Last chapter concluded with the team (Doctor, Harry and Hermione) trying to use a rift they found to get to Ron, who is stranded on Gallifrey. But instead, they were jerked around time and space, eventually getting trapped behind a 'window' of vortex energy. From behind this window, they saw some of Voldemort's ancestors (the Gaunts), as well as a projection of Donna Noble. Donna touches the 'window' in front of her, disrupting the vortex energy, and making it shatter outward. It fatally pierces the eldest Gaunt and infuses the younger with vortex energy. When one of the fragments flys towards Harry, Hermione and the Doctor, Harry throws out his hand to protect them and they are once again whisked away through the vortex.

Onward:) Thanks for all the reviews!

Hermione said it reminded her of apparition, thought Harry, but it feels more like a Portkey. Spiraling through the vortex had the same wrenching feeling around his navel. It wasn't pain, but it was uncomfortable to the point of distraction. Bright lights danced behind his eyes.

Then his feet slammed into the ground and he crumpled like a house of cards. Hermione and the Doctor collapsed onto the dusty surface beside him. All three rolled on their backs, catching their breath.

"What...was...that?" gasped Hermione.

"The joys of vortex travel, I thought you'd be used to it by now," sniped the Doctor, puffing in air.

"I meant why did we go so suddenly?"

"Vortex energy is unpredictable," said the Doctor, eyes closed, although he was frowning slightly. "Although it was extremely sudden. We should have been safe behind the Vortex barrier. We seem to be out from behind the 'glass' now."

"Where are we?" Harry sat up and looked around at the landscape. It was absolutely beautiful...and utterly unearthly. Two large suns gleamed orange in the sky, turning the ground to a liquid amber color. Far in the distance, a forest rose up, capped with lovely silver leaves. Red grass spotted the soil infrequently. Majestic mountains pierced the orange atmosphere above them, ringing about in a canyon.

And most alien of all was the city before them.

Harry's first ludicrous thought was that it looked like a snowglobe. A huge transparent bubble encased the linear towers, which stood erect like mythical Titans. One monolithic tower reigned supreme in the center, almost touching the top of the enormous bubble. It reached so high that if there had been clouds inside the glassine globe, it would have been obscured. The largest tower was surrounded by smaller towers, which Harry guessed to be almost twice as tall as the highest point of Hogwarts. The sheer size of the city took his breath away. If they took ten steps forward, they could reach out and touch the crystalline enclosure.

"This is Gallifrey," Harry said. It wasn't a question. The towers, the mountains, the forest...they had seen all of it in the shard that the Doctor had found Ron in.

"This is Gallifrey," whispered the Doctor in confirmation. He looked like he might fall over, and Harry didn't think it was only due to traveling sickness. He was pale, as if with fright...but he didn't seem scared...

"Doctor, what – " Harry began, but was interrupted.

Like a small mouth, a hole had opened seamlessly in the smooth glasslike structure, directly in front of them. A dozen figures, clad in bright red and wearing elaborate headdresses, poured out. They were pointing beautifully crafted objects at Harry, Hermione and the Doctor and shouting something.

"What are they saying?" asked Hermione frantically.

"Not good, oh, not good," muttered the Doctor, now whiter than a sheet. "They want to know why we damaged the Citadel...Look at the crack in the globe!"

Harry looked up and saw a gossamer spiderweb of almost unnoticeable cracks embedded in the delicate orb, originating from what looked like a piece of the vortex energy. It didn't look too bad, but the redclad figures looked murderous.

"They want to know if we're..." the Doctor frowned. "The closest translation I can give is 'infidels'. But it doesn't have religious connotation." He shouted something back at them in a melodious language, giving it pacifying overtones, but the Gallifreyans did not look appeased. They raised their delicate weapons and shouted in a frenzied ululation, then charged.

"Run!" shouted the Doctor, turning tail.

Harry and Hermione sprinted after him. Harry could barely keep his footing on the loamy earth. A burst of red light struck the ground ahead of him, and he looked over his shoulder to see that the Gallifreyans close in pursuit. Unimpeded by their cumbersome robes, they were firing red light out of the long, thin objects. They were so close Harry could see the beads of sweat on their face.

Hermione shrieked and fell. Harry ran to her side. "Hermione!" She was holding her arm and wincing, clutching where one of the streams of light had grazed her arm.

"Go!" she screamed. Harry shook his head frantically and whipped out his wand, muttering healing spells.

Before the wound had done more than lighten in tone, Harry was thrust roughly to the ground by the Gallifreyans. Hermione was held down, and the Doctor, who had turned back to help them after hearing Hermione's yell, was thrown down. Harry held onto his wand with desperate fingers as the figures yelled at him in the unfamiliar tongue.

"I don't know!" he yelled back, trying to be heard, "I don't know what you're saying – "

He was struck hard across the face. He heard his nose break, and blood suddenly washed over his vision. Harry yelled in pain and clutched at his face, feeling the shape of his glasses.

Then he was suddenly not there. The noise, the swampy ground, the pain in his face, everything disappeared. He was whirling through the vortex once more.

With a wrenching feeling, he was flat on his back on a cold stone floor. He tried to open his eyes, but he felt so tired. He lost consciousness.

-oOo-

Harry awoke to dim light and excited voices. "...and then we met the Founders! Ron they were exactly how I always imagined them. Ravenclaw was so didactical and pragmatic. And there's a whole undiscovered house, the House of Ulric – "

Harry scrambled to his feet, vaguely aware that the blood once masking his vision was now gone. "Ron!" he said exultantly, grabbing his best friend into a hug and pounding him on the back. He was relieved to see Ron in a general state of wellness. His hair was a bit longer, freckles less prominent, mouth a bit less ready to smile, but right now he looked overjoyed. "You all right?"

"Harry! You're awake!" Ron whooped. "How's the nose?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore," said Harry. "Thanks for the Episky, Hermione. But listen, you all right? Kept away from the mad aliens and all?" Now there was a sentence he had never imagined saying.

"Well," sighed Ron, looking pleased that he had a story to tell, "That, Harry m'boy, is a very long tale, not for the faint of heart, and I don't want to tell it twice, so go get the the Doctor." He gestured towards the source of the dim light, and Harry looked around for the first time.

They were in a low-ceilinged cave with charcoal black walls. Stalactites dripped a silvery liquid. Beyond this section of cave there seemed to be another, for Harry heard their voices echoing beyond this chamber into others. The light was coming from the front of the cave, where the binary suns were setting. Harry could see, far in the distance, the glint of the Citadel orb. He decided from the angle that they must be in the mountains forming the canyon. Outlined against the deepening horizon was the seated outline of the Doctor.

Harry walked over to stand behind him. But before he could open his mouth, the Doctor spoke.

"I always hated this sunset," he said. "As a young boy it symbolized everything I was trying to escape. Two suns fighting for dominance in the sky, neither one winning. On Gallifrey there are two factions: High Gallifreyans and Common Gallifreyans. A caste system of sorts," and his voice was mockingly bitter. "High Gallifreyans who take the best for themselves, Common Gallifreyans who chafe at the bit and scream for anarchy. Eventually, after I'd left, the Common Gallifreyans overthrew the High Gallifreyans. Then the Common Gallifreyans themselves were destroyed...Sooner or later both suns set and take the light with them, and you realize what you had when darkness, when loneliness, sets in. When I finally ran away, all I wanted to do was come back."

"Why didn't you?"

The Doctor laughed sadly. "I was a young man with a time traveling blue box. Would you have returned to live in a house with a family when you could see the stars, explore the unexplored, change history?"

"Yes," said Harry, thinking about the parents he didn't know.

"And there's the difference between you and me, Harry Potter. The boy who died to save everyone, and the man who condemned everyone he cared about."

Harry looked at the Doctor, startled. The Doctor's face was set in a mask of mocking self-loathing. "The Timelords, the 'most advanced race' in all the universe, were bringing on a cosmos-wide Armageddon with their war with their enemies, the Daleks – another alien race. I was on the front lines. I witnessed the Fall of Arcadia, heard a million throats cry out for mercy. You humans talk about war atrocities; imagine a Dachau, an Auschwitz that never ends. Both sides used time travel to rehearse battles over and over so that the dying suffered neverending torture. Immortal warriors lay slashed to ribbons on the battlefield, unable to die. It was hell, Harry Potter. Planets you've never heard of were darkened by nightmares you've never dreamed of. The Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres. Just when you thought it could not possibly get any worse, a new monstrosity was born.

"And finally came the breaking point. The Timelords, no end in sight, were set for ultimate genocide – the 'Ultimate Sanction', they called it. Everything in the universe would be destroyed. Everything. It was past nuclear warfare, it was...oblivion."

"What happened?" asked Harry, feeling a sick fascination.

"I did. Rather than see everything destroyed...I exterminated the Daleks. And I destroyed my own race to prevent them from doing the same to others. The War is timelocked, so I can't change what happened. That would cause a paradox anyways." The Doctor stared moodily at the thin line of fire on the horizon. "I never thought I would see this sunset again. It's beautiful."

Harry and the Doctor sat in silence until the suns disappeared completely. The sky had as many stars as darkness, and five moons dotted the night. Harry marveled at being so far from home. Everything had moved so fast since they'd met the Doctor, and he'd been worrying so much about Ron, that he hadn't taken time to appreciate what was happening. He was time-traveling with an alien. He had met the Founders of Hogwarts. He'd traveled through a rift in the vortex of the universe, and he was sitting on the soil of another world right now.

He could hardly comprehend it.

He also wondered why the Doctor had told him so much. Although he seemed friendly enough, he didn't seem like the type to volunteer information, especially not information that evoked so much pain for him. Harry knew that as hard as losing so many friends during the war with Voldemort had been, it paled in comparison to losing your entire race.

The Doctor sighed and stood up. "Is Ron going to regale us with a story?" he asked.

"We're just waiting for you," said Harry. "We don't have to start right now though..."

"Sorry to be the deadweight," replied the Doctor jokingly. "I'm fine. I'm always fine." Harry could tell the smile he was pasting on his face was false. But he'd probably had a lot of practice pretending to be happy.

-oOo-

Ron looked over at Hermione, utterly content. "You know, I missed time-traveling," he said.

She laughed. "You did it once!"

"But I was excellent at it! I could pilot the blue boxy thing all by myself if I wanted to. But I missed you even more." She blushed.

"I thought I'd never see you again," he said quietly. "And it made me realize all over again how much it hurt to be without you. I love you, Hermione."

She gazed at him with tears in her eyes and smiled faintly. "I love you too, Ron. I couldn't live without you."

"I shipped it first!" announced the Doctor, who had just stepped into the cave with Harry close behind. "I got the first copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I accidentally sent the TARDIS into the 17th century when I hit the part where you kissed. And Harry Potter wasn't written in the 17th century. So I technically shipped it first."

"You know, someday you'll have to tell us about these books," said Hermione with a frown. "Were they written by a Muggle or – "

"Spoilers," said the Doctor cheerfully. There was a faint false note to his smile, but Ron could tell he was trying not to let it show.

"Now, Ronald Bilius Weasley." He seemed to take great pleasure in saying Ron's middle name. "I'm assuming Hermione has told you our side of the story. Would you fill us in on yours, please?"

Ron straightened up. "Well, I walked into the light, and all of a sudden I was sort of zooming. Like Apparition, but much longer. And when I finally landed, I was in this weird forest with silver leaves. I thought I'd gone to the madhouse, but I didn't see Dumbledore." Ron grinned. "So I walked around for a while. Almost a week, actually. It was buggering hot, but there was a river to drink from, and some berries."

"A week?" interrupted Harry, aghast. "How long have you been here?"

Ron hesitated. "Almost a year, as far as we can figure."

"We?" asked the Doctor with a piercing glint in his eye.

"That comes later," said Ron. "Anyways, I was wandering around, and finally one night I saw the Citadel. So I walked up to it. But before I could get near it this awesome ship came flying out, completely stealth. It flew straight to me, and these people in red robes stepped out and carried me in. I was abducted by aliens."

"Where did they take you?"

"Well, we had a hard time communicating at first. They spoke a different language, you see. So they flew and I listened. They seemed to be looking for something. We stopped once in the forest, but after a bit a bunch of other red robes attacked us. We flew away and found this nice cave in the mountains. The other reds didn't find us here."

"What happened to the other Gallifreyans?" asked the Doctor.

"Oh, is that what they're called? Have you met them before, Doctor?"

"I am one."

Ron looked delighted, and said something in the melodious language the other Time Lords had yelled at them at the Citadel. The Doctor responded, looking surprised.

"I absorbed the language after a while," explained Ron. "I haven't heard a word of English since you three arrived."

"Traveling in the TARDIS translates all languages to your ears but Gallifreyan," murmured the Doctor. "Only logical, since that's where TARDISes come from. But you didn't answer my question: what happened to the other Gallifreyans?"

"Oh, they're here in the cave."

For some reason, I take a ridiculously long time to write an obnoxiously short amount. I literally sweated over this chapter (the heat is driving me mad) and I'm rather proud of the result. This fic is my baby.

Sorry I'm not sorry for the angsty Doctor. The sheer amount of plot holes and overly mysterious Doctor in the TV show concerning the Time War always bothered me, and I wanted to flesh out that direction a little bit. (Actually a lot bit. It forms the backbone of the upcoming storyline. Hehe.)

THANK YOU THANK YOU TO THE REVIEWERS. Thanks especially for the bicycle, Laveycee! Although perhaps I should have said quadricycle eh? ;D

And to Karl Singleton, the guest reviewer, thanks for asking, but I don't know about that. I think Harry is at peace with his parents' deaths, and anyways, that would create a paradox. It is an interesting premise though :)

Thanks for reading! When we hit 100 reviews I'll update again, and bake all the reviewers a cake full of rainbows and vortex energy. Just a few more events until Rosie finally makes her appearance.