"What?" Hugo said, following his sister out of the library. "Why can't the Doctor be real?"
"Because that defies all laws of reason, Hugo!" Rose cried, clutching three books to her chest. "Aliens, spaceships, Time Lords - who's ever heard of such rubbish?"
The boy frowned, chasing after his sister. "Magic, wands - wizards. What's to say that we don't defy reason?"
"Don't be stupid. Wizardry can be traced back through history. Time Lords can be traced back through watching the telly every week!" She sighed before turning to face her brother, pushing her hair behind her ears. "Look, if you can find me real, solid evidence that the Doctor really exists then I'll do your chores for the entire summer."
Hugo grinned. "And feed my owl?" When Rose glared at him he sighed. "Fine. Just you wait, Rosie, I'll prove to you that the Doctor exists and you'll be sorry that you ever doubted me."
Rose sighed and pressed on down the hall with her brother at her heels, going on and on about the many possible ways that the Doctor could be real. She wanted to cry. He couldn't be serious, could he? Did he really expect to find any real proof that the Doctor actually exists? That was almost like saying their uncle never defeated Voldemort or that their dad had ever gotten on a famous witches and wizards card (which she had never actually seen before either, but he insisted it was true).
She faltered and stopped dead in her tracks, looking at her watch and gasped. "Hugo, you should be in class!" she hissed as her walked right into her. "Charms started ten minutes ago, you're late."
His eyes went wide. "What about you? Haven't you got class?"
"No, I've got a free period but I'm supposed to be studying with Al and Scorpius!" She gasped again and took off running in the other direction before she could even see Hugo rolling his eyes at her.
It didn't take Rose long before she found herself searching the school grounds for the two boys (who looked like they were in a heated debate about Quidditch instead of studying) when she did she dropped her books next to them and plopped down with an exaggerated sigh and threw open one of her books before pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill. The two boys gave her a wary glance and it was Albus who spoke up.
"What's he done now?" he asked as he flipped a page in A History of Magic and scribbled down some notes. "He didn't try to freeze Green House three, did he? Because that would be brilliant."
Rose shot her cousin a glare. "No," she snapped, clenching her fist around the quill she was holding. "He thinks he can prove that the Doctor is real."
"Who?" Scorpius blinked, looking up from his Potion's homework. "Doctor who?"
"Yes, exactly!" Rose cried, snapping her quill in half. She glanced at her quill and ink covered hands and gave a small whimper. "He's going to drive me insane."
Albus snorted. "I'd say you're already one stem short, actually."
-0-0-0-0-
The following weeks hadn't been much better for Rose. Between Hugo slipping into the library (she had seen him with a copy of Magical Items and Their Origins and Unexplainable Events in Wizarding and Muggle History on various occasions), claming that he was doing his research on the Doctor. How he even hoped to find anything about a fictional character in their library books was far, far beyond her. And even as the Christmas Holidays drew closer she spent as much time as she could in the Hufflepuff common room, packing away the things that she would take home with her.
Such as two essays that she would have her mum look over and a few jumpers that she would ask her grandmother to patch up. Of course she couldn't say that they had gotten all holey because she had been out running around the school grounds after dark with Albus and Scorpius trying to find James and Lily (both of whom had been well conceded under Uncle Harry's invisibility cloak - how was that even fair?)
It was two days before she would return home for the holiday, and having just finished her after noon class of Double Herbology with the Slytherins, Rose sat in the Great Hall waiting for both Albus and Scorpius to show up. She didn't want to begin to think about what they had gone off to do or rather where they went but as soon as she saw her bother bound into the Great Hall, his robes a tattered, frayed mess she rolled her eyes and groaned into her pumpkin juice, suddenly wishing she knew where the boys had gone off to.
"I've set fire to my text book," the Gryffindor said with a lopsided grin, sitting next to his sister.
Rose glanced at Hugo and rolled her eyes. "Yes, and your robes too, I see. Mum'll throw a fit." She paused to set her goblet down and frowned. "I don't think Grandma Weasley will be too happy, either."
"You wont tell, will you?" Hugo asked, picking at a bit of his singed tie. "They'll have my head, you know."
"Mums the word," answered Rose before taking a bite of her sandwich. "How's the research, then? Can't imagine you're having the best of luck with it."
For a moment the younger boy scowled at his sister before dropping his head onto the table with a loud thud and groaning rather dramatically (Rose had to choke down a sip of pumpkin juice at his sudden antics and was turning a lovely shade of red). He stayed like that for a moment before slowly shaking his head from side to side, folding his arms over his head. "None at all," he moped. "It's impossible trying to trace back a guy who can time travel."
"Because he's not real," Rose insisted. Hugo glanced up at her and glared as she picked up her plate in a huff and stalked over to the Slytherin table to sit beside Albus who had just taken his seat. He looked taken back at her sudden appearance but quickly adjusted.
Back at the Hufflepuff table Hugo continued to grumble and groan, earning some curious looks for the other students before he finally picked up and went back to his own table for a sandwich and sulked out of the Great Hall altogether.
"Have a happy Christmas, then," Albus said lightly, grinning at Rose.
"Oh, shut up," she snapped and took a bite of her own sandwich, silently dreading her Christmas Holiday.
-0-0-0-0-
"Mum, tell Rosie to move her things! They're blocking the telly!" Hugo called, brushing out of the family room in search of his mother.
"What are you, four?" Rose called after her brother as she packed up her school supplies and made way for the stairs, rolling her eyes. It was impossible to get any homework done at home while Hugo was around. She would have liked to have finished her essay in the family room while her dad was still at work but Hugo insisted on watching the Doctor Who marathon that had started earlier that morning.
She couldn't really understand why they even needed a TV in the first place. She had never once seen her mum sit down to watch anything and her dad, even after having been told how to work it, still couldn't figure that the round button was the power button. And all Hugo did was watch Doctor Who - never anything else though. It would be great if there was a certain channel pertaining to the wizarding world, like a sort of hidden channel. She would have liked to be able to watch a good game of Quidditch while working on homework instead of having to listen to the radio for the scores (Rose honestly did not get how James and Albus could put up sitting by a small red radio during the summer for the games.)
She had been just at her bedroom door when she heard the theme music of Doctor Who drift from the family room and up the stairs. Part of her wanted to drop all of her things right there and go sit and watch with Hugo, but then she remember that no matter what, she mustn't give in! Then came Hugo's cry of how he never liked that episode and she barked out a laugh before closing the door to her bedroom behind her.
The rest of the Christmas Holiday went on like that. Having finished all of her homework and having gotten her jumpers patched up Rose was finally able to sit and watch an episode or two of Doctor Who with Hugo, though it was a rather trying task as he was very opinionated about every episode and seemed to have some sort of criticism about each of the Doctor's companions. One night she had left not even ten minutes into the episode and upon hearing Hugo bound up stairs had asked how the episode was.
"I didn't like it," he replied with a sigh, going to open his door. "I don't like Martha much." And then proceeded to slam his door shut with a bang.
She thought that maybe, just maybe, Hugo would give up on his little quest to prove that the Doctor was real, and then she had heard him thrashing about his room and muttering behind the door about how he just had to be real because witches and wizards were and promptly put her forehead against the wall and groaned.
Simply put, she could not wait to get back to Hogwarts; to be amongst sane people once again.
-0-0-0-0-
After having finally settled back into life at Hogwarts after the winter holidays and classes started up once more Rose gave a faint sigh as she dressed for the day. It was Defense Against the Dark Arts with Slytherin and then Potions with Ravenclaw. Actually she had been looking forward to getting back into the swing of classes almost as soon as she had stepped off of the Hogwarts Express. She tied her hair in a lose bun atop her head, grabbed her quills, in well, books and parchment, shoving them all neatly into her school bag before bounding out of the common room.
She ate her breakfast quickly, giving waves to her cousins as she spotted them around the Great Hall (the majority of them being at the Gryffindor table, of course), and left almost as quick to Defense Against the Dark Arts. There were only a few other seated and she quickly took up her spot in the front and in no less than five minutes both Albus and Scorpius had joined her, sitting at the desk to her right.
Albus leaned over. "Have you heard?" He asked, arching his eyebrows as he took out his books. "We've got a new Professor."
Rose's eyebrows shot up almost at once. "Is that even possible?" She hissed, watching as Scorpius nodded. "Did Professor Griffiths get sacked? He was brilliant!"
"Dunno," Scorpius said, leaning forward on his arms. "No one knows. Can't say I've seen him over the holidays either. Sort of like he vanished, really."
The three of them went quiet as they slowly began to open their books to where they had left off. Rose had been just about to pull out a bit of parchment when the door to the classroom was throw open rather unceremoniously. Albus sat back with his hands on the table, Scorpius biting the tip of her quill and Rose leaning forward as if to get a better view of the door. What they saw moments later was enough to baffle the entire room and leave slack jawed and wide eyed.
"Oh, look at you all! A bunch of brilliant minds," said a man who had walked in. "A brilliant bunch of brilliant wizards and witches all gone completely blank."
The small Hufflepuff gave a whimper. "What?"
Sarah MacMillan stirred at Rose's side, much like the rest of the room, didn't quite know what was going on. Even Albus had sat back in his seat, pushing up his glasses. Scorpius, Rose noted, did not look at all impressed and she had to stifle another whimper as the boy sat forward, elbows on the desk and eyebrows raised.
"Is that a bowtie?" the Slytherin asked as if that particular article of clothing was the most offensive piece of clothing he had ever seen. "It looks ridiculous."
"Oi!" said the man, adjusting the bowtie (Rose had by now wanted to put her head down and weep. The thought of doing all of Hugo's chores!), and slowly walked over to the desk. "It's cool. Bowties are cool."
Scorpius sniggered, clearly not impressed, and turned to look at Albus frowning. When Al grinned and shrugged Rose figured that they would be having a row about the entire situation later at dinner. Dinner which she would not be attending because she would be hiding forever in the dorms, locked away in her trunk, curled into a little ball and buried beneath all of her books and clothes. This had to be a very, very bad dream.
"So," Albus began causing Rose to come out of her own miserable thoughts. "Exactly who are you and what happened to Professor Griffiths? Did he get sacked?"
The man, blinked. "Sacked? Nah," he said walking around to the front of the class room to sit on the desk with his hands on his knee. Eyes darting from one person to the next. "He may have run into a bit of trouble with a pack of Crumple-Horned Snorkack's in Sweden. Well, maybe a lot of trouble with a pack of Crumple-Horned Snorkack's and a Nargle. Quite a party but not exactly my cuppa tea."
The Scamander twins, whom sat near the back, pitched a fit and couldn't seem to stop laughing. One of the, Rose couldn't tell which at the moment, wheezed at the bloke was as much a nutter as his own mother, which caused the whole class to laugh and Rose to bury her head in her hands.
"Yes, alright," Lorcan said, flushed from laughing. "But who are you, then?"
To that the man grinned, Rose secretly dreaded the answer, and sat up straight. "I'm the Doctor," he said brightly - sounding almost like his name should have impressed the entire room. "And I'm your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
"What?" Rose cried, snapping her head up.
Her life was over now. Hugo had won and now she would never hear the end of it.
Worse even; she would have to do all of his chores for the entire summer now.
-0-0-0-0-
A/N:
Okay, so I started this back in Decemeber, maybe, and only just finished it because of lack of muse and misery that one of my fandoms in coming to an end rather soon. I'm not too happy with the end because honestly I was getting so tired of the fic just sitting around in my files collecting dust, so sorry if it seems a bit rushed; I did rush it after all.