A/N: This is my first Doctor Who fic - though it's a crossover with Harry Potter. It's part of the "If You Dare" Challenge. The prompt was "Spoilers."
Sarah x
The forest was dark, and all Harry could hear from inside the tent as he stood watch was Hermione's continued sobs; if he could get his hands on Ron right now, he would cheerfully wring his neck. It had been four days since Ron had deserted them, and, though the atmosphere was more peaceful in his absence, Hermione was grieving his departure in a way Harry had not been expecting.
Pushing out his hands so they were closer to the fire, Harry damned the who wizarding world. He damned Ron for leaving them, the Ministry of Magic for being stupid enough to fall into the control of Voldemort, Snape for taking over Hogwarts and, of course, Voldemort himself, for being a murderous, power-hungry, prejudiced lunatic. If it wasn't for Voldemort, none of this would have happened. He would have been in Hogwarts, comfortable and warm, in his dormitory with Ron, Dean, Neville and Seamus.
But Voldemort did exist, and he was gaining strength, and Harry was here, in the dark woods, listening to his best friend cry her heart out in a tent on a cold night.
He was beginning to wish he could know the outcome of all this effort he was putting in; what if it wasn't enough? What if, after all he was putting himself, and now Hermione, through, Voldemort won anyway? What if that was the last time he ever saw Ron, and they had ended on bad terms? This world was such a mess. Falling out among themselves could only make Voldemort stronger, too.
Harry heard movement from the tent and started slightly, before reminding himself that it was only Hermione; seconds later, she was sitting beside him in the cold, her face soaked with tears. With a sigh, he put his arm around her and said, "You really need to get some sleep, Hermione."
She didn't answer him. All she did was put her head on his shoulder and joined him to stare at the flames in front of them. How long they sat there, he was unsure, but the sun was starting to set when Harry eventually looked around him, up through the trees to the sky above; the sky had turned an odd shade of light purple in places, while it was pink and orange and blue in others.
It was peaceful. Sad, sorrowful, painful...but nevertheless oddly peaceful. Maybe it was the lack of wind and the stillness of the air, but the turbulence he had felt inside recently was beginning to dissipate.
But it didn't last long.
Both he and Hermione jumped to their feet, wands drawn, when the Earth shook with a loud thump, spraying them with soil, twigs and leaves. Before their very eyes, a blue police box was materialising, until it was very much there, having somehow broken through their enchantments. Smoke was seeping from the cracks at the door hinges, leading Harry to believe something was burning inside it.
Cautiously, he stepped forwards, his wand pointed directly at the police box. How had it broken their protective spells? And who was inside?
Prepared for Death Eaters, he rounded to the doors, and heard Hermione close behind him. There was a very irritated female voice inside, shouting, "I told you she would do this! Could've just taken her to the other side of the wood, but oh, no-"
"What are you on about, River?" demanded another voice as the doors opened; this woman sounded younger, and had a Scottish accent, and when she stepped out of the police box, Harry noticed immediately that her hair was as red as any of the Weasleys'.
Behind her came who Harry presumed was the first woman, and a man with brown hair and a resigned but slightly confused expression. The last to emerge was another man, wearing a bow tie and brown suit jacket, with eccentric plainly written all over every inch of him.
"Who are you?!" Harry shouted at them, causing all four to turn and face him, as they had been looking in the opposite direction.
"This was what I was on about," said the first woman, whose hair was curly and thicker even than Hermione's, and whose eyes sparkled with mischief and excitement. The redhead just stared at her, while the eccentric-looking man stepped forward. "Do you mind lowering you wand, please?" asked the curly-haired woman politely. "I can assure you we mean you no harm."
"Who are you?" Harry demanded again, refusing to drop his wand.
"I'm Doctor River Song," she answered him without hesitation.
"Amy Pond," stated the redhead, looking a little fearful of Harry and Hermione's armed state.
"Rory Williams," the first man said, as nervously as Amy had.
"I'm the Doctor," the eccentric-looking man said with a smile.
Hermione took a few steps forward until she was right next to Harry and said, "Doctor Who?"
"Just the Doctor," he smiled again. "Now, really, there's no need for wands. We just had a little crash landing, that's all."
"Wouldn't have happened if he'd listened to me," River smirked.
Harry was very confused, but he instinctively lowered his wand, though he kept it in his hand. "What on Earth is this thing?" he asked the group, reaching out to examine the police box more closely. He noticed their hesitation, but understood they were more afraid of frightening him with the information than anything else. "We're wizards, Doctor, as you've already worked out. There's not much you could say that would surprise us."
"It's my TARDIS. It can take you anywhere in space and time," the Doctor finally told him. "Well, almost anywhere. There are places she doesn't like very much. I guess you could call us time-travellers."
Hermione stepped forward again, studying it closely. "How did you break our protective enchantments?" she asked quietly.
"By accident," River told them. "She didn't want to come to this spot, at this time, but someone forced her."
"Why?" Harry instantly asked, his hand tightening around his wand just in case.
"He didn't want to listen when I told him not to," she jerked her head towards the Doctor. "Always has to be right." River walked away from her companions, exploring Harry and Hermione's little campsite with interest. "You see, I've been here before, about sixteen hours from now. I watched you pack up and head somewhere else, so I knew you must be here right now. I tried to tell him, but no, no."
Harry had to hastily close his mouth upon hearing that someone had watched them leave here, before they had even gone. He was reminded of the Time-Turner Hermione had been given in their third year at Hogwarts, and so knew time travel was possible, but he had never seen it done like this. "Sorry about your enchantments, by the way," the Doctor said to them.
"Oh!" squeaked Hermione, before she dashed off to repair the damage done by the Doctor and his TARDIS. Harry looked at Rory and Amy, who hadn't spoken since telling him their names, and saw they were still unsure of the situation. Finally trusting that they were harmless, he walked back to the tent and sat down on the ground beside the fire, which, though dusted with leaves, had not gone out when the police box had landed.
Harry beckoned to them, and called, "Come and sit by the fire." They obeyed, seeming more relaxed about the whole thing. Rory and Amy sat opposite him, and River sat on his left, with the Doctor wedged between her and Amy. When Hermione finished re-doing the enchantments, she sat on Harry's right.
"So why are you camping in this weather?" Amy asked. It was the first time she had spoken since giving her name, but Harry didn't quite know how to answer.
There was a short pause before Hermione eventually said, "We're on a mission, of sorts. We've been camping for months, from place to place. We don't stay anywhere very long. If we're seen by certain people, they'll kill us and the whole wizarding world won't have a chance against You-Know-Who."
Harry glanced at River; it didn't seem that this was news to her. In fact, she seemed quite disinterested in the information. However, she did turn to Amy, and said, "Basically, there's a wizard who split his soul and hid the pieces, and he's trying to take over their world. This evil git tried to kill Harry as a baby but the curse rebounded and her was too weak to carry on, but a few years ago, he got his power back. They can't get rid of him until they find all the bits of his soul and destroy them. He and Hermione have been searching for them for months. Ron was with them but he left a few days ago after a row."
"How do you know about that?!" asked Harry, unnerved by how much River knew.
She shrugged, "I've travelled in this time and world before. I find it very interesting."
Amy, however, looked somewhat outraged. "So why haven't you helped them?"
Rory, though still silent and confused, shared Amy's annoyance in his expression, although he continued to say nothing.
River answered, quite solemnly this time, "I can't interfere with it. It has to be Harry who does it. I have to leave it as it is. There are part of time that shouldn't be re-written, and this is one of them."
She sounded a little like Hermione had done when they had used the Time-Turner to save Sirius and Buckbeak, and she had sternly told him that extreme care had to be taken with time-travel. Although, it didn't seem like this lot were taking much care.
To Harry's surprise, it was Rory who spoke next. "Does that go as far as giving them some food? They look like they could use it." River stared at him for a moment, before studying Harry and Hermione with her sparkling eyes. He could tell that she was taking in their pallid complexions and fairly thin frames, and when she didn't protest, Rory headed to the TARDIS again.
When Harry looked at the Doctor, he was alarmed to see great excitement in his eyes. "I don't suppose you could show us some magic? I know all about the Statute of Secrecy, but we're hardly your average clueless Muggles, are we?"
The very fact that he knew the word Muggle proved the Doctor's point without any further persuasion, but Harry thought it best to leave the magic to Hermione. He looked around at her and nodded. "Lumos," said Hermione, causing the tip of her wand to light up. Harry smiled slightly as the Doctor watched in wonder, probably because Hermione hadn't needed to do anything but say the incantation and stay focussed. "Nox." The light went out.
Hermione pointed her wand at a small rock on the ground and said, "Wingardium Leviosa," with a swish and flick of her wand. Amy's face lit up at seeing the stone rise into the air steadily under Hermione's control, before she allowed it to drop to the ground again. "Expecto Patronum," she said, causing her Patronus – a silvery otter – to dance its way around them.
Rory, who had emerged from the TARDIS, arms laden with assorted foodstuffs, almost dropped it all at the sight of the otter. He was stunned still and silent by the Patronus, until it vanished into thin air. It took him a moment to regain the function of his legs, but when he did, he approached Harry and Hermione and placed a large pile of food – bread, apples, sausages, cheese, potatoes, carrots, peas, oranges, a box of cereal, a carton of milk and even a large bar of chocolate – between them. "That should keep you going for a bit," he smiled.
"Thanks," Harry sincerely said to him.
"Thank you," added Hermione, who sounded rather faint as she said it.
The Doctor stood up and announced, "We'd best be getting out of your hair. Sorry about our little accident. Promise it won't happen again." Harry smiled at him, and the amused irritation in River's face. He was torn, though – they were time-travellers. They had to know the outcome of all of this, didn't they? After all, River had seen them the next day, before seeing them now.
He exercised some self-control and watched the other two get to their feet, as Rory was still standing, and bid the goodbye and good luck, before strolling carelessly back to the TARDIS; it looked like Hermione was going to have to repair her protections a second time.
But Harry couldn't. He could let them go without at least asking. So he half-ran after them, catching River before she closed the blue door. "What happens? Do I kill him or does he kill me?"
River knew. He could see it in her bright, shining eyes, but he could also tell that she couldn't let him know what was going to happen. She couldn't meddle with the situation, could she? Harry had to guess that telling him his future was too much of an intervention. Worse than giving him food, anyway.
Rather than give him any details, she just smiled and said, "Spoilers, Harry," and closed the blue door. The TARDIS made a strange sound and de-materialised into the air, before taking off and leaving Hermione's enchantments in tatters once more.
Hermione, obviously annoyed by this, drew her wand and exclaimed, "Oh, for heaven's sake!"
Please feel free to tell me your thoughts!
Sarah x