Torchwood / Harry Potter: Obsessions
Title: Obsessions
Author's Name: hllangel
Recipient's Name: io_aenaria
Fandom: Torchwood, Harry Potter
Rating: G
Character(s): Captain Jack, Tosh, Ianto, Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood.
Author's notes: This was finished JUST pre-DH. Literally, I finished at 3:30pm July 20. So what little HP canon there is might be tossed out the window before you read this. For that, I’m sorry. General Torchwood spoilers for all of Season 1, but nothing specific, I don’t think. Many many thanks to L for her help with the planning stages of this fic.
“Jack, Tristram’s here to see you. Says he found something.”
“Be right up.” Jack responded, picking up his coat. Tristram was a retired fisherman, but he still fished off the pier daily. Occasionally, he brought up some piece of alien flotsam, and after a rather unpleasant experience, called Jack in right away when he found anything.
He smiled as he stepped into the tourist office, holding out his hand to shake his friend’s. “How are you today?” he asked, cheerily.
“Just fine, my boy, just fine. I was doing a spot of fishing last night and found this. Thought you might like to have it.” He held out a cloth-wrapped package towards Jack.
“Thanks,” Jack said, handing the little package over to Ianto. “Why don’t we go for a drink and a bite and you can tell me how you found this one, eh?”
Jack grabbed his coat from the rack by the outside door and held it open, motioning Tristram through ahead of him. He hung back for a second to give Ianto instructions about whatever Tristram had found before walking out into the sunlight.
When they were seated with drinks (beer for Tristram, water for Jack), Jack looked at Tristram. He didn’t need to ask before the old Welshman volunteered the answer.
“I was sitting on the docks, line in the water, and thought I felt something bite. You don’t get many big things near the shore these days, but I’m too old to go out on the boats now. I take what I can get. I tugged on the line and got a bunch of weeds. But then that thing floated up. Not sure what it does, but it flashes randomly. Can’t figure out what it is, really. Hoped you could do that for me.”
They chatted about other things for a few more minutes while Tristram drained the rest of his beer and picked up his jacket. “I must be off, Jack. Thanks for the drinks.”
Jack left a few coins on the counter before going back to the hub. Ianto had left the thing on his desk, still wrapped up, so he opened it carefully, and was somewhat disappointed to find a small black cube. He held it up to the light and it vibrated very slightly, but that was it. He did a quick catalogue of the find, and set it on his desk with an eye towards using it as a paperweight.
Two weeks later
“Jack!” Tosh yelled in the direction of his office. “Just outside in front of the fountain. Hop on the lift and you might see something this time!”
There was a resounding crash as Jack knocked something over in his office before sprinting out the door and bounding onto the lift, fumbling the buttons on his wristcom and tapping his foot impatiently at the slow speed of the lift.
By the time he cleared ground level, there was nothing there. Just two people strolling through the plaza as though they had no cares in the world. For all Jack knew, they didn’t.
Hopping the last foot up to ground level before the lift, Jack sprinted out and up to the couple. “Excuse me,” he said, “Could you tell me what just happened here?” It was a long shot, and he knew it, but he had to ask.
The girl was staring absently at the water tower, absorbed by something she was seeing, but when he approached, she gave him a puzzled look, and opened her mouth as though she was about to say something. The boy stepped slightly in front of her and gave Jack a hard stare through his glasses. “We didn’t see anything until you came vaulting out of nowhere to ask nonsense questions. Good day.” He put a hand on her back and guided her away, the two of them whispering, heads bent close together. The girl looked back at Jack for a minute, but turned away quickly. They rounded a corner and were soon out of sight.
He stepped back onto the lift and crossed his arms tapping his foot for entirely different reasons as it took him back down into the hub. Tosh was waiting for him as he landed.
“Did they tell you anything?” She asked.
“I think they knew something, but he kept them from saying anything.”
“Did you at least get their names?” Tosh asked, hopefully.
“What for? They weren’t going to talk. She might have if he hadn’t been there.”
“He looks familiar, but I can’t quite place it. I’ll try to isolate a picture from the CCTV, but he seems to know where all the cameras are and keeps his back to them. I’m not sure how yet.” She shrugged and walked back to her station, pressing buttons and typing in codes before she was even fully seated. “The girl, though. I’ve got a clear picture of her.” Tosh pulled a grainy picture up on the screen, and worked on enhancing it. Within thirty seconds, a sharp picture of a dazed-looking girl was showing. She had blonde hair and seemed to be looking at something beyond the camera. “I’ll run her through the databases and see what I can find.”
Jack watched her start working before going back to his office and looking at the paperwork he’d abandoned in favor of what he knew was likely to be a wild goose chase.
“Ianto,” he spoke into the CCTV
“I heard you hit another one today,” Ianto answered, “right outside the door, too.”
“You heard right. Can you compile a report of all the incidents we’ve been having? There has to be something going on, but there’s no trace of alien activity anywhere near any of the incidents.”
“I’ll have it to you in an hour.”
“Thanks, Ianto. And I’ll take some coffee when you come down.” He cut off the connection before Ianto could respond and went back to the documents on the thing. It looked innocuous enough: plain black with the patterned lines of circuits running across it. 73rd century, they’d determined, alien. Capable of detecting even the slightest elevations of energy expenditure. But so far, it had really been more of a pain in the ass. And not for the first time, Jack was on the verge of locking it in the archive and never looking at it again. Of course he’d never do that, as he was a sucker for a good mystery. And this was definitely one of those.
There was no pattern to the incidents, as far as he could tell. But they were happening all over the city. Some of the energy surges were much stronger than others, but there was no way to predict them. By the time they got to the site of the incidents, everything was perfectly normal. Whatever alien they were hunting, it was doing a very good job of hiding from them.
Jack was staring at Ianto’s report and map when Tosh came in. “Please tell me you have good news,” he said without preamble. “There’s no pattern, nothing to connect these places except for that damn box and it’s flashing again.”
“I’ve identified the girl,” Tosh stated, dropping a file in front of Jack. “Her name is Luna Lovegood. She works at Magic Pages downtown. There’s no record of her anywhere until a few years ago when she took the job at the bookstore.”
“I think it’s high time someone went to talk to her, then,” Jack said, reaching for his coat and gun. “I can handle this myself, Tosh. I want you to find out what you can about the guy she was with. We may not have his face, but there has to be a record of him somewhere. I’ll tell you if I get anything from Luna.”
Tosh nodded and went back to her computer, watching Jack get into the SUV and peel out of the garage. She went back to the CCTV footage from the incident and followed Luna’s path with the boy, hoping to get a clearer picture of him. It took her ages, and he never showed his face. But she eventually caught half a reflection of him in a shop mirror. It was enough.
She set the facial recognition software running and went out for some lunch.
******
Jack felt a tingle on his skin as he stepped into the bookshop, but forgot about it soon enough as he spotted Luna at the counter, absently doodling squarish shapes with an old-fashioned fountain pen.
“Luna Lovegood?” he asked.
“Mmmm,” she answered, not looking up from her doodle.
“I have a few questions to ask you concerning last night.”
“It was a beautiful night, wasn’t it? And no signs of fuzzy-tailed loopers, either. Which is always a good sign.”
Jack was taken by surprise. “Fuzzy whats?”
“Fuzzy-tailed loopers. They come out at night and try to bite you. Their idea of playing. Not harmful, really. Just a bit unnerving, because you can never see them, no matter how hard you try.”
“Haven’t heard of them before,” Jack stated, trying to sound casual.
“Of course you haven’t,” Luna replied matter-of-factly.
Jack paused for a moment, trying to decide if he should pursue that line of conversation. In the end, he opted for a direct approach, thinking that it might get her to actually volunteer useful information.
“What were you doing at the Millenium Center last night?” he asked.
“We were looking for the Boxed Bluebottle.”*
“The what?”
“The Boxed Bluebottle. He’s a myth, but I heard that he’s been seen in Roald Dahl Plass. They say he can change his face at will. I thought I’d have a look around, and I brought Harry with me. Poor boy works too much.” Suddenly, she looked straight at Jack. “Where did you come from last night, anyway. You came straight out of the ground. I saw you.”
At this, Jack was visibly flustered. No one could see through the perception field. Only Suzie had been able to.
Luna reached down and opened a drawer with her left hand, her right hand continuing to doodle boxes. “You can go now,” she said. Not knowing what else to do, Jack left.
He felt that same strange tingle on his skin as he walked out of the store. He mulled over the conversation, but couldn’t remember anything specific, other than the fact that she was clearly a bit removed from reality. He knew she’d mentioned a name, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. He shrugged and hoped that Tosh’s software was up to the task.
******
Tosh carried her lunch back down to her workstation and opened it on the table. She was just about to take the first bite of her sandwich when the program stopped running. It had gotten a hit. The boy’s name was Harry Potter, but the records were sketchy. There was no birth certificate, and his birthdate was listed as 31 July 1980, but the earliest record of him was November 1981. And all records ended in June, 1991.
She hunted the records looking for a recent address, and found one. 4, Privet Drive, Surrey. Residence of one Vernon and Petunia Dursley, son Dudley and nephew Harry Potter. Or at least, used to be. She opened a new screen and began searching for the Dursleys. The records show that they still owned the house, though it seemed that their son had moved out to live in London.
“Jack?” She called, clicking on the Bluetooth attached to her ear, “I’ve found out who the boy is.”
“Tell me.”
“His name’s Harry Potter, but his records are a bit sketchy. The last record of him is from a school in Surrey when he was ten. There’s nothing after that.”
“Do we have an address? Maybe we can find someone who knew him.”
“His aunt and uncle still live in the same house in Surrey. If you go now, you’ll make it in time for tea.”
Jack dropped back by the hub to pick up the energy sensor and to let them know he’d be gone overnight. He plugged the thing into the portable unit Tosh had rigged for them in the SUV and started out towards London.
As he was concentrating on the road, he let his mind wander to other things. Notably, his conversation with Luna Lovegood from earlier that day. He remembered being baffled by what she was telling him, but he couldn’t remember what she’d actually said. He remembered getting frustrated by her lack of answers, but couldn’t remember how she was avoiding his questions. He also remembered two improbable names. Fuzzy-tailed loopers and a Boxed Bluebottle. However, he couldn’t remember anything specific about them. He shrugged. It would come to him eventually.
It was nearly 7:00 by the time he reached Privet Drive, and he could see a large man and a bony woman sitting at a rather bare table through the window as he approached the house. Vernon and Petunia, he reminded himself as he rand the doorbell.
Vernon answered, “Who the hell are you?”
Jack flashed his police badge, “Detective Harkness, Cardiff police. I have some questions to ask you about your nephew, Harry Potter.”
“Boy landed himself in trouble, then? I always knew he’d come to no good. Not even St. Brutus’ could do anything for him.”
“This is just a routine investigation, sir. May I come in?” Jack flashed his best grin.
Vernon looked around, as though to check if any of the neighbors were looking out their front doors at him before stepping aside, leaving Jack a tiny bit of room to squeeze through the door and into the corridor beyond.
He went into the kitchen, and found Petunia on her feet, arms outstretched. Vernon led Jack into the living room while Petunia put the food back into the oven to keep it warm. She stayed in the kitchen finding little things to do for the rest of the interview.
“What’s Potter done now?” Vernon asked when Jack was seated.
“I’m afraid that’s confidential,” Jack said. “But we need more background on him than the public records give. To start, why is he not on record until 15 months after he was born?”
“He was left on our doorstep as a child, after his parents were killed in a car crash. We should have left him in a home, but we took him in out of the goodness of our hearts.”
“Why are there no more records of him after the age of ten?”
“We sent him to St. Brutus’ Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. What they did with their paperwork, I can’t say.”
“Do you know where he’s living now?”
“Outside Cardiff,” Petunia answered. “It’s where his parents lived.”
Sensing a quickly impending end to the interview, Jack got up and offered his hand to Vernon. “Thank you. Your help is much appreciated.”
Vernon said nothing, and didn’t move. Jack showed himself out, and started off towards London to find Dudley.
******
Given the pictures he’d seen on the mantle at his parent’s house, Jack didn’t have high expectations for meeting Dudley. All of them were met the instant Dudley opened the door.
Jack could only see a tiny bit of the flat behind Dudley’s bulky body, but what he could see was covered in both expensive looking computer equipment and empty take out containers. The smell coming from the small room was particularly nauseating.
He held out his fake police ID, “Captain Harkness, Cardiff police department. I have a few questions for you.” Jack hardly had time to step back as the door was slammed in his face. He could hear the unmistakable sounds of someone hurrying to conceal a great many things in as little time as possible.
A few minutes later, the door opened again. This time, Dudley stepped back to let Jack in. Dudley plopped down in his computer chair (with several of the monitors behind him turned off now, Jack noticed). Jack looked for somewhere else to sit, but finding none, opted to stand rather than clear off a spot on the moldy couch.
“Have you heard from your cousin Harry lately?” Jack asked.
The look of relief on Dudley’s face was almost comical, but Jack forced himself to keep a straight face.
“Why would I want to?” Dudley said.
“The two of you don’t get along, then?” Jack asked.
“He’s a fucking menace, that one. Always ruined everything for me.”
“I see. What school did he attend when you were eleven?”
“I don’t remember,” Dudley said promptly. “Whichever was closest, I guess.”
The answer was just a little to quick. He suspected that Dudley did know, but didn’t want to say.
“Do you have any idea what he’s doing now?”
“How should I? He never came back, that last year. And good riddance, too. Dad never wanted to keep him, but they made us.”
Jack filed away Dudley’s comments for further consideration and took his leave. He highly doubted that Dudley would give him any more information.
The drive back to Cardiff seemed a lot shorter. He’d called Tosh right away to have her look up schools near Privet Drive, to see where Potter had possibly gone to school. He should have gone to Stonewall High, Tosh had said. And St. Brutus’ had no record of him, and was located nowhere near Surrey.
He pondered the mysterious ‘they’ that Dudley had mentioned. Had someone coerced the Dursleys into taking in their nephew? It seemed like the right answer, but he couldn’t do anything else while he was driving.
When he got back to the hub, he found that only Tosh was still there, combing through the few reports about Harry Potter they’d managed to dig up. They didn’t even have names for his parents.
“This is impossible, Jack. There’s nothing. It’s like he vanished, but he’s here, in Cardiff.”
“Do you have anything new on the girl? Luna something?” he asked.
“Nothing. They’ve been living completely apart from society, which is almost impossible to do these days. There has to be a record of them, somewhere. I just can’t find it.”
“Go to sleep, Tosh. We’ll pick it up in the morning,” Jack said. His tone allowed no arguments, so she packed the files in her case and left with one last look over her shoulder at Jack.
He was now seated at her workstation staring at the monitors and trying to make some sense out of what he was seeing, but there was no sense to be had. He decided to take a closer look at the Dursleys. If Potter was their nephew, he couldn’t possibly be their only relation. There had to be parents somewhere.
A few minutes of typing brought up records for both families. Vernon had a sister, but that didn’t feel right to Jack, so he abandoned that avenue of inquiry. He eventually found a birth certificate for Lily Evans, along with old school reports, but all of her records disappeared at age 11, just like her (supposed) son. Jack frowned at the screen. Something was off, somewhere.
Off in the corner of the desk, a small screen flashed. Jack looked at it and immediately grabbed his cloak. They were right outside again!
This time he vaulted up the stairs and came out from the tourist office front of the hub, approaching whatever they were from the back.
It was Harry and Luna again, but there were also a few more people: a tall, red-haired man and a woman with bushy hair. Jack kept to the shadows, watching as they laughed and talked, as though nothing was wrong. He had to be tied into it somehow, Jack thought. Potter was always around, when they managed to get to the sites quickly, and Tosh had managed to find him on CCTV in places they’d not managed to get to quickly. Jack watched from his hiding spot as Potter said something to the others and motioned for them to go ahead.
He stood watching them leave for a while then turned straight to where Jack was hiding.
“You can come out now,” he called. “I know you’ve been watching us.”
Jack knew he’d been caught, so he stepped out into the light, hands in his pockets, making sure his gun was visible.
“I want to know why you’ve been following me,” Potter said without preamble.
“That information’s classified,” Jack scowled.
Potter’s face was set. He looked Jack straight in the eye, “You’re going to tell me anyway.”
For some inexplicable reason, Jack felt a sudden desire to tell Potter everything about Torchwood, about the rift, about himself. He bit down on the words before they left his mouth. “I think not.”
Potter slumped, and was suddenly no more threatening or mysterious than a . “Look, whoever you are. I’ve been followed and hunted all my life, and I’ve always known why. That’s over, and I just want to know why I see you everywhere, and why you’re asking my family,” the words were laced with sarcasm, “about me.”
Jack relaxed a bit, but made sure his gun was still in plain sight. “I know somewhere we can go to talk.”
“That’s fine,” Potter said, “but not tonight. I have plans, and I’m already late.”
“Tomorrow, then. I’ll meet you at the tourist information office at 7:00,” Jack said, flashing a grin.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were asking me on a date,” Potter said, before walking off in the direction his friends had gone.
******
Jack spent the next day pacing around the hub. He tried to concentrate of putting together files about recent rift activity, but he found he couldn’t concentrate. Soon enough, his attention was drifting back to Potter, and the mystery of his existence.
He set up a program to search newspapers from the time Potter first appeared and came across a tiny article from November 1, 1981. A house had collapsed in the country outside Cardiff, killing two people, names unknown. Evidence pointed to an abduction gone wrong, as there was a nursery, but no child had ever been found.
Thinking back, Jack could remember that weekend. This case must have gotten lost in the sudden odd behavior of animals and stars. It was a small article to begin with.
Jack looked at the clock. 1:00. He had plenty of time to head out to the site before his meeting with Potter later.
What he found when he got to the correct address was a newly built house with a nicely manicured garden and neatly paved path leading to the front door. The house looked new, but it could have been built anytime in the last sixteen years.
Jack strolled up to the door and knocked loudly. To his surprise, it was Potter who answered the door.
“What the hell are you doing at my house?” Potter ground out.
“I didn’t know it was yours,” Jack replied. “I came across an article about the previous house, and came to check it out.”
Potter stepped back and opened the door fully. “Come in,” he said, “I’ve got the kettle on.”
“Thanks,” Jack said, stepping over the threshold. He was vaguely aware of the same prickling feeling on his skin as when he’d been to visit Luna at her shop. His senses were once again fully alert.
He sat down on a couch in the living room and listened to Potter moving around the kitchen. He came back holding a tray laden with tea and scones. “We might as well do this now. It’ll save me a trip into town later. What’s going on?”
“A few months ago, we unearthed a piece of technology that can trace the smallest difference in energy signatures. Once we figured out what it did, we started picking up random energy traces all over the city. When we figured out how to wire the cube into our system, we could identify them on a map and investigate where they were coming from,” Jack explained.
Potter’s face was impassive as he listened. “But why investigate in the first place? Random, low level energy pulses can’t be all that important, can they?”
“Torchwood exists to deal with alien threats on our soil. The cube we found is from the 73rd century. It’s alien technology. We’ve been trying to figure out what species is generating the energy, but we can never find anything alien on the site. There’s just you,” Jack pointed at Potter.
“I’m not an alien, if that’s what you’re implying,” Harry said with a laugh. “I’m as human as you.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” Jack growled.
“Look, I’m going to show you something that’s going to clear up this mess once and for all. You can stop harassing my family and friends, and you can stay away from me.” Harry pulled out his wand and set it on the table between them. “This is what you’re looking for, but it’s not alien of any kind.”
“A magic wand?” Jack said skeptically. “There’s no such thing as magic.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Harry said. “Magic exists all over the world, going back thousands of years. Merlin is the first documented wizard, and we all descend from him somehow.”
“This is insane. There is no such thing as magic,” Jack insisted. “It’s alien science, it has to be.”
“If it’s alien, it’s not recent. Like I said, the magical community in Britain has been around for thousands of years. We’re just very well hidden. Or at least, until you came along.”
“Prove it,” Jack said.
Harry picked up his wand and pointed it at the coffee table, making a complicated movement and muttering a few words. It sprouted fur, grew a head, and jumped into Jack’s lap, licking his face. At the same time, his Bluetooth attachment rang and he answered. It was Tosh.
“Jack, I’ve picked up another signal right on top on you. Did you see anything?”
Jack debated for a second, looking at Harry as he did. “No. I still can’t figure out what it is. But I’ll keep looking and be back later.” He disconnected the call.
“Thank you,” Harry said, “We’ve only survived this long through secrecy. They used to burn witches and wizards. Now, they’d capture us and force us to use magic to solve all of their problems. Magic, however, doesn’t always work the way you people think it does. We keep to ourselves and do our best not to harm the muggles.”
“Luna Lovegood and the others I saw you with last night, they’re magical as well?” Jack asked.
“Yes. They’re my best friends from school. They live in London these days, and even though travel is easier for us, they don’t have much time to come out here to visit. And I prefer not to be seen in London.”
“Why?”
“I have a rather infamous past,” Harry said, pointing to his scar, and proceeded to tell his entire story. “I’m instantly recognizable by any wizard, and there’s quite a large population in London. There are less of us out here in Cardiff, and we keep to ourselves. Luna moved out here with me to help with the restoration of my house, but she lives in Cardiff.” Harry paused for a moment, looking at Jack. “Well, now that I’ve told you my story, I think it’s only fair that you do the same.”
Jack hesitated, but decided to go for it. Maybe Harry Potter could be the one person to understand what his life had become. And if not, there was always Retcon.
“Once upon a time,” he started, “well, not exactly. Somewhere in the future I was born.” He made a face. “Not the right terms, but it’ll make more sense if I tell you the way I experienced it, not the years where it happened. Time travel is a bit confusing.”
Harry laughed, but stayed quiet as Jack continued on with his story, from his time with the Time Agency to his time with the Doctor and finally his last century on earth.
When Jack finished speaking, Harry let out a low whistle. “Here I thought my past was complicated,” he joked. “But you tell me that you’re over 150 years old, and look like you’re 30.”
“173 last time I bothered to count. It doesn’t matter, though. Time’s just something to live through. I’m waiting for the Doctor. I hope he can help me.”
They continued talking for the rest of the night. After ignoring many and frequent calls from his team, he reluctantly decided to head back.
“Have you figured out what to tell them?” Harry asked.
“I’ll think of something. Or maybe I’ll just lock the thing away. It’s more trouble than it’s worth to keep it around.
“Good luck. Your team strike me as the curious type.”
“That they are, but I can keep them off the trail. Most of them have abandoned this one anyway. They think I’m getting too obsessed.”
“Well, I’m not one to talk about obsessions,” Harry smiled. “I’ve had my fare share. And so have my friends. Luna’s currently obsessed with her Boxed Bluebottle*. I go out with her looking for it, but it’s really just to humor her. I’ve never seen any of her creatures in the flesh before.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Jack smiled, putting on his coat.
“I’ll see you around,” Harry said.
* ‘bluebottle’ is a slang term I dug up for “police.”
Author's Name: hllangel
Recipient's Name: io_aenaria
Fandom: Torchwood, Harry Potter
Rating: G
Character(s): Captain Jack, Tosh, Ianto, Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood.
Author's notes: This was finished JUST pre-DH. Literally, I finished at 3:30pm July 20. So what little HP canon there is might be tossed out the window before you read this. For that, I’m sorry. General Torchwood spoilers for all of Season 1, but nothing specific, I don’t think. Many many thanks to L for her help with the planning stages of this fic.
“Jack, Tristram’s here to see you. Says he found something.”
“Be right up.” Jack responded, picking up his coat. Tristram was a retired fisherman, but he still fished off the pier daily. Occasionally, he brought up some piece of alien flotsam, and after a rather unpleasant experience, called Jack in right away when he found anything.
He smiled as he stepped into the tourist office, holding out his hand to shake his friend’s. “How are you today?” he asked, cheerily.
“Just fine, my boy, just fine. I was doing a spot of fishing last night and found this. Thought you might like to have it.” He held out a cloth-wrapped package towards Jack.
“Thanks,” Jack said, handing the little package over to Ianto. “Why don’t we go for a drink and a bite and you can tell me how you found this one, eh?”
Jack grabbed his coat from the rack by the outside door and held it open, motioning Tristram through ahead of him. He hung back for a second to give Ianto instructions about whatever Tristram had found before walking out into the sunlight.
When they were seated with drinks (beer for Tristram, water for Jack), Jack looked at Tristram. He didn’t need to ask before the old Welshman volunteered the answer.
“I was sitting on the docks, line in the water, and thought I felt something bite. You don’t get many big things near the shore these days, but I’m too old to go out on the boats now. I take what I can get. I tugged on the line and got a bunch of weeds. But then that thing floated up. Not sure what it does, but it flashes randomly. Can’t figure out what it is, really. Hoped you could do that for me.”
They chatted about other things for a few more minutes while Tristram drained the rest of his beer and picked up his jacket. “I must be off, Jack. Thanks for the drinks.”
Jack left a few coins on the counter before going back to the hub. Ianto had left the thing on his desk, still wrapped up, so he opened it carefully, and was somewhat disappointed to find a small black cube. He held it up to the light and it vibrated very slightly, but that was it. He did a quick catalogue of the find, and set it on his desk with an eye towards using it as a paperweight.
Two weeks later
“Jack!” Tosh yelled in the direction of his office. “Just outside in front of the fountain. Hop on the lift and you might see something this time!”
There was a resounding crash as Jack knocked something over in his office before sprinting out the door and bounding onto the lift, fumbling the buttons on his wristcom and tapping his foot impatiently at the slow speed of the lift.
By the time he cleared ground level, there was nothing there. Just two people strolling through the plaza as though they had no cares in the world. For all Jack knew, they didn’t.
Hopping the last foot up to ground level before the lift, Jack sprinted out and up to the couple. “Excuse me,” he said, “Could you tell me what just happened here?” It was a long shot, and he knew it, but he had to ask.
The girl was staring absently at the water tower, absorbed by something she was seeing, but when he approached, she gave him a puzzled look, and opened her mouth as though she was about to say something. The boy stepped slightly in front of her and gave Jack a hard stare through his glasses. “We didn’t see anything until you came vaulting out of nowhere to ask nonsense questions. Good day.” He put a hand on her back and guided her away, the two of them whispering, heads bent close together. The girl looked back at Jack for a minute, but turned away quickly. They rounded a corner and were soon out of sight.
He stepped back onto the lift and crossed his arms tapping his foot for entirely different reasons as it took him back down into the hub. Tosh was waiting for him as he landed.
“Did they tell you anything?” She asked.
“I think they knew something, but he kept them from saying anything.”
“Did you at least get their names?” Tosh asked, hopefully.
“What for? They weren’t going to talk. She might have if he hadn’t been there.”
“He looks familiar, but I can’t quite place it. I’ll try to isolate a picture from the CCTV, but he seems to know where all the cameras are and keeps his back to them. I’m not sure how yet.” She shrugged and walked back to her station, pressing buttons and typing in codes before she was even fully seated. “The girl, though. I’ve got a clear picture of her.” Tosh pulled a grainy picture up on the screen, and worked on enhancing it. Within thirty seconds, a sharp picture of a dazed-looking girl was showing. She had blonde hair and seemed to be looking at something beyond the camera. “I’ll run her through the databases and see what I can find.”
Jack watched her start working before going back to his office and looking at the paperwork he’d abandoned in favor of what he knew was likely to be a wild goose chase.
“Ianto,” he spoke into the CCTV
“I heard you hit another one today,” Ianto answered, “right outside the door, too.”
“You heard right. Can you compile a report of all the incidents we’ve been having? There has to be something going on, but there’s no trace of alien activity anywhere near any of the incidents.”
“I’ll have it to you in an hour.”
“Thanks, Ianto. And I’ll take some coffee when you come down.” He cut off the connection before Ianto could respond and went back to the documents on the thing. It looked innocuous enough: plain black with the patterned lines of circuits running across it. 73rd century, they’d determined, alien. Capable of detecting even the slightest elevations of energy expenditure. But so far, it had really been more of a pain in the ass. And not for the first time, Jack was on the verge of locking it in the archive and never looking at it again. Of course he’d never do that, as he was a sucker for a good mystery. And this was definitely one of those.
There was no pattern to the incidents, as far as he could tell. But they were happening all over the city. Some of the energy surges were much stronger than others, but there was no way to predict them. By the time they got to the site of the incidents, everything was perfectly normal. Whatever alien they were hunting, it was doing a very good job of hiding from them.
Jack was staring at Ianto’s report and map when Tosh came in. “Please tell me you have good news,” he said without preamble. “There’s no pattern, nothing to connect these places except for that damn box and it’s flashing again.”
“I’ve identified the girl,” Tosh stated, dropping a file in front of Jack. “Her name is Luna Lovegood. She works at Magic Pages downtown. There’s no record of her anywhere until a few years ago when she took the job at the bookstore.”
“I think it’s high time someone went to talk to her, then,” Jack said, reaching for his coat and gun. “I can handle this myself, Tosh. I want you to find out what you can about the guy she was with. We may not have his face, but there has to be a record of him somewhere. I’ll tell you if I get anything from Luna.”
Tosh nodded and went back to her computer, watching Jack get into the SUV and peel out of the garage. She went back to the CCTV footage from the incident and followed Luna’s path with the boy, hoping to get a clearer picture of him. It took her ages, and he never showed his face. But she eventually caught half a reflection of him in a shop mirror. It was enough.
She set the facial recognition software running and went out for some lunch.
******
Jack felt a tingle on his skin as he stepped into the bookshop, but forgot about it soon enough as he spotted Luna at the counter, absently doodling squarish shapes with an old-fashioned fountain pen.
“Luna Lovegood?” he asked.
“Mmmm,” she answered, not looking up from her doodle.
“I have a few questions to ask you concerning last night.”
“It was a beautiful night, wasn’t it? And no signs of fuzzy-tailed loopers, either. Which is always a good sign.”
Jack was taken by surprise. “Fuzzy whats?”
“Fuzzy-tailed loopers. They come out at night and try to bite you. Their idea of playing. Not harmful, really. Just a bit unnerving, because you can never see them, no matter how hard you try.”
“Haven’t heard of them before,” Jack stated, trying to sound casual.
“Of course you haven’t,” Luna replied matter-of-factly.
Jack paused for a moment, trying to decide if he should pursue that line of conversation. In the end, he opted for a direct approach, thinking that it might get her to actually volunteer useful information.
“What were you doing at the Millenium Center last night?” he asked.
“We were looking for the Boxed Bluebottle.”*
“The what?”
“The Boxed Bluebottle. He’s a myth, but I heard that he’s been seen in Roald Dahl Plass. They say he can change his face at will. I thought I’d have a look around, and I brought Harry with me. Poor boy works too much.” Suddenly, she looked straight at Jack. “Where did you come from last night, anyway. You came straight out of the ground. I saw you.”
At this, Jack was visibly flustered. No one could see through the perception field. Only Suzie had been able to.
Luna reached down and opened a drawer with her left hand, her right hand continuing to doodle boxes. “You can go now,” she said. Not knowing what else to do, Jack left.
He felt that same strange tingle on his skin as he walked out of the store. He mulled over the conversation, but couldn’t remember anything specific, other than the fact that she was clearly a bit removed from reality. He knew she’d mentioned a name, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. He shrugged and hoped that Tosh’s software was up to the task.
******
Tosh carried her lunch back down to her workstation and opened it on the table. She was just about to take the first bite of her sandwich when the program stopped running. It had gotten a hit. The boy’s name was Harry Potter, but the records were sketchy. There was no birth certificate, and his birthdate was listed as 31 July 1980, but the earliest record of him was November 1981. And all records ended in June, 1991.
She hunted the records looking for a recent address, and found one. 4, Privet Drive, Surrey. Residence of one Vernon and Petunia Dursley, son Dudley and nephew Harry Potter. Or at least, used to be. She opened a new screen and began searching for the Dursleys. The records show that they still owned the house, though it seemed that their son had moved out to live in London.
“Jack?” She called, clicking on the Bluetooth attached to her ear, “I’ve found out who the boy is.”
“Tell me.”
“His name’s Harry Potter, but his records are a bit sketchy. The last record of him is from a school in Surrey when he was ten. There’s nothing after that.”
“Do we have an address? Maybe we can find someone who knew him.”
“His aunt and uncle still live in the same house in Surrey. If you go now, you’ll make it in time for tea.”
Jack dropped back by the hub to pick up the energy sensor and to let them know he’d be gone overnight. He plugged the thing into the portable unit Tosh had rigged for them in the SUV and started out towards London.
As he was concentrating on the road, he let his mind wander to other things. Notably, his conversation with Luna Lovegood from earlier that day. He remembered being baffled by what she was telling him, but he couldn’t remember what she’d actually said. He remembered getting frustrated by her lack of answers, but couldn’t remember how she was avoiding his questions. He also remembered two improbable names. Fuzzy-tailed loopers and a Boxed Bluebottle. However, he couldn’t remember anything specific about them. He shrugged. It would come to him eventually.
It was nearly 7:00 by the time he reached Privet Drive, and he could see a large man and a bony woman sitting at a rather bare table through the window as he approached the house. Vernon and Petunia, he reminded himself as he rand the doorbell.
Vernon answered, “Who the hell are you?”
Jack flashed his police badge, “Detective Harkness, Cardiff police. I have some questions to ask you about your nephew, Harry Potter.”
“Boy landed himself in trouble, then? I always knew he’d come to no good. Not even St. Brutus’ could do anything for him.”
“This is just a routine investigation, sir. May I come in?” Jack flashed his best grin.
Vernon looked around, as though to check if any of the neighbors were looking out their front doors at him before stepping aside, leaving Jack a tiny bit of room to squeeze through the door and into the corridor beyond.
He went into the kitchen, and found Petunia on her feet, arms outstretched. Vernon led Jack into the living room while Petunia put the food back into the oven to keep it warm. She stayed in the kitchen finding little things to do for the rest of the interview.
“What’s Potter done now?” Vernon asked when Jack was seated.
“I’m afraid that’s confidential,” Jack said. “But we need more background on him than the public records give. To start, why is he not on record until 15 months after he was born?”
“He was left on our doorstep as a child, after his parents were killed in a car crash. We should have left him in a home, but we took him in out of the goodness of our hearts.”
“Why are there no more records of him after the age of ten?”
“We sent him to St. Brutus’ Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. What they did with their paperwork, I can’t say.”
“Do you know where he’s living now?”
“Outside Cardiff,” Petunia answered. “It’s where his parents lived.”
Sensing a quickly impending end to the interview, Jack got up and offered his hand to Vernon. “Thank you. Your help is much appreciated.”
Vernon said nothing, and didn’t move. Jack showed himself out, and started off towards London to find Dudley.
******
Given the pictures he’d seen on the mantle at his parent’s house, Jack didn’t have high expectations for meeting Dudley. All of them were met the instant Dudley opened the door.
Jack could only see a tiny bit of the flat behind Dudley’s bulky body, but what he could see was covered in both expensive looking computer equipment and empty take out containers. The smell coming from the small room was particularly nauseating.
He held out his fake police ID, “Captain Harkness, Cardiff police department. I have a few questions for you.” Jack hardly had time to step back as the door was slammed in his face. He could hear the unmistakable sounds of someone hurrying to conceal a great many things in as little time as possible.
A few minutes later, the door opened again. This time, Dudley stepped back to let Jack in. Dudley plopped down in his computer chair (with several of the monitors behind him turned off now, Jack noticed). Jack looked for somewhere else to sit, but finding none, opted to stand rather than clear off a spot on the moldy couch.
“Have you heard from your cousin Harry lately?” Jack asked.
The look of relief on Dudley’s face was almost comical, but Jack forced himself to keep a straight face.
“Why would I want to?” Dudley said.
“The two of you don’t get along, then?” Jack asked.
“He’s a fucking menace, that one. Always ruined everything for me.”
“I see. What school did he attend when you were eleven?”
“I don’t remember,” Dudley said promptly. “Whichever was closest, I guess.”
The answer was just a little to quick. He suspected that Dudley did know, but didn’t want to say.
“Do you have any idea what he’s doing now?”
“How should I? He never came back, that last year. And good riddance, too. Dad never wanted to keep him, but they made us.”
Jack filed away Dudley’s comments for further consideration and took his leave. He highly doubted that Dudley would give him any more information.
The drive back to Cardiff seemed a lot shorter. He’d called Tosh right away to have her look up schools near Privet Drive, to see where Potter had possibly gone to school. He should have gone to Stonewall High, Tosh had said. And St. Brutus’ had no record of him, and was located nowhere near Surrey.
He pondered the mysterious ‘they’ that Dudley had mentioned. Had someone coerced the Dursleys into taking in their nephew? It seemed like the right answer, but he couldn’t do anything else while he was driving.
When he got back to the hub, he found that only Tosh was still there, combing through the few reports about Harry Potter they’d managed to dig up. They didn’t even have names for his parents.
“This is impossible, Jack. There’s nothing. It’s like he vanished, but he’s here, in Cardiff.”
“Do you have anything new on the girl? Luna something?” he asked.
“Nothing. They’ve been living completely apart from society, which is almost impossible to do these days. There has to be a record of them, somewhere. I just can’t find it.”
“Go to sleep, Tosh. We’ll pick it up in the morning,” Jack said. His tone allowed no arguments, so she packed the files in her case and left with one last look over her shoulder at Jack.
He was now seated at her workstation staring at the monitors and trying to make some sense out of what he was seeing, but there was no sense to be had. He decided to take a closer look at the Dursleys. If Potter was their nephew, he couldn’t possibly be their only relation. There had to be parents somewhere.
A few minutes of typing brought up records for both families. Vernon had a sister, but that didn’t feel right to Jack, so he abandoned that avenue of inquiry. He eventually found a birth certificate for Lily Evans, along with old school reports, but all of her records disappeared at age 11, just like her (supposed) son. Jack frowned at the screen. Something was off, somewhere.
Off in the corner of the desk, a small screen flashed. Jack looked at it and immediately grabbed his cloak. They were right outside again!
This time he vaulted up the stairs and came out from the tourist office front of the hub, approaching whatever they were from the back.
It was Harry and Luna again, but there were also a few more people: a tall, red-haired man and a woman with bushy hair. Jack kept to the shadows, watching as they laughed and talked, as though nothing was wrong. He had to be tied into it somehow, Jack thought. Potter was always around, when they managed to get to the sites quickly, and Tosh had managed to find him on CCTV in places they’d not managed to get to quickly. Jack watched from his hiding spot as Potter said something to the others and motioned for them to go ahead.
He stood watching them leave for a while then turned straight to where Jack was hiding.
“You can come out now,” he called. “I know you’ve been watching us.”
Jack knew he’d been caught, so he stepped out into the light, hands in his pockets, making sure his gun was visible.
“I want to know why you’ve been following me,” Potter said without preamble.
“That information’s classified,” Jack scowled.
Potter’s face was set. He looked Jack straight in the eye, “You’re going to tell me anyway.”
For some inexplicable reason, Jack felt a sudden desire to tell Potter everything about Torchwood, about the rift, about himself. He bit down on the words before they left his mouth. “I think not.”
Potter slumped, and was suddenly no more threatening or mysterious than a . “Look, whoever you are. I’ve been followed and hunted all my life, and I’ve always known why. That’s over, and I just want to know why I see you everywhere, and why you’re asking my family,” the words were laced with sarcasm, “about me.”
Jack relaxed a bit, but made sure his gun was still in plain sight. “I know somewhere we can go to talk.”
“That’s fine,” Potter said, “but not tonight. I have plans, and I’m already late.”
“Tomorrow, then. I’ll meet you at the tourist information office at 7:00,” Jack said, flashing a grin.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were asking me on a date,” Potter said, before walking off in the direction his friends had gone.
******
Jack spent the next day pacing around the hub. He tried to concentrate of putting together files about recent rift activity, but he found he couldn’t concentrate. Soon enough, his attention was drifting back to Potter, and the mystery of his existence.
He set up a program to search newspapers from the time Potter first appeared and came across a tiny article from November 1, 1981. A house had collapsed in the country outside Cardiff, killing two people, names unknown. Evidence pointed to an abduction gone wrong, as there was a nursery, but no child had ever been found.
Thinking back, Jack could remember that weekend. This case must have gotten lost in the sudden odd behavior of animals and stars. It was a small article to begin with.
Jack looked at the clock. 1:00. He had plenty of time to head out to the site before his meeting with Potter later.
What he found when he got to the correct address was a newly built house with a nicely manicured garden and neatly paved path leading to the front door. The house looked new, but it could have been built anytime in the last sixteen years.
Jack strolled up to the door and knocked loudly. To his surprise, it was Potter who answered the door.
“What the hell are you doing at my house?” Potter ground out.
“I didn’t know it was yours,” Jack replied. “I came across an article about the previous house, and came to check it out.”
Potter stepped back and opened the door fully. “Come in,” he said, “I’ve got the kettle on.”
“Thanks,” Jack said, stepping over the threshold. He was vaguely aware of the same prickling feeling on his skin as when he’d been to visit Luna at her shop. His senses were once again fully alert.
He sat down on a couch in the living room and listened to Potter moving around the kitchen. He came back holding a tray laden with tea and scones. “We might as well do this now. It’ll save me a trip into town later. What’s going on?”
“A few months ago, we unearthed a piece of technology that can trace the smallest difference in energy signatures. Once we figured out what it did, we started picking up random energy traces all over the city. When we figured out how to wire the cube into our system, we could identify them on a map and investigate where they were coming from,” Jack explained.
Potter’s face was impassive as he listened. “But why investigate in the first place? Random, low level energy pulses can’t be all that important, can they?”
“Torchwood exists to deal with alien threats on our soil. The cube we found is from the 73rd century. It’s alien technology. We’ve been trying to figure out what species is generating the energy, but we can never find anything alien on the site. There’s just you,” Jack pointed at Potter.
“I’m not an alien, if that’s what you’re implying,” Harry said with a laugh. “I’m as human as you.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” Jack growled.
“Look, I’m going to show you something that’s going to clear up this mess once and for all. You can stop harassing my family and friends, and you can stay away from me.” Harry pulled out his wand and set it on the table between them. “This is what you’re looking for, but it’s not alien of any kind.”
“A magic wand?” Jack said skeptically. “There’s no such thing as magic.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Harry said. “Magic exists all over the world, going back thousands of years. Merlin is the first documented wizard, and we all descend from him somehow.”
“This is insane. There is no such thing as magic,” Jack insisted. “It’s alien science, it has to be.”
“If it’s alien, it’s not recent. Like I said, the magical community in Britain has been around for thousands of years. We’re just very well hidden. Or at least, until you came along.”
“Prove it,” Jack said.
Harry picked up his wand and pointed it at the coffee table, making a complicated movement and muttering a few words. It sprouted fur, grew a head, and jumped into Jack’s lap, licking his face. At the same time, his Bluetooth attachment rang and he answered. It was Tosh.
“Jack, I’ve picked up another signal right on top on you. Did you see anything?”
Jack debated for a second, looking at Harry as he did. “No. I still can’t figure out what it is. But I’ll keep looking and be back later.” He disconnected the call.
“Thank you,” Harry said, “We’ve only survived this long through secrecy. They used to burn witches and wizards. Now, they’d capture us and force us to use magic to solve all of their problems. Magic, however, doesn’t always work the way you people think it does. We keep to ourselves and do our best not to harm the muggles.”
“Luna Lovegood and the others I saw you with last night, they’re magical as well?” Jack asked.
“Yes. They’re my best friends from school. They live in London these days, and even though travel is easier for us, they don’t have much time to come out here to visit. And I prefer not to be seen in London.”
“Why?”
“I have a rather infamous past,” Harry said, pointing to his scar, and proceeded to tell his entire story. “I’m instantly recognizable by any wizard, and there’s quite a large population in London. There are less of us out here in Cardiff, and we keep to ourselves. Luna moved out here with me to help with the restoration of my house, but she lives in Cardiff.” Harry paused for a moment, looking at Jack. “Well, now that I’ve told you my story, I think it’s only fair that you do the same.”
Jack hesitated, but decided to go for it. Maybe Harry Potter could be the one person to understand what his life had become. And if not, there was always Retcon.
“Once upon a time,” he started, “well, not exactly. Somewhere in the future I was born.” He made a face. “Not the right terms, but it’ll make more sense if I tell you the way I experienced it, not the years where it happened. Time travel is a bit confusing.”
Harry laughed, but stayed quiet as Jack continued on with his story, from his time with the Time Agency to his time with the Doctor and finally his last century on earth.
When Jack finished speaking, Harry let out a low whistle. “Here I thought my past was complicated,” he joked. “But you tell me that you’re over 150 years old, and look like you’re 30.”
“173 last time I bothered to count. It doesn’t matter, though. Time’s just something to live through. I’m waiting for the Doctor. I hope he can help me.”
They continued talking for the rest of the night. After ignoring many and frequent calls from his team, he reluctantly decided to head back.
“Have you figured out what to tell them?” Harry asked.
“I’ll think of something. Or maybe I’ll just lock the thing away. It’s more trouble than it’s worth to keep it around.
“Good luck. Your team strike me as the curious type.”
“That they are, but I can keep them off the trail. Most of them have abandoned this one anyway. They think I’m getting too obsessed.”
“Well, I’m not one to talk about obsessions,” Harry smiled. “I’ve had my fare share. And so have my friends. Luna’s currently obsessed with her Boxed Bluebottle*. I go out with her looking for it, but it’s really just to humor her. I’ve never seen any of her creatures in the flesh before.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Jack smiled, putting on his coat.
“I’ll see you around,” Harry said.
* ‘bluebottle’ is a slang term I dug up for “police.”