And what did you find... Torchwood!

Title:  Arcanum 101
Series:  House of Torchwood
Rating: R/NC-17
Summary: Hogwarts has fallen to the enemy.  Now holed up under the protection of the Cardiff Rift, the team rushes to get things ready for the final battle while old friends and old enemies resurface.  Nothing is as it seems yet it more important than ever for the good guys to prevail.
Pairings: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones; Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams; Owen Harper/Toshiko Sato; Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy; Hermione Granger/Pansy Parkinson; Neville Longbottom/Ginny Weasley; Ron Weasley/Lavender Brown; Blaise Zabini/Luna Lovegood; OCs
Warnings: Male Pregnancy; Semi-Graphic Torture; Parallels to real world history (Nazism & African Slavery) which could be disturbing to some readers
Spoilers: All Torchwood up to S2X06 Reset; Harry Potter up to the end of Goblet of Fire
Disclaimer:  Torchwood is ©2006-2009 British Broadcasting Service Wales (BBC Wales). Harry Potter is ©1997-2007 J. K. Rowling.  Copyrighted material is used without permission with no intention of profit from the works contained herein.
Author's Notes:  I totally blame this story on my beta, bookwrm89, and her cohort, cjharknessgirl. Also special thanks to merucha for her assistance and many head smacks on getting this done. This story is the third in the House of Torchwood trilogy following A Kind of Magic and Where the Road Diverges.  For purposes of this story, all events after Torchwood episode 2x06 Reset and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire should be disregarded and are not relevant to this story.
Translation Note:  Coed, Maes, a Mynydd means "By Wind, Field, and Mountain"

 

* CHAPTER NINETEEN *

Ianto shared a confused glance with Owen before turning a smile on the healer who’d so expertly caught him. He tilted his head to one side as he considered the woman for a long moment; she looked amazingly familiar. Iron grey hair told of her years as did the wrinkles around her eyes, but the smile on her face was so damned familiar. He couldn’t quite place from where. He shook his head a bit and smiled back at her. “I’m sorry,” he said. “We weren’t introduced.”

“Judith,” she said. “I was more concerned with my patient.”

She turned dark melancholy eyes onto the remains of the professor where Owen was carefully preparing him for transfer to the morgue a few stories below. It was in that moment, as she stared at the professor’s remains, Ianto recognized her. She had Hermione’s dark eyes. As she turned back to face him, Ianto sucked in a startled breath. “Judith Harkness, right?”

“How did you…?”

“You and Hermione have the same eyes,” Ianto replied. He offered a hand to her. “I have a very complicated name, but I prefer Ianto Jon…” he trailed off for a moment. “Let me try that again,” he said with a smile. “Ianto Harkness-Jones.”

“So, he finally married again?”

“Just this evening,” Ianto said.  He ducked his head with a faint blush before shaking away the embarrassment. “He thinks you’re dead.”

“I thought he was, so…” she trailed off and shrugged one shoulder. A merry laugh rang through the autopsy bay when Ianto gave a rueful smile acknowledging the hit. “Alys asked me to come personally. How much of what’s happening is because of him?”

“I don’t know, Judith,” Ianto said. He waved a hand toward the stairs and followed her up them. On reaching the main floor, he automatically scanned the space for Jack. His husband was holed up in his office with Martha, both of them frantically dialing mobiles. “Something in Severus’s final message sent Jack into a complete panic.” He sighed and shoved a hand through his hair. “Something happened to him, something very bad, which he hasn’t shared with me…”

“Just like you haven’t shared some things with him, Your Majesty,” Judith replied. “And call me Jodi, everyone does.”

“Jodi,” Ianto acknowledged with a nod. “And I’m Ianto.” He shook his head. “Until my father sent me the family ring, none of it mattered. So I didn’t tell him. Then there wasn’t enough time before all hell broke loose again.” He thought for a moment. Who knew how long it would take for Jack to get hold of the Doctor? He thought again of the comment in his father’s letter.  What was in his father’s safe?  What impact could it have on the outcome of this war? Ianto leant his head back, staring blindly up into the rafters for a moment, and then lowered his head to smile at Jodi. “Want to see a castle?”

“The castle?” she asked.  The grin he received in response to his nod more than showed her relationship to Jack. “Of course!”

Ianto returned her grin with a smug smile of his own. He rubbed his wedding ring with his thumb while he thought.  After a moment, he looked about and called “Tosh? Gwen?” When he had the women’s attention, he smiled. “Still want to see Afalglyn?”

By the time, he climbed the stairs to speak to Jack his initial small group had morphed into a semi large one. He was taking John, Gwen, Alys, Jodi and Tosh with him to the estate. All of them well armed at John’s insistence. Depending on the state of Afalglyn, they’d shift the non-combatants to the estate for the duration of the fight. This would leave a much more manageable group to house in the Hub. The only exceptions to the move of the non-combatants were himself and Mica. Ianto knew Jack wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the larger situation if they were out of his sight for too long.

A swift knock on the door was answered tersely snarled “Come in” from his husband. Not taking it personally, Ianto opened the door, entered and quickly summoned up two cups of coffee for Jack and Martha. He looked over at his youngest who appeared scared out of her wits by her Daddy’s anger. While Jack had a bit of coffee in order to calm himself again, Ianto walked over and picked up Mica. He set her on his hip and turned back to Jack.

“I’m taking a group of us out to Afalglyn,” he said. “According to my father, there’s something there which will help with end this war.”

“Unless he’s locked the Doctor up there, there isn’t,” Jack snapped. He shoved himself to his feet and circled the desk to join Ianto. “I’m going with you.” The words were short and brusque as his husband reached out to take his youngest daughter from Ianto’s hold. He set her on his own hip and brushed a kiss onto Ianto’s lips. “You shouldn’t be carrying her.”

“Jack,” Ianto hissed. The stern look he received in return caused him to roll his eyes. “Fine, I won’t carry her,” he conceded. Instead, he started back out the door to create the portkey which would take the motley group out to his childhood home.  As he left the office, he heard Jack order Martha to ‘keep trying, he has to answer sometime’.

A few taps of his wand to a spare bit of tech lying abandoned on Tosh’s desk yielded a portkey to the gates of Afalglyn. Ianto held it in his hand and waited for the rest of the group to gather around him. He raised a questioning eyebrow when both Hermione and Alice joined the group. The latter accompanied by Stephen. Shrugging, he held out the tech. “This isn’t the easiest way to travel, but is best for a group the size of ours. So, everyone grab hold…” he trailed off, waited for everyone to grasp the tech somehow, and smiled as he murmured the activation phrase, “Coed, Maes, a Mynydd.”  Several startled gasps and Hermione’s shocked “Tad!” accompanied their movement from the Hub to the elaborate gates of the Lestrange estate.

Ianto gave his older daughter a little smile. “That’s the family motto, Hermione,” he said softly. He pushed his way through the group to reach the gates. He stared at them for a long moment before gently resting his hands on them. He no sooner touched the metal then the gates swung open. A glance back at the others summoned Jack to his side. He reached out for his husband’s hand, clutched it tightly in his own, and started to lead the way up the driveway. He closed his eyes as he crossed the wards, feeling them checking him over then welcoming him inside, and he opened his eyes to smile at the sight of his childhood home looming over the rolling lawns of Afalglyn.

“Eye Candy,” John said. “What are we supposed to be looking at?”

“Afalgyln,” Ianto replied. He half turned to look back at them and chuckled softly. “Let me guess, you see a falling into ruin manor house and the stubs of a castle wall?”

“Yep,” Jack said. “So what should we see?”

Ianto was a bit surprised to discover that Jack couldn’t see the house. He dropped his husband’s hand, took a few steps away from him, and held up a hand to keep the others from crowding him. He reached out with his magic, grasped the strands of power which made up the web of the wards, and manipulated them gently.  Using only his magic, he told the wards concealing the estate of those with him, how they related to him, and slowly let the magic drift away. He turned back to the others in time to feel the magic examine each member of the party before accepting them into either the family or the Court.  Ianto couldn’t resist the smile as the girls’s eyes widened and John gasped softly as they saw the house as it truly appeared.

He took Jack's hand again and led him towards the Georgian manor house. It was a massive red brick edifice grandly presiding over the lawns and formal gardens sweeping down to the river; however, he knew it wasn't the manor house that continually drew everyone's eyes. It was the castle high up the hill, and the massive orchards that made it seem as though it were floating in a golden sea. 

It shimmered in and out of focus, the magic demanding one last test. It wasn't until they had reached the main doors that he understood its nature. Across the drive, the great fountain waited, its animal head spouts dry and lifeless. He pulled Jack towards it and walked around it until he found the dragon's head and placed their joined hands against its snout. He only had to wait a second. Water poured from all the spouts, soaring high before splashing back into the basin. Ianto laughed. He was home, and the house and castle welcomed him.. 

“Ianto…” Jack murmured. “That’s where you grew up?”

“Yep,” Ianto said. He chuckled softly and looked over at his husband. “I grew up in the manor house, which we called Afalglyn, but the name…” he trailed off and pointed at the castle beyond, now solid and clearly visible. “It was named for the castle which was our ultimate ancestor’s home.”

Chapter Twenty