Harry couldn't help but feel excited; the Doctor's face lit up with happiness as he asked the question and Harry could only be overwhelmed with possibilities.

"All of time? You mean we could go anywhere?" Harry asked, hardly daring to believe it. As slyly as he could he pinched his arm; he had been so sure that he had been dreaming. These sorts of things didn't happen to him. He was just Harry Potter, too small with untidy hair, an orphan with no friends. He wasn't that kind of kid that got to travel through space if that was something that was possible.

The Doctor smiled widely. "Yes" he said, hand gesturing wildly as he paced around, as if he just couldn't stay still. "Any place, any time. Where ever you want to go, that's where we will go." He said patting the TARDIS console, as if proud of the machine.

Harry thought about all of the stuff he could see; he could go to Mars…..he could see dinosaurs…he could meet aliens of different worlds. It was all so amazing and brilliant that he could believe it. But really, there was only one thing that he really wanted to see.

Harry felt a little nervous asking the Doctor and worrying he'd say no; he also felt very nervous thinking that he might say yes. "Do you think we could go back in time and see my parents?" Harry asked, looking at the Doctor nervously.

The Doctor's face fell; he didn't look happy anymore but seemed deep in thought the way that adults often did when they were about to say no.

"You see, my parents died when I was only a baby so I never really got to know them" Harry explained, hoping to change the Doctor's mind. "If you can't do it, that's okay…..I'd just thought I'd ask."

Already, Harry felt his hope in his chest deflating like a popped balloon. It had been a long shot anyway, really….

"No, I can do it" the Doctor said quickly, though he still looked troubled. "I can take you to see your parents. But Harry…this is very important for you to understand; you can't talk to them or interact with them in any way. We'd have to make sure that no one saw us; you can't be a part of your own past and your own time stream. If you were seen by your younger self or your parents bad things could happen."

Some of the hope that had fizzled out was reigniting inside his heart quickly. He would really get to see his parents! It was almost too good to believe. "I promise I won't do anything I'm not supposed to. I'll just look, I promise" Harry said, feeling his excitement running through him but trying not to sound too desperate to the Doctor.

Still, the Doctor seemed to hesitate a bit. "It may be a little harder than you can imagine" he said, "Once you see someone you've longed to meet for so long, it may be too hard to resist the urge to go to them. I've seen it happen to others before. I'm just trying to prepare you because the last time I took someone to see one of their parents, things went very badly."

"I understand" Harry said quickly, trying to mask his overwhelming excitement and trying not to sound as if he were just dismissing the Doctor's worries, "I know it will be hard. But I promise…I really do…..I won't mess it up"

Harry watched the Doctor as he walked around in circles, looking at the floor as if it was written with words that he had a hard time reading. Harry felt himself holding his breath; meeting the Doctor was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Harry tried to remain optimistic but when he was honest with himself the truth was that nothing good ever happened to him. He wasn't about to mess up traveling with the Doctor. Already he couldn't imagine how horrible he would feel going back to the Dursleys and whatever burned up wreckage was left of Private Drive.

The Doctor finally stopped studying the floor and looked up at Harry. Harry was relieved to see that he was smiling. "You know what?" The Doctor said, smiling widely and rubbing his hands together excitedly. "I trust you. Harry. Something about you tells me you can handle it. You seem to be made of strong stuff; I feel you are mature, especially for someone that can't be more than…seven?"

Harry felt pride at the Doctor saying he was strong but it was slightly ruined by his saying he looked seven. He small but really…. "I'm nine, actually" Harry said, trying to stand up a bit taller.

"Oh, well….I'm not so good on human ages I guess" the Doctor said, acting a bit embarrassed. "I mean, you wouldn't probably guess I'm over 900? Right?"

Harry wouldn't have guessed that the Doctor was 900 at all. Once more he was shaken a bit by the realization that the Doctor was really very alien. "Yeah, I probably would have guessed 20" Harry said, to which the Doctor gave him a pat on the back that almost made him topple over.

"See Harry? We click" The Doctor said brightly though Harry wasn't really sure what that meant. He watched the Doctor walk over to the console of the TARDIS, pressing tons of multicolored buttons.

"Alright, Harry…one trip to your parents coming up" The Doctor said, giving Harry an excited look. "So, who are we looking for?"

Harry felt like cold water had been thrown on him and seeped into his body but it also felt good. "Lily and James" Harry said. It felt so strange saying his parents' names. The extent of his knowledge of his parents had always been that they had died in a car crash when he was a baby. He had learned early on not to ask questions; Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always looked like he was personally trying to ruin their lives when he did so he kept his curiosities to himself.

The Doctor pressed a bunch of other buttons and looked at a small screen intently before looking back up at Harry. "Here we go. Hold on tight, the TARDIS is a bit of rough ride!"

Harry quickly grabbed the railing next to the console, fully expecting to be tossed around like an amusement park ride. The TARDIS shook and tossed as it made a whirling, windy sound; it wasn't as bad as Harry thought it would be but he still held on white knuckled until the Doctor said, "Okay, here we are!"

Harry couldn't believe it; he held onto the railing for several more seconds before letting go. That was it? It only took a few seconds to travel back in time? It was so hard to believe but the Doctor was already running down the ramp from the console to the door, so Harry was sure it must be true.

"Okay, Harry" The Doctor said excitedly, his hand on the doorknob, "Outside that door is Godric's Hollow, home to the young Lily and James Potter and their baby son, Harry, July 5, 1981"

Harry had practically ran down the ramp but as he got to the end, he felt himself freeze at the door. If it was really July 5, 1981 that would make Harry almost a year old. If that were true, it must be close to the time his parents died. He didn't know the exact day of their death; Aunt Petunia never told him and he certainly had never seen their graves. The idea that he was actually going to see his parents, alive and hopefully happy, as Harry so wished they could be now, was a bit overwhelming. His heart was racing inside his chest and his whole body felt suddenly huge and impossible to move.

Harry stared at the door for what felt like forever, whiling himself to move. When he looked at the Doctor, he was just standing there, his face relaxed and calm; he didn't push Harry or try to hurry him for which Harry was grateful. He seemed to know how hard this was for Harry without him having to say so. And Harry was glad; he didn't think he could explain why this was so hard when he had wanted it for so long.

Harry took a deep breath, willing himself not to shake as he looked up at the Doctor. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's go" he said. He was glad that when it came out, it actually sounded strong.

The Doctor smiled, opening the TARDIS' door. "After you" he said, looking excited on Harry's behalf.

With as much effort as a single step had ever taken, Harry stepped out of the TARDIS and into the bright, warm July sunshine. He felt disoriented, looking past the sun and into the street. It seemed so normal…it was just an ordinary street with people driving cars, walking on the sidewalk, kids playing in the gardens. It wasn't a familiar street but if Harry didn't know any better he would think there was nothing unusual about it. He certainly wouldn't have thought that they'd gone back in time eight years. He wouldn't have known he was now in a world that included his parents.

Harry and the Doctor were standing on the sidewalk across the street from several small, quaint little houses, partially hidden from view by a large tree when Harry, still feeling frozen from the shock of it all, felt the Doctor give a bit of a start next to him.

"Look, Harry…..I do believe that that man there might be of some interest to you" the Doctor said, pointing across the street to a man walking up to one of the houses. From the back, Harry hadn't even noticed him; he just appeared to be another of the many people going about their business on the beautiful summer day. But when he turned the corner Harry felt his breath catch in his chest, feeling for a moment like he was suffocating.

There was nothing to make Harry sure that that man was his father; nothing other than that they had the exact same hair, walked the exact same way and that gut feeling Harry had that he knew those eyes…..it was really nothing but it was everything. Harry felt his heart beating out of control, his stomach jump up and down like he was going to be sick and his throat clench like it did when you were going to cry though Harry was sure he wasn't going to. He felt sick and strange but excited all the same…..He was seeing his dad for the time since he was a baby.

James Potter…even though Harry was still a kid he knew that his dad looked exactly like he would if he were grown. For a moment he could hardly believe that he was really watching his own dad; he wouldn't believe it all if they didn't look so similar. As he watched his dad walk down the sidewalk and up to a small house, what must have been his own home as a baby, and disappear inside Harry could see why the Doctor warned him about not being seen; he had to admit that the irrational, desperate need to run across the street to his dad was overwhelming. He knew that his dad wouldn't know him; even if he did he would think he was going crazy. But that didn't stop Harry from just wanting to touch him, to talk to him, to have him look back and acknowledge him for a minuet as his son.

"Would you like to have a closer look Harry? Perhaps if we take a peak in one of the windows, we might find a tiny version of you in there? That tree over there looks like good cover for two time travelers?" the Doctor asked.

The Doctor's light tone snapped Harry out of his reprieve and made it easier to swallow down the huge lump that seemed to be forming in his throat. "Yeah, let's go" Harry said, nodding vigorously.

Charging into the street and over to the back garden of Harry's babyhood home, Harry was not unaware of all of the stares. While they had managed to escape notice in the corner on the street so far, walking into traffic made them visible enough that people didn't seem to care they were openly staring at an old fashioned dressed young man and a small boy who was wearing nothing but his pyjamas and no shoes. Harry made a mental note to ask the Doctor if he could get some proper clothes once they returned to the TARDIS but it flitted out of his mind quickly when they reached the back garden of the house and Harry realized with a flutter that he was about to see his dad again and possibly his mum for the first time.

Following the Doctor's lead, Harry ducked behind the large tree in the garden, cautiously peering around until he could see the window. When he could see what was behind that window, mere feet from him, Harry felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. His belly ached and his breath was instantly taken from him and though all of this was a bad sensation, he didn't want it to ever end if it meant that he kept getting to see what was going on in the house in front of him.

Harry would have given just about anything to be able to hear his parents' voices; he internally cursed the fact that the window was shut. But now, he would just have to be content with the fact that he could see them and that was more than he could have ever dreamed possible only hours ago.

Standing in the sitting room in front of him was the prettiest woman Harry was sure that he had ever seen; he was sure that small, baby version of him in her arms thought the same thing as he stared at her and laughed with a gummy, baby grin. She had gorgeous red hair and bright green eyes…eyes just like his. From where he was sitting, he could see a wide, unbelievably sunny smile on her face as she said something he'd heard once but could never remember to his baby self. Lily Potter…his mum. Harry was glad that the Doctor was silent beside him because he was sure that he couldn't have spoken at the moment if his life depended on it. As he watched his mum envelope the baby Harry in her arms, the Harry watching from the outside felt as if something inside him that he couldn't name was breaking. He would have given anything to have burst into the room and felt his mum's arms around him, just once. What must it be like to feel arms around you in a hug of true, unconditional love? Harry, who hadn't been touched like that since was an infant, didn't know.

As Harry's mum held his baby self, his dad walked into the room and suddenly Harry found that the image was getting harder and harder to see for all the blurry water now in his eyes. His mum's face lit up at the sight of her husband and she rushed forward to embrace him, baby Harry happily sandwiched in the middle of them.

Harry had never truly seen a display of what love was supposed to be. Even at his young age he was beginning to suspect that there were really no truly happy families; certainly the Dursleys never taught him anything of love. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon seemed more like two people stuck together against their will than husband and wife, and while he supposed that they loved Dudley like most parents loved their children, Dudley didn't seem much to return their sentiments. He'd been rejected and neglected his whole life; at best life was empty and at worst it hurt. But this…..this little family, his little family, that he would never know again, they knew the meaning of true love.

It wasn't long before the Doctor had quietly excused himself with the excuse that he had to check something in the TARDIS. While Harry didn't know anything about the TARDIS even he thought the mumbled excuse seemed made up; both of them knew that and neither said anything to which Harry was grateful. Though the Doctor seemed strange in many ways, he seemed to pick on some things very easily, and allowing Harry a moment alone to mourn his parents privately was one of them.

Harry was glad that the Doctor had left him; it had been all that he could to do keep his eyes dry. He was sure that the Doctor would have understood but even so he was still trying to seem grown up and responsible; the Doctor could always take him back to the Durseleys since he did have a time machine and that wasn't something he wanted to happen at all. But he supposed the fact that the Doctor left him alone in a strange time mere feet from his parents was a pretty good vote of confidence that he trusted him not to do anything stupid.

Harry didn't know how long he stood there silently watching but when he wandered back to the TARDIS the warm summer sunshine had long disappeared behind the horizon. It was long after he'd watched his mum and dad talk in the sitting room while baby Harry played on the carpet, long after they disappeared into a kitchen he couldn't see for dinner, after they had returned to watch telly in the sitting room again, the light in the room disappearing and being replaced by the soft telly glow as baby Harry fell asleep in his mum's arms before he wrench his way back through the now quiet streets to where the TARDIS was parked. He no longer felt the pressing pain of needing to cry but he felt strangely empty and that was much worse.

When Harry knocked on the door of the TARDIS it swung open immediately and though he had expected to find the Doctor at once staring at him, he saw him standing by the console tinkering with it, as if the TARDIS had a mind of its own and had opened for him.

The Doctor glanced up from the console slightly, keeping his focus mostly on his ship for which Harry was grateful. "Glad to see you back, Harry" the Doctor said, giving him a small smile of recognition.

Harry walked up to the console and lowered himself into the seat there, suddenly feeling as if he had run a million miles. He was so thankful that he had gotten to see his parents; it still all felt like a beautiful dream that he would soon wake from. But he didn't want the Doctor to ask him if he was alright because he wasn't; seeing his parents was something unlike he'd ever experienced and though he was happy he'd done it, he wouldn't be quite 'okay' for a while.

The Doctor, displaying his surprising tact for being an oddly dressed alien, didn't ask him if he was okay. "Would you like me to show you to your room?" the Doctor asked with a grin.

"My room?" Harry asked, unsure if he had heard the Doctor correctly. If there were bedrooms on the TARDIS them it must be even bigger than it looked, even from here.

"Yes, your room of course" the Doctor said, coming around the console to where Harry was sitting, "If you're going to be my traveling companion you're going to need your own room. I know how you humans need your sleep."

Despite all of the mixed emotions that he had been feeling with seeing his parents, Harry couldn't deny he felt a burst of excitement at the thought he'd get his own room. He'd never had a room, just a cupboard under the stairs. Unlike number four private drive, Harry belonged in the TARDIS.

"Sure" Harry said, barely containing his excitement.

The Doctor grinned, sensing Harry's excitement. "Then, Harry my boy, follow me right this way."

Thanks for reading! I did not plan on writing this chapter; originally the story was a one-shot only. But you guys were so interested it sparked my creativity! Again, I dont plan another chapter but who knows? These two are really growing on me!