"I'd rather cuddle a Blast Ended Skrewt than endure Double Potions today," whined Ron as he and Harry took their seats in the dank dungeon where potions class met.
"Don't let Snape hear you say that," said Harry "He might just grant your request. Where is Snape anyways? He's never late for double potions with Gryffindor and Slytherin. I reckon it's his favorite; seeing us in misery."
"Will you two shut it?" Hermione hissed across the table. "We can't afford to have you two losing us any more house points." Ron rolled his eyes, as he often did when Hermione spoke.
"GOOOOD MORNING!" The students snapped their heads around, looking for the source of the chipper voice.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Ron was referring to the strange blue box that had positioned itself between the shelves of potions supplies at the back of the room. Had it been there when they came into class? No one could remember. It certainly seemed out of place.
"I swear, were you all raised on another planet? That's an old Police Box. I don't know what it's doing here though." said Hermione. "A police box? The entire Muggle police, in that box?" asked Ron, looking puzzled. "Oh for goodness sake-"
Hermione was cut off when the doors of the box flew open with a bang. A rather skinny man in a blue suit stumbled out, looking disoriented. "Oi, where are we then? Rose! Come have a look!" The students all stared at the stranger, who was pointing a strange wand at various objects in the room, which emitted an unpleasant buzzing sound. Still met with silence, he made his way up the aisle, his device glowing. The man stopped at Hermione's desk.
"You there. What's that around your neck?" Hermione looked around nervously. "I-I don't know who you are, but you aren't a professor, so I don't have to-" Before Hermione could finish her sentence, the mysterious man in the blue suit waved his bizarre wand-like device in front of her. It suddenly emitted a higher frequency. "Oh yes, I knew it. There's cosmic energy just radiating from you! Have you been traveling through time, Ms. uh.. Didn't catch your name."
"Granger. Hermione Granger, sir. And.. yes. I have."
The class stared all stared at her in disbelief. Time travel was something fairly rare in the wizarding world. "Hermione what in Merlin's name are you talking about? You haven't done that since 3rd year, right?" Harry whispered. Hermione ignored him and pulled a long chain from under her robes.
"Oh yes, that's a beauty. Time turner, isn't it? Lovely little gadgets aren't they? Not for use by Time Lords obviously, that's why I have the TARDIS." he said, pointing to the blue phone box. All the students were silent; some in fright, some in confusion. At a magical school, they were more than used to odd folk walking around, but this man, he was more than foreign. He wasn't a Muggle, no, he seemed smarter than that. He seemed almost.. other-worldy.
"I'm sorry sir I don't want to be rude, but, you never told us who you are." Harry said. "Oh, what's in a name? Do you all do Shakespeare here?" the stranger asked. He was met with no response. Every student in the room was looking at the door of the classroom, where a slimy black-haired man had entered. His steely eyes scanned the stranger and his police box with hatred.
"What," he said, the tone of his voice as flat as his greased hair, "are you doing in my classroom?". He took a step forward. "Oh, well, you know, just, popping in. Lovely dungeon you've got here, really, I love it, I do, I-" The animated man in the blue suit quickly turned on his heels and ran towards the police box. "Lovely meeting you all! And Miss Granger, maybe we'll meet up again some..time." His eyes burned into Hermione's with the last word. Quicker than Snape could draw his wand, the man had disappeared into his box.
"What's he going to do in there?" "Maybe it's part of the Floo Network" "Maybe there's a portkey in there" The chatter was muffled by a loud whirring sound; a wind scattered the pages of the tattered potions books. The students and their professor watched in awe as the blue box slowly disintegrated in front of their eyes. All eyes turned to their professor, waiting for him to say something.
No one had ever interrupted a classroom at Hogwarts like that. "Sir, who was that man?" asked Parvati Patil. "How did he get past the protective enchantments?" asked Lavender Brown. The students all began to murmur nervously. Hogwarts was the safest place in the wizarding world, and a stranger had just appeared within its walls. Snape raised his hands. "Silence" he said. His tone was calm, but the students knew when their potions master was angry.
"Miss Granger." He strode toward Hermione, who was still clutching her Time Turner. Snape put his wand under the chain of her necklace and pulled it toward him.
"Who gave you this? I'm under the impression that these are only found inside the Ministry's walls." His eyes traveled to Harry and Ron, as if he assumed they were involved. "Well, I've… been asked not to say, sir." Hermione answered tentatively, eyes avoiding her professor's. "Miss Granger." Snape said quietly. The thin, black haired man was more terrifying the quieter he spoke. "Professor McGonnagal. She gave it to me in my third year, so I could take all the courses I wanted to" Hermione admitted. "I-I've started using it again to get all of my assignments done…" She looked guiltily at the floor.
Professor Snape turned and walked slowly back to the front of the classroom. "Mr. Weasley," he said, without turning around. "Kindly escort Miss Granger to the Headmaster's office." "Sir, she hasn't done anything wrong!" protested Harry. "We've never seen that man before." "Keep quiet Mr. Potter, unless you'd like to spend Friday's Quidditch match scrubbing cauldrons in detention." "But sir," Harry said. "Sit. Down." Snape's tone had intensified. Hermione quickly gathered her things and hurried out of the classroom. Ron shrugged, looked at Harry, and followed her out.
"Hermione, what's he on about?" Ron asked, jogging to catch up with his friend. "It's not like you've seen that bloke before." He was met with silence. "Right? Hermione?" She stopped walking. "I-I don't know. I was very young…I…saw his…box. It was in the sky…" she looked around, seeming to laugh at herself. "I dismissed it as a dream." Ron didn't know what to say. "Blimey, Hermione. Why haven't you mentioned that before?" She shifted her feet. "Well I don't know. I thought I imagined the whole thing. I was only in primary school, Ron. I just forgot about it."
They continued down the corridor. "Then I got my letter from Hogwarts, and…I thought that maybe it wasn't a dream. That maybe it was real." "Well he is real apparently" remarked Ron matter-of-factly.
"Yes Ronald, I see that." She said shortly, narrowing her eyes. "Ever since I've known I was a witch, I've wondered if I'd see the box again. I researched and researched, but there's no flying blue box anywhere in Wizarding history. I even checked the Restricted Section. So, until now, I had convinced myself that I was seeing things."
They stopped outside of the headmaster's office. "Well…"Ron started. "What does he have to do with your time turner? He was going on about cosmic energy and a bunch of other nonsense. Right nutter he is, if you ask me."
"I suppose I'll find out." Said Hermione, turning towards the Headmaster's office. "See you at supper." Facing the gargoyle, she said "Pumpkin pasties". The statue jumped aside and revealed the stairway to the Headmaster's office.
Reaching the door, Hermione raised her hand to knock. Before she could, she heard Dumbledore say, "Come in Miss Granger. It's come to my attention that you've been visited by a Time Lord"