Chapter Text
Not only had Dumbledore tried to run his life, tell him what to do and when to do it, who to marry, luckily he was able to get out of the marriage contract he had drawn up with Ginny, Ronan shuddered thinking of being married to her. But he had hid his own soulmates from him? Ronan knew th WW didn’t take soulmates as seriously as the muggle world, especially because it was hard to find them, but to take that choice away? To subject him to the ridicule that had come with not having a mark? Because everyone had marks. People both in the muggle world and WW had made fun of him for no mark, thought that he wasn’t good enough for one. In both worlds it made his life miserable. Even Hermione surprised him, she had been with Ron and was engaged when she had found hers. She found him and yet she ignored it in favor of Ron, and yet, it was a known fact, that you couldn’t have a truly fulfilling relationship without your soulmate. Had she been brainwashed? Or something else? But after talking with her it was just that, her soulmate was muggle and she wanted to have magical children and with him it was possible that one or multiple children would be squibs. Ronan had felt angry at her for that. He knew that he wouldn’t give his soulmate up for anyone, or anything, even at the risk of having squib children. If he was even able to have kids. He couldn’t be sure that both his soulmates would be men, but he thought they would be seeing as he is gay, he knew that it was possible for men to have kids in the WW but he couldn’t go to them for help, so he wasn’t sure if he would still be able to. He knew that he would want kids at some point but not anytime soon.
Ronan was surprised by how little effort went into finding them in the Wizarding World. Normally he'd think it was because they wanted free will to love who they would, but the people in the WW were just sheep. Maybe it was because they were a lazy bunch especially when it came to having to do anything without magic and as far as Ronan knew you couldn’t find them with magic. Or maybe it was because a lot of people with magic had soulmates that were muggle. Ronan was also curious, why did it show up now, there were only two explanations, one Dumbledore died, but that was unlikely, and two he had met one or both of them. Maybe Jack? He wouldn't be surprised if he had given a fake name or had changed it. Ronan had. He wondered if he should let the man know, but then he didn’t have any clue as to find the man without looking suspicious. Also he had seen the closed off look on Jack's face at times, the fact that both times they slept together that Jack left before Ronan had woken. He didn’t let people close. Ronan understood that and was like that at one time, hell could still be considered that, but its not like he wanted to be alone, it was more that he hadnt found someone that was worth his time. The people he met at his job were either idiots or whining about their lot in life but not doing anything to change it. Ronan at least was where he wanted to be at the moment but meeting Jack again had woken up his hunger for danger.
Ronan didn’t think that Jack would react well to knowing he had met his soulmate, but he knew that at some point when he was a little more ready to settle down he would find Jack again. He didn’t want to be with someone that didn’t want to be with him. But then thinking about what he knew about soulmate marks, they were supposed to run a little warm when within a few feet of your mate and when you touch it was supposed to get warmer and light up the first time you touch, that hadn't happened with Jack, so it couldn’t be him. After that thought a weight seemed to appear on his shoulders and weigh him down, he hadn't realized how much he wanted to desperately find his soul mates, how much he needed them. He didn’t like the thought that he needed other people to make him happy, but he was so sick of being alone, he wanted someone to take care of him, he was so tired of everything being on his shoulders, couldn’t someone else take the mantle of protector?
Ronan was pretty certain that Dumbledore wasn’t dead, but he was getting up there in age and his mark had been blocked for more than 20 years. It had only lasted that long because of how powerful Dumbledore is, and magic faded over time, so it just finally came to the point of where the spell finally broke.
Meanwhile at Hogwarts
Dumbledore on the other hand had seen that his spell was wearing off, he knew that he couldn’t change that, but he also knew that meant Harry had met one or both of his mates, but he was getting angry and desperate to find Harry. Dumbledore knew that he couldn’t control Harry like he used to. Dumbledore had hoped that Harry would never meet them, and when he finally gave up that he would meet them he would come back to the WW. Dumbledore needed Harry here, they needed him, what if another dark lord came? Dumbledore knew he was too old to take on any one, he could feel in his bones that within a decade he would die. But he didn’t want to die without someone, mainly Harry to take over his place as the leader of the light. As someone to defend the world from darkness.
Dumbledore had been surprised and a little afraid when Harry had survived Voldemort. But then he thought it was good because Harry was the beacon of the light and could essentially take over looking after the world. He had thought it would work until one day Harry up and left and hadn't returned since. The world needed Harry Potter, Boy who Lived, Man Who Conquered, and Dumbledore would do everything in his power to get the boy back. He needed to forget about his soulmates and marry Ginny. Otherwise people might fear that the boy would go dark. There were already rumours spreading around that he was going to be the next dark lord. Some people had even said they saw him with people that looked like muggles, but that couldn’t be true, Harry couldn’t have forsaken the world that he had sacrificed himself to save? Could he? And Dumbledore feared that the boy was lost. So Dumbledore decided that if he found Harry and the boy wouldn’t come back that for the Greater Good he would have to discreetly get rid of the boy, but first he had to find the blasted boy. But he had his doubts, maybe the boy was dark? How else would he have survived? Unless, no he had watched the boy break the wand, but if he was well, he wouldn’t be happy, he had supposed to be the one to master death, Dumbledore had thought that he could have taken the stone and cloak when the boy died and won back his wand when he defeated Voldemort, it was supposed to be him, not the infernal boy. But then he remembered the boy had broken the wand and thrown it away, along with losing the stone in the woods. Dumbledore had tried to find both but to no avail. Dumbledore pretended that he wasn’t afraid of death and that death was just the next great adventure and to some degree he believed that, but he didn't want to die.
Back to Harry
It was about a year since the last time he had seen Jack, and Ronan wondered if they would meet again. He hoped so. Ronan had gone and quit his job and was a PI now, but all he took were cases no one else would, mostly because they were the people who said they had been abducted by aliens, and other such things.
Ronan had decided on that after he got his memories back, wanting to help people, whether that was proving or disproving what the person thought. Now one might be a little confused as to why he was doing this, possibly risking his life to help people, but like Hermione had said, he had a saving people complex, plus he had the peace that he wanted for five years and the boredom he had initially loved, he had grown out of that. Plus not having to answer to anyone, and because of the nature of the cases he took, they wouldn’t turn heads, hell some people probably thought he was taking advantage of people, and that was okay as long as the people that needed his help got it.
Turns out 80% of the cases he got were actually true, and fortunately most of those were friendly aliens who got stuck on Earth and needed to know a little more about humans so that they could blend in.
But this was not one of those cases. Earlier in the week a middle aged man came in to his office with at least 4 other people saying that they had seen a purple animal that looked like a Jaguar on steroids with teeth that resembled that of a Saber tooth tiger, in a park. They were worried that it might attack someone.
Ronan was in a park in Cardiff being stalked by the so called Jaguar, he could sense it through his magic, this didn’t feel or look like something of this earth and he was trying to decide if he needed to kill it or just transport it to a wilderness in the south. Ronan had sat down an hour ago on alert waiting to see if he was going to be attacked, but the thing was just watching him. Every predator on Earth would have attacked by now as he wasn’t hiding, hell this was a sign of weakness that they wouldn’t refuse.
Just then the beast pounced going for the throat but that was exactly what Ronan wanted, was expecting and the beast was caught in his trap. Just then a group of four people came out of the bushes, with guns and nets and a cage, looks like he wasn’t the only one to check on the animal. Then he noticed he knew them! It had been over a year since he had seen them, but it was the Torchwood team!
The four of them were all just standing around, looking stunned between Ronan and the cage with a purple tiger in it. Not only had someone caught the beast single handedly, they also vaguely recognized the man next to it. Jack had never brought another person to the Hub before or after this man and they had thought he was going to ask Ronan to be a part of the team, they were almost excited for some new blood, and hearing what Jack had said about the man he seemed competent. So when Ronan hadn't shown up the next day, they were all slightly disappointed.
"well, what are you all standing around for? I don’t know what to do with this guy, not like I can put him in my apartment!" Ronan told them, and they all jumped into action, until the cage was on the bed of a huge truck, that they must've owned or rented.
"Good to see you again Jack," Ro saw the confused looks the others gave Jack, "Who are your friends?" Jack smiled, proud of his team.
"this is Tosh, Owen, and Suzie, and I am Jack Harkness, leader of the team."
"So you guys catch aliens then?"
"how do you-"
"Oh please, that thing right there is totally an alien, we have worked with genetic mutation and things like that but nothing on earth is actually capable of making something like that. Plus I've met others." and he pulled out one of his cards and handed it to jack.
"Been abducted by aliens? Think you've seen a ghost? Call, I can help." he read out loud. Looking skeptical, "does this work? I mean don’t you just get the crazies?"
"oi! Not all of them are like that! Sure I do get some people that others wouldn’t believe but do you know what happened with those cases?" they all shook their heads, "One guy went to the police they turned him away, he came to me, it wasn’t aliens but someone was actually out to get him, he would be dead now if I had just been like everyone else and turned him away, another person, she was schizophrenic said aliens were after her, but I was able to help her, and reunited her with her family that had been trying to track her down for five years, the police had given up on finding her years ago. Do you really think I could have helped those people if I didn’t advertise that I wouldn’t turn anyone down?" they shook their heads, Ronan took a deep breath, trying to calm down.
"right, sorry, people give me a lot of grief, and for what? Because I want to help the people that no one else will." the others just looked at each other not really knowing what to think about him. Jack looked a little surprised the last time he had seen Ronan he knew he wasn’t doing anything like this.
"So whats going to happen to that?" Ronan asked pointing towards the cage,
Jack took the lead, "We'll have to keep him locked up, we cant let him go in the wild."
"Why not?" Ronan asked, he didn’t want the thing to be locked up, he knew what that was like, but he also knew that bringing an unknown into an area could have disastrous consequences.
"From what I've heard of the species if its what I think it is well, he would destroy the ecology pretty quick, eating anything and everything. At least with us he'd be in a controlled environment." Ronan nodded reluctantly, he didn’t want that to happen, but at the same time what other options were there?
"Well, I gotta go, but maybe we'll meet again?i hope so" kinda, he didn’t want Jack to retcon him again, not that he would allow htat to happen a second time. He wondered what would happen next.
The team watched him leave. All of them to some degree wanted the man to come work for them. Owen, Tosh and Suzie saw potential there, they wouldn’t mind having someone capable on the team, and also they all saw the somewhat interested and obsessive look Jack sent the man, and then they had seen how easily he had accepted that aliens existed, none of them had taken it that well. And they all thought that with him they might find out more about Jack.
"I don’t want to question you or anything but shouldn’t you have retconned him?" Suzie asked, being the only one brave enough to speak up, they all knew that questioning him could lead to getting an earful or the worst job for a month. Suzie wondered if they had a right to retcon him? Because he had found out about aliens outside of knowing about Torchwood, and wasn’t it Torchwood not aliens that they had to make a person forget?
"I'm more surprised that seeing all of us in one place didn’t reawake his memories of us previously, plus not like we mentioned who we are." In fact seeing them all with alien weapons and the truck that specifically said torchwood would be enough to make even the dumbest person remember. 'damn' Jack thought.
"but why did he remember you?"
"little while ago we met at a bar, coincidence, and we got to talking." Jack was thinking, at this point he really only had two options now, erase all memories or recruit him, the latter was more appealing but after the last time he almost hadn't left in the morning, he already cared about the man, what would happen if he actually fell for him, and then died working for Torchwood? Jack in the end couldn’t figure out what it was about the man that made him feel so attached to him. Aside from the fact that he didn’t freak out in the face of finding aliens were real there wasn’t anything special about the man. At least not at first second or third glance. Well aside from the other fact that he had taken down an animal known throughout the galaxies to be an extremely aggressive animal.
Jack couldn’t see what made him want to go back to man for more, the second time he had slept with Ronan, he almost didn’t leave, and he had been so tempted to stay, in the end he didn’t because this beautiful unique man deserved more than what Jack could give. At least that’s what he told himself.
"Get this guy settled at the Hub, the biggest cell, he may seem docile now, but don’t let your guard down," and Jack was surprised by how quiet it was being, maybe they could let it out in the Hub after some training they might be able to do that too for this guy. "I'm either about to recruit the guy, or am going to have to retcon him again." he didn’t want to do that, he didn’t want Ronan to forget him, or about aliens but it was Torchwood protocol. And he knew from experience leaving loose ends was never good.
Ronan had been expecting Jack to come. He hoped not under the circumstances that he thought they were. But he wasn’t that lucky. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this. So when he opened his door to see Jack there, he wasn’t surprised. He pretended like he didn’t know what jack was there for, maybe he could convince Jack that he didn’t need to do it.
Despite his nervousness Ronan truly was pleased to see Jack again, "Jack! Didn’t expect you, come in" Jack didn’t look all that happy. Jack knew that he only had two options, neither one he liked. He didn’t want Ronan to forget, and he knew he couldn’t see him again, and that thought made him upset, which further made him angry at himself for feeling that, or to recruit him. Jack didn’t mind that option so much but most people didn’t make it out of the job alive and Jack didn’t want to recruit him only to have to watch him die, didn’t want his death on his conscious, and also he had met the man a total of three times and had started to care for him, Jack didn’t even know Ronan and yet, he cared deeply.
Ronan tried to go in for a kiss, but Jack stopped him. Ronan didn’t think he could distract Jack like he had last time they had been here. Ronan tried to send his magic to Jack to make him fall asleep, so as he could come up with a better solution. Or to run, go to America or something, but he didn’t really want to do that. But it didn’t work, didn’t even seem to affect Jack, and then he realized that Jack was telepathic, and had a heavily protected mind if this type of magic didn’t affect him at all. Ronan wondered why he hadn't noticed it. With every single other person he had met there was always a consistent buzz of where someone's mind pushed against his, because most people couldn’t protect their thoughts, and for the most part he could ignore it, but sometimes he couldn’t, but there was none of that with Jack and he had no idea how he had missed it. It was slightly disconcerting but for the most part it was amazing.
"Cut the crap" Jack said sharply, he knew exactly what Ronan was doing and didn’t appreciate it. "You and I both know what I am doing here, I know that you remember everything." Ronan's face blanked and he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, his magic at the ready, just in case it got out of hand. Ronan had become adept at wandless magic since he left the WW.
"Oh? What do I remember? And what does that have to do with you showing up here?"
"it has everything to do with why I'm here, like I told you the first time, I can't have you remembering, not unless…" he trailed off.
"Unless what?" Ronan didn’t have to ask, he knew what Jack was asking and he didn’t like it. He liked being his own boss, not having to work for anyone he didn’t want to. Plus he had done his research on Torchwood. Three he had discovered wasn’t so bad when it came to hurting aliens if they didn’t have to, but sometimes they did, and Ronan understood, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be a part of that, Torchwood 2 and 4 he couldn’t find anything on them. But what he found about Torchwood 1 truly disgusted him, and he knew that if he could he would take them down himself, but he couldn’t.
"You join Torchwood,"
"If I refuse?"
"Then I'd have to remove your memories, and at this point I don’t know what that would do to you."
"and if I refuse that as well?" Jack looked at Ronan, and for the first time saw a different side of the man. He could see that his posture looked relaxed but at a seconds notice, he could be moving, his body tense, his face set in a stoic mask hiding his emotions, but looking in his eyes he saw a steeliness in them that he had never seen. Jack had always seen Ronan when he was in a decent mood, not being threatened. To Jack Ronan had always been cheerful in his presence even a few hours ago when he caught the jaguar. But now he saw a man who would fight, for what Jack wasn’t sure, and he also wasn’t sure who would be the winner. Jack didn’t want it to come down to that, but he still had to answer to Torchwood 1 and even if the report didn’t get read for months if he didn’t do one of the options presented it was also his ass on the line.
"You can't, its either those options or more drastic ones." Ronan was angry, he didn’t like being backed into a corner, he had no doubt that he could get away, but that meant running, and he was sick of running, first from Vernon and Dudley, then from Voldemort and people trying to kill him, then from Dumbledore, and Ginny, and finally from the WW itself. Well maybe the last wasn’t running but leaving, he didn’t owe that world anything. Would working for them be so bad? Yes Torchwood 1 was awful, but he wouldn’t be working directly for them, he would be working for Jack, and he seemed like a good man, despite the fact that he was so closed to anybody.
And maybe, he can do some good? "Fine" Ronan practically growled out, he was frustrated, to say the least "What about my clients?" Ronan asked in a resigned tone, he truly didn’t like this, but all other options seemed a lot worse in his opinion, and if it truly got to a point where he wanted to leave, he could always fake his death, or a kidnapping. Jack was happy that he wouldn't have to do anything drastic, but heard Ronan's tone and his unhappiness at the situation just seemed to seep out of him, Jack could practically feel the emotions, not knowing that Ronan was accidentally projecting his feelings in his frustrated state.
Jack had to think for a moment, "either take them on your own time, which with all we deal with I don’t think you'll want to do that or get rid of them." Ronan wasn’t happy but agreed.
"right meet me at this location tomorrow at eight, I will be giving you a tour of the place, and show you what we do, I don’t think I have to warn you about what will happen if you don’t show." Ronan scowled at him.
"I've said yes, you don’t have to doubt that, but" and Ronan got right into Jack's face, and personal space, he wouldn’t take threats from this man, plus, he didn’t work for the man until tomorrow, "don’t you dare threaten me again, ive been taking it lying down in the past, but not again, you wont like the consequences," he told Jack in a calmly and deadly manner. He let a little of his power leak out, it would make it look like he had more of a presence, and let Jack know that he wasn’t playing.
Had Jack been anybody else, he would have been afraid, and he was a little nervous, was offering him the job a bad idea? Ronan was definitely angry, and Jack wondered if he would bring that anger into the work place, make all their lives difficult. He hoped not.
"Now get the fuck out" and practically shoved Jack out the door. Jack wondered what he had just got he and his team into. Thankfully for Jack and the team that Ronan didn’t hold onto grudges, and also knew that being professional was the best way to go.