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He raised one finger and frowned, then tried again. The Doctor seemed content to wait and see how the scene would play out. Contrary to popular belief, the alien did manage to shut his gob every once in a while, although only when it amused him. |
The shopkeeper didn't take his eyes from Harry. |
"Crowley, no offense, my dear, but you seem to have a small child attached to your hip. Were you aware of this, and if so, may I ask why? I'm just saying, I know you have a soft spot for them even if you wouldn't admit it in a thousand years, but you're still a demon." |
"Oi, who're you calling demon? I thought I was supposed to be the rude one." Looked like the Doctor thought things had gone far enough. |
The man's eyes went comically wide, and for the first time he really looked at the Doctor. |
"... you're not Crowley, are you." he said. |
The Doctor grinned. "Nope!" he said, popping the p. "I'm the Doctor." |
The man blinked. |
"Right. That is... uncanny. I should've known, I though something felt off. Only... even if you're not my demon, you still don't feel very human, do you? You feel like... I don't know, like neither side has jurisdiction over you? How is that even possible? Who are you?" |
"I told you, I'm the Doctor. Also, I'm not the only non-human in this room, am I? You're giving me a headache with the number of dimensions you're existing in. How about I tell you who I am if you tell me who you are?" |
"Oh alright, that seems fair. My name is Aziraphale, Principality of the Eastern Gate. I'm an angel." |
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "An angel? Really? I had no idea you actually existed! That is brilliant! Rather unexpected, yes, but brilliant nevertheless! Molto bene! Harry, I do believe Ulrir knew what he was talking about. Alright, mister Angel, we have a bit of a favour to ask." |
"You haven't told me who you are yet." said Aziraphale. |
"Oh, right, I did promise that, didn't I? I'm a Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey in the constellation of Casterbouros. Pleasure to meet you." |
"Wait, you're that Doctor? Oh! Oh my! I've been hoping to meet you some day. I will admit I'm something of an aficionado, part of my collection is devoted to the legend of the Doctor. You do get around, do you not, my dear fellow? Although, if it is not indelicate of me to ask... there seem to be several different Doct... |
The Doctor was bouncing on his toes, grinning madly from ear to ear. "Oh, I could tell you, but... wait, women? Did you say women? Did I forget being a woman? That seems like the sort of thing one would remember, don't you think?" |
The Doctor was interrupted by a small hand tugging on his jacket sleeve. Seeing the earnest expression on the boy's face, he focused back on the task at hand. |
"Sorry, Harry. I got a bit carried away there. Mister Aziraphale, could I ask for that favour first? I will explain the rest later, but this is important, and we were told you could help." |
"Oh, of course. Tell me the problem and I will see what I can do." |
And so the Doctor explained – again – about the Anomaly and the golden net, as well as what Ulrir had said about the two phenomena being related to souls somehow. |
"Ah. Yes. Well. I can see why your friend might have referred you to me. Souls are rather part of my purview, so to speak. Or at least, human souls are. Come, child, let me see what I can do to help you." |
Harry came closer to where Aziraphale was sitting. He wasn't sure just yet if he actually believed the man to be an angel, but the Doctor certainly seemed to take him at his word, and that was good enough for Harry. |
He was getting used to people poking around in his head. To think, only a couple of months ago he hadn't even known that was a thing that could happen, and now he could even start comparing techniques! Ulrir had not needed physical contact, although he did require Harry imagining and subsequently opening a door. The Do... |
The sensation was quite different from the other two times. He didn't take Harry along for the right, as Ulrir had done, but he also didn't seem to be inside his mind the way the Doctor had been. The connection this time went deeper, past the level of thoughts and memories and even emotions, to the very core of his bei... |
After a second of eternity, Aziraphale stepped back and let go of Harry's head, looking at him with sad eyes. |
"Oh. Oh dear. I'm going to need assistance if I'm going to help you. Do you mind if I call over a..." he hesitated slightly, "... a friend?" |
"But you can do it?" the Doctor asked, "you can help?" |
Aziraphale smiled, if not quite as exuberantly as the Doctor usually did. "Oh yes, no doubt about it, but my province is more the good souls. You know, the ones that go..." he pointed upwards without finishing his sentence. "But that... that... what did you call it, Anomaly? That does not at all fall under my jurisdict... |
"Ok, call him then," the Doctor said. "The sooner this is over and done with, the better. I'll rest easier knowing Harry is safe from the Anomaly." |
"So... you're a time traveller, and all these references to the Doctor are all to you?" |
Aziraphale had called his friend and asked him to come over. While they were waiting for him to show up, the Doctor had explained a bit more about himself. |
"Yep! Mind you, you seem to have collected some works referring to things that haven't happened to me yet, so be careful what you tell me. Also, I thought I'd covered my tracks a bit better. I gave Mickey the Idiot a virus that was supposed to delete all references to me. Although that wouldn't have affected already pu... |
"Yes, well, I do have a bit of an unfair advantage in that regard, in that I did walk the earth long before the first scripts were being invented. Most people wouldn't know what to look for, or see the pattern." |
"What's this?" said a new voice from the doorway. The Doctor looked up and drew his brows together. |
"What?" he said. |
His expression was neatly mirrored by the newcomer. |
"What?" said the other. |
"What?" the Doctor repeated, staring at the man who had just entered. One one side of the pair sat Aziraphale, looking rather smug. On the other side stood Harry, looking from one to the other. |
"That is weird!" he half-whispered. |
The newcomer was the first to somewhat recover, pointing an accusing finger at the Doctor. "You're wearing my face!" |
The Doctor jumped up, raking a hand through his hair. "You're wearing mine! Ooh, and you're GINGER! How unfair is THAT?" |
Rather than answer, the man turned to Aziraphale, who looked slightly abashed. "Angel, what is going on?" |
"Ah. Yes. Well, you see, what happened is this," he started, and so Harry's story was repeated yet again. |
"And so," Aziraphale concluded, "we will both be needed to help Harry, you see? It'd take miracles from both of us to do something about the problem." |
"Ok. Tell me, why should I help? What's in it for me?" |
The Doctor cast Crowley a disgusted look. Their faces might be the same, but that was as far as their similarities went. As far as he was concerned, if you were in a position to help, you did, never mind personal gain. |
Harry's thoughts ran along a similar path, judging by the way he edged closer to the Doctor. |
Only Aziraphale hardly reacted, other than perhaps the tiniest of eyerolls. He knew the demon in a way the other two did not. This was his standard "roar, I'm a big bad demon!" spiel. If he could just find a good enough excuse, he'd help in a heartbeat. |
"You'd have a soul that, by the feel of it, should have joined your ranks a long time ago," the angel said. "I think a commendation from higher-up is a distinct possibility if you can bring that in." |
The demon pursed his lips in thought. "Hmm, there is that. And anyway, he's just a kid, right? He should be allowed to make his own mistakes. Free will and all that, you know how I get about that. Can't exercise your free will if you're being possessed, can you?" |
He turned to the young boy. "But listen, kid. Are you quite sure you want a demon in your head?" And he took off his sunglasses for the first time, revealing a pair of golden snake eyes. |
Harry stared at the eyes in fascination. And then... he hissed. |
"You're a snake!" |
Crowley's mouth fell open. "What? How do you know the Serpent Tongue?" |
"What's Serpent Tongue? I'm talking in English, aren't I?" |
"Hardly, kid. You're speaking an ancient language from a civilisation that lived and died a long time ago. I thought nobody but the snakes even still remembered the Serpent Tongue. And you hear it in English, you say?" |
The Doctor's face showed the same fascinated expression as Crowley's, if for a different reason. He knew many, many languages of his own, and the TARDIS could translate many more, but he could make heads nor tails of the hissing that was coming out of his charge's mouth. He reached into an inner pocket of his pinstripe... |
"This is fascinating! They're speaking in a language neither I nor the TARDIS has encountered before, and Harry seems to be fluent in it! Brilliant!" |
His words drew Crowley's attention, making him switch back to English. |
"Yes, well, I'd quite like to know how he has that language myself. Angel, count me in. We'll get rid of that parasite wannabe and then we'll have a little talk." |
A short while later, Harry was sitting cross-legged in the centre of a double pentagram. The sides of the upward-pointing star were drawn in white, while the downward-pointing one was in black. Aziraphale was standing at the upper white point, Crowley at the lower black point. The Doctor, as an individual who carried w... |
"Ready?" he asked with a lopsided grin. |
Harry took a deep breath and nodded. It was now or never, he decided. If a literal angel and demon could not help him, then nobody could. |
Aziraphale and Crowley started a chant, and soon tingles spread from Harry's feet and hands, travelling up his body, up and up and up, until they concentrated in his scar. At that point his eyes rolled back and though he stayed upright, he did not notice anything around him anymore. |
"Showtime," the Doctor muttered, before placing his fingers on Harry's temples and closing his own eyes. |
When Harry came back to himself, it was to the same sight that Ulrir had shown him. He'd be glad enough when this was all over, if only because then he'd be the only one left in his own mind. Right now it was a tiny bit crowded, what with the Anomaly, the golden net, Aziraphale and Crowley on either side of him and the... |
"Right. Angel, I think you'd better take over protection detail. Something tells me I had better not touch that net, it might take exception to my being a demon. I'll take the Anomaly. Doctor, take care of Harry, it's his mind we're inside of." |
With that, Crowley and Aziraphale moved closer and snapped their fingers at the same time. For a moment, nothing happened, but then both the golden net and the darkness inside it flowed apart and formed again. The net became a beautiful young woman with auburn hair and green eyes. The Anomaly became a man, robed in bla... |
Crowley pulled a sour face at the sight. "I'm all for snake attributes, but that is just tacky!" |
"Finally!" the snake-man hissed. Harry wasn't quite sure how he managed to hiss a word without an s-sound in it, but there it was. "I could have possessed the boy ages ago if it wasn't for that wretched woman! Who do I have to thank for getting rid of her?" |
"'That wretched woman" is right here and not going anywhere as long as you're anywhere near my son, you leech!" The woman had stepped forward, next to the Doctor, shielding Harry from the Anomaly's gaze. |
The Doctor, standing with his hands in his pockets, cast her a sideways glance, but evidently decided to just go with it (which, admittedly, he had a fair bit of practice with). |
"Yeah, what she said," he added. "Also, most of us here take umbrage at the whole possessing innocent people thing, so... The only reason we interfered in an otherwise excellent setup – congratulations for that, by the way," he said aside to the woman, "is to get rid of you." |
The man regarded the Doctor with some curiosity. "You would think it easy getting rid of me? I am the greatest wizard of all time! I am Lord Voldemort! After I have taken care of you and your little friends, I will have a body again, and all will learn to fear my name once more!" |
"Eh," was the Doctor's bored response as he scrunched up his nose a little. "You're not nearly as impressive as you think you are. My new friends here have seen all manner of earthly civilisations rise and fall. I've seen the birth of this planet and its destruction. You... blew up some people and then got done in by a... |
"Also," Crowley added, "Voldemort? Really? Kind of a stupid name, isn't it? Doesn't even make any sense!" |
Harry had the impression that Voldemort was seconds away from stomping his food, much like Dudley did if he didn't immediately get what he wanted. |
"It means Flight from Death!" |
"Oh no, my dear. It really doesn't." That was Aziraphale, who felt that if they were going to insult the person who was so impolite as to try and possess a child, he wanted to add his two cents. "What it actually means is corpse theft. Or, you know, corpse flight, as in a flying corpse, not a fleeing corpse. Sorry, old... |
"Enough! This ends now!" |
Voldemort raised a hand holding a long white stick, and so did the auburn-haired woman, whom Harry thought must be his mother, although hers was brown rather than white. The other three readied themselves, even if they had no visible weapon. None of them needed it. |
From Voldemort's stick erupted different coloured lights, but when they impacted on anybody, nothing happened. Voldemort's face contorted into a furious mask. |
"You're forgetting something, Voldy-boy," said the Doctor, who had not moved from his place. "You're not in the real world, or even inside your own mind. You're inside Harry's. Not only do you have to imagine the damage you want to do, but you have to compete with his imagination. I can tell you, nobody has a better im... |
"It's more than that, though," Crowley said. "You're not a complete soul, you're more like half a soul. Not even that, you're..." he frowned, the corners of his mouth turning down in surprise. "What, what do you say Angel, one sixty-fourth of a soul, more or less? How did you manage that? You're tiny! Insignificant!" |
Even as Harry heard the words, the man seemed to shrink as his mind translated Crowley's words into what passed for reality here. |
"No!" Voldemort screamed. "If I can't have the boy, at least I'll take down the mudblood!" |
He made to move towards the woman, but Harry wasn't having it. They'd thought something like this might happen, even if they hadn't quite counted on the extra bodies. |
Grabbing hold of two hands, one the Doctor's and the other his mother's, he glared at the now much smaller snake-man. In a voice that wouldn't truly be his until many more years had passed, he growled. "No. Get out of my head. You are unwelcome. I reject you. My body is my own, and you will not have it." |
The last words were hissed in a language that Voldemort knew well. With all his might, backed by the strength of a mother, a Time Lord, an angel and a demon, he pushed and pushed, until finally, with a last defiant "No!', the presence faded from his mind. At the same time Crowley and the Doctor departed as well, somewh... |
Aziraphale lingered a moment longer. |
"I can give you two a while together, but then I will have to help you move on," he told the woman. "But well done, child. Very well done indeed." |
And he too stepped out of Harry's mind, leaving him face to face with the soul of his mother. |
"Hello, love," she said softly, before he could decide what to say. He studied the auburn hair, the open face, and the green eyes that looked so much like his own. |
"Are you real?" he asked hesitantly. |
She reached out a hand and cupped his cheek. "For now," she answered sadly. "There's not a lot of time, and once I'm gone you won't be able to talk to me like this anymore. I gave up my chance to move on when I cast that protection spell on you. I didn't know I'd have to keep protecting you against possession." |
"I'm sorry," Harry said in a small voice, sounding much more his age than moments ago when he expelled Voldemort. |
"Oh no, baby. Don't be. I would do it a thousand times over if it meant I would keep you safe. You didn't do anything wrong. You're my son, and I love you. I want you to live the best life you can. Never forget that. It's not your fault, none of it. Now come here, give me a hug. It's nearly time to go. We had better ma... |
Harry's eyes filled with tears as he felt his mother's arms surround him. |
"I don't want you to go!" he sobbed. |
"I know, honey. I wish I didn't have to go too, but there's no other way. Wherever I'm going, I'll be watching over you. Always remember that we love you, your father and I. We will always want you to be happy, Harry. You deserve it." |
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