, the Doctor explained what he'd seen in Harry's mind. |
"I'd hoped, since you made telepathy your life's study, that you might know what the Anomaly is, and how to deal with it in a manner that doesn't harm Harry." |
Ulrir turned his gaze towards Harry, who had not said much yet. |
"I can certainly look, see what I can find. Harry, kindly close your eyes and imagine a door. It can be any door you wish, you will be on one side and you will hear me knocking in three... two... one." |
Harry closed his eyes as instructed. The first door that he thought of was the one in the cupboard under the stairs. He frowned at it. That door was part of his old life, where everything was aggressively normal and the best thing that he could expect to happen was that he got food into his tummy. |
He had a new life now, where he didn't know what might happen from one day to the next. He could play with blue-skinned children, or stand on the moon (a moon, anyway, somewhere and somewhen), or enter a glowing cavern. Anything was possible, and so his door should show that. |
He nodded when his new door showed the by now familiar blue. Better. |
Right on cue, a knocking sounded. It was the oddest thing, because his ears couldn't hear it, and yet it sounded like a bell, only inside his head. It was a very different sensation than when the Doctor had done this. |
From the other side of the TARDIS door, Ulrir's voice sounded. |
"Harry, you will have to open the door, otherwise I won't be able to enter." Harry opened the door just a crack and peered out. Ulrir was sitting cross-legged on the other side with a patient expression on his black face. |
"I understand it's scary letting someone into your mind," the man said when he noticed the boy peering out, "but if you don't, I won't be able to help you." |
That decided Harry. Well, that and the fact that Ulrir seemed prepared to wait as long as needed for Harry to open the door. And the Doctor trusted him, so that was a definite point in his favour. He pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped to the side. |
Ulrir smiled and inclined his head. |
"Thank you, Harry," he said, suddenly standing next to him. Harry blinked, looking from Ulrir to the place he'd been sitting just a moment ago. There had been no transition, no getting up and taking two steps. One moment he was sitting, the next he was standing just inside the door. |
"How did you do that?" he asked shyly. By now he was used to the Doctor answering all the questions he might ask, but he hardly expected other adults to extend him the same courtesy. For all he knew, the next question he asked might lead him right back to "don't ask questions!', his aunt's standard reply. |
Ulrir didn't seem to mind, though. "You have to understand we are not on the physical plane. We are inside your mind, where the normal rules do not apply. The key is imagination. If you can imagine it, it can happen. |
"So, how about you and I go find this Anomaly of yours?" |
Together, the two of them started looking around, until they could see the black mass of roiling shadows and the golden net surrounding it that the Doctor had described. With a thought, they were right next to it, and they could see the tendrils trying to escape and the net stopping them time and again. It was a mesmer... |
Eventually, Harry reached out, too quickly for Ulrir to react, and touched the golden net. He couldn't explain it, but he felt deep within that he needed to do this, and that the net would not harm him. |
The golden glow from the net surrounded his hand, and suddenly he was suffused with such warmth and joy and love as he had rarely felt in his short life. The sensation brought tears to his eyes. |
Ulrir made a gesture, possibly to try and stop him, but broke it off when he saw nothing bad was happening. |
"Come," he said instead, "I have seen enough. Let us go back. Close your eyes, and I will count down from five. When I reach one, we will be back in the physical world. Five... four... three... two...one." |
Harry opened his eyes again to find himself back in his seat, with the Doctor looking intently from him to Ulrir and back. |
"How did it go?" he asked as soon as they were both looking at him. |
"Doctor," said Ulrir, "I have been able to ascertain the Anomaly and the defense against it, but I'm afraid there is little I can do to help. We are not talking about pure telepathy here. There are souls involved, Doctor. Both the Anomaly and the protection have their origin in souls, and both are separate souls from H... |
The Doctor's face dropped. "So there's nothing you can do? We are back to square one?" |
Ulrir looked unimpressed with the Doctor. "I did not say there is nothing I can do. I cannot fix this, but I can give you the temporal-spatial coordinates of a place where I'm certain there is someone who can help you. I haven't personally met them, but I know of their existence." |
"Oh. Right. And you never leaving your cave? How did you come by this information?" |
Ulrir smirked. "I have my ways, Doctor. There are more ways to travel than physically." |
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Fine, keep your secrets. What are these coordinates then?" |
When he heard the answer, he frowned a little. "Are you sure? These are for Earth. They shouldn't have the technology for telepathy at that time, nevermind anything to do with souls!" |
Ulrir leaned closer. "Who said anything about technology?" He winked at Harry before turning back. "Trust me, Doctor, that's where you want to go." |
Harry and the Doctor stood on a street corner in Soho, looking across the street at the bookshop. It was an unprepossessing place, which seemed to be doing its best to not attract the attention of passers-by. From here, it looked like a normal bookstore, except hardly anyone spared it a second glance, even if they were... |
"Low-level perception filter, it looks like," the Doctor said. "Unless I'm very much mistaken, that's where we need to be. If Ulrir's information is correct. Ready?" |
Harry nodded. "I just hope it's the last stop. I want to stop worrying about this so much." |
"Only one way to find out. Allons-y!" |
As usual, Harry's hand found the Doctor's while they crossed the street. The boy was still amazed, even after all these months, that he was never brushed off. It was a nice feeling. |
When the Doctor pushed open the door, a little bell tinkled, all proper-like. The Doctor grinned for a moment at the sound, before looking around curiously. Much like one would expect from a bookshop, it was filled to the brim with... well, books. He was almost impressed, except he was used to the TARDIS library. |
"Crowley, is that you?" called a voice from somewhere in the back. The Doctor put on his brainy specs and started browsing the books, while Harry wandered around the stacks. He tried to read a couple of titles, but most of them went right over his head, so he gave it up as a bad job. He'd been practicing his reading wi... |
He'd just completed a tour and had arrived back with the Doctor when the shop's owner came bustling out. Before they could say anything the man glanced at the Doctor and said, "Oh, so it is you. You had me worried there for a moment, I thought it was a customer. Why didn't you answer? Come on through to the back, why d... |
With that, the fussy man disappeared back where he came from, leaving the Doctor speechless. |
"What just happened?" Harry asked. |
The Doctor grinned. "I have no idea. But I can't wait to find out!" He gestured to where the white-blond man had disappeared. |
The two of them made their way to the back room, where the man was sitting with a book in his hand, although it was currently closed with his finger marking his place. A pair of glasses perched on his nose. |
"So, was there something you needed?" he asked. "You don't usually come around to the shop." |
Only then did he seem to notice Harry, who had sought safety against the Doctor's side. The sight brought him up short. |
"Uhm," he said eloquently. |
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