Magic and Aliens

A Master Plan and a Magic Cat

The Doctor pulled and pushed the controls with the ease of a man with hundreds of years' experience. He told his companions what to do as they piloted with him. The, of course could not reach his dizzyingly high standards of TARDIS flying. When Rory asked what their destination was, the Doctor told them they were on their way Mexico.

"Please don't come back with a sombrero!" exclaimed Amy, thinking about the collection of hats she had tripped over. The TARDIS was enormous but the Doctor could still leave a hat box somewhere anyone can easily trip over.

"Why not? I like sombreros." the Doctor said as the married couple rolled their eyes. The Doctor said (and Amy mouthed), "sombreros are coo-"

The TARDIS jolted erratically – well, more than usual – the crew were thrown forwards and backwards and forwards again and back. The question, 'what is going on?' appeared in each of their heads. Though, strange things often happened to the three, even stranger than their usual adventures.

The TARDIS landed suddenly. They were all somewhat bruised and battered from being propelled around the entire TARDIS console room. The TARDIS doors opened and a man entered. It was a man who the Doctor knew so very well. The Master.

"You've regenerated!" he cried accusingly. He then pulled out his laser screwdriver and shot each of them.

Rory woke up, confused. Not only did he feel disorientated but also... short?

"Wha..." wait, was that him? It sounded too high-pitched. He decided to focus on his surroundings, instead. They were in the living room of a a nice but modest flat. The TARDIS was parked in a corner, making even less space. A man was standing by the TARDIS, he recognised him from somewhere.

"Master, what have you done?" asked a boy who looked suspiciously like the Doctor. Oh no, this wasn't good, they were all children, he recognised ten (maybe eleven or twelve)-year-old Amy. "I thought, after everything we've been though, you'd changed." If he hadn't just been de-aged by a blonde version of a former Prime Minister, he would have laughed at the incredibly dramatic way the Doctor had been talking.

"That's what they all say!" Amy said.

"I'm giving you a treat, you get to go to–" The man began to say.

"Who are you?"

"I am the Master," he said the most over the top evil sounding voice he had ever heard. "Hasn't the Doctor told you anything about me? I'm in arch-nemesis!" 'The Master' told them in response to their blank faces, though they were more confused than ever. He looked out of the window, "Oh, here they are." He opened the window and pulled in an owl. He untied four letters from it's feet and threw three of them to the Doctor, Amy and Rory. Addressed to Amy Pond, Rory Williams and John Smith. They looked at their letters which all said they had been accepted to a wizard school.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" Amy asked.

"It's in Scotland." the Doctor replied knowingly, as though he didn't think the existence of a magical school. "You'll feel right at home."

"Seriously? Wizards and witches and magic?" Rory said disbelieving.

"Oh, look we get hats!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"And wands, proper magical wands!" Amy was apparently unconcerned too.

"We are not going to this probably non-existent school!" Rory said. He was putting his foot down – literally. "We've just been kidnapped by a potential megalomaniac, de-aged (if that's even a word) and forced to go to school!"

"Hogwarts does exist, doesn't it Doctor?" Amy asked and the Doctor nodded. Before Rory could protest she continued, "come on, time travel, aliens, robots – is magic such a stretch? Also as a potential megalomaniac, he's hardly going to give us a choice, is he? So we may as well enjoy it." When Rory thought about it, he imagined that learning magic would probably be a lot of fun and as he'd managed to accept aliens, why not magic?

"How did they know we were here?" he inquired.

"Magic," the Master responded with a smile.

After fifteen minutes of silence in which they each contemplated the situation, Amy asked, "What year is it?"

"Er, 1989," the Master said muttering about 'getting it wrong'.

As they were walking through Diagon Alley, shopping for Hogwarts supplies, Amy and Rory looked at everything in awe while the Doctor took it as an opportunity to talk to the Master.

"How did you escape the Time War?"

"I managed to contact you, past you and I convinced you to free me. You wouldn't remember, I made you forget."

"You make it sound so simple."

"Does it need to be complicated?" the Master questioned.

"You like elaborate plans." he then changed the subject, "How do we have magic? Why are you doing this anyway?"

"Oh, it's been a while since I escaped and I've been doing experiments, trying to harness wizarding power. And like I said, it's a treat."

The Doctor frowned at the latter statement, choosing to only respond to the former, "so, you can 'take' magic, if you're not born with it. What are you doing if you're not going to be a student?"

"I'm teaching you Astronomy! Apparently the previous teacher won the Wizarding Lottery." Both of them laughed.

Rory flicked through his new books and inspected his recently bought potions equipment, " I hope these things are going to make more sense when we get their and actually use them."

"What's my cat telling you?" asked Amy. She had bought a black cat, she had said if she was going to be a witch she would include a cat, a broomstick and start cackling madly, to feel the part. The cackling had frightened the Doctor and Rory.

"She's admiring my bow tie." the Doctor said. "She considers herself to be her own cat and not your property, by the way."

"What should I call her, I can't keep calling her 'the cat'."

"Her mother named her Cecilia."