Dear Hope,
I wasn't sure what to get you for your birthday and then I thought I could write you something! I hope you enjoy it - I enjoyed writing it - and that it makes you want to read some more! Aha, I did leave it on a cliff hanger!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 3
A Surprising Birthday: Chapter 1/?
"Any birthday plans then?"
Hope and Anette were strolling back through the boneyard after a tiresome day on Tweety. The sun was setting across the backlot as they made their way towards basecamp to collect their things and head home.
"Not really," Hope replied, "but, I do have the weekend off…"
"Which can only be a good thing". Anette grinned at her as they tapped out and headed to the bus station.
Truth be told, Hope had kind of hoped that her boyfriend Dom had arranged some sort of elaborate surprise for her (she found herself scanning the car park for him dressed in full cosplay holding a bunch of yellow and black flowers) but she made it all the way to the bus without anyone jumping out at her.
"Oh shoot," Anette gasped suddenly, "I've still got my radio on! I'll just be a minute…", and she dashed back towards the tour.
It didn't matter, Hope thought, the bus would be at least another 20 minutes. They'd still be able to ride back together (if Dom didn't intercept the bus and confess his love for her in the middle of the road that is).
As Hope waited, surrounded by excited visitors, it began to rain slightly. She shrugged her hood up and turned to her phone. She was about to listen to a podcast when someone tapped her on the arm. Great, she thought, someone asking yet another question about the buses. She wasn't being paid anymore, so it hardly seemed fair.
"What?" she turned around grumpily.
The man stood in front of her was six foot, easily, had sandy brown hair and an incredibly long trench coat on. Hope froze. Surely it couldn't be… him?
"I need help," the man said urgently. "Help from someone who knows this place inside out. I assume you do?"
He gestured to her uniform, waiting for an answer. Yet still no words came to her.
"I could always ask someone else…" The man looked about at the other staff members waiting by the bus stop. Hope spotted Aliza and Kieran. There was no way she was letting them have this over her.
"No, no…" Hope found her voice, "No! I can help! I've worked here longer than those two anyway."
The man grinned, "I just had this feeling you were the right person for the job".
Somehow, Hope managed to lead them both back inside the tour through the staff entrances. Of course, the tall man (she refused to acknowledge his name until she heard him say it) used his psychic paper a couple of times, and now they were heading towards the platform. She texted Anette saying Dom surprised her, picked her up and was taking her to dinner.
"I'm Hope by the way," Hope suddenly said, "who… er, who are you?"
"I think you know who I am…" the man said grinning. As Hope beeped them through the staff door to the platform The Doctor (Hope was screaming inside) pulled out his sonic screwdriver and started scanning. Strangely enough no one paid them any attention. They must think he's a nerd in cosplay being ironic, Hope thought.
They came up to last shot, passing Jess. She snickered when she saw Hope.
"Dom is really nailing his ten look there!" she said, gesturing to The Doctor. "Only you would spend your birthday back in this place!"
Hope just laughed and continued walking. The Doctor was hovering by the door to the last shot staff corridor.
"Can we get in here?" Hope beeped them through.
Once inside, she managed to find her voice again to ask a few burning questions.
"Why are you here? How are you here? I thought you weren't real? Do you know about the TV show? Are you fighting someone, SOMETHING, bad?! Why do you need my help?" They all rushed out way too fast for any normal person to process.
"I am here," The Doctor said calmly, "because there is someONE bad. I came in the TARIDS. I am very much real. I do know about the TV show, it was Jack's idea as a way of keeping my existence hidden somehow - it was a joke at first. And," he suddenly turned to face her, "I most definitely need your help because hopefully you know this 'attraction' (he made quotation marks in the air) better than he does."
"Who's he?" Hope was afraid of the answer.
The Doctor studied her face. "I'm not sure you're ready," he said. "When you've got over this," he gestured grandly to himself, "then I'll tell you who we're up against".
Without argument, he turned abruptly to the two doors at the end, whipped out the screwdriver, and started scanning again. Hope stood still in the middle of the corridor. She couldn't believe what was happening - was this real? Did she fall and hit her head on the way to the bus stop and this was all a dream?
A loud buzzing sound brought her back to her senses. At the end of the corridor there was now a huge blue light seeping out from the set of double doors (which Hope knew for a fact led to the back of the sound stages). She blinked, it was still there, and then went over to join The Doctor.
"Can you beep us through?" he asked.
Hope regarded him. He can create portals behind doors but can't get past a simple security system? Of course he can Hope realised, he was just making her a part of this. And she loved it.
"What's gonna be on the other side?"
"Friends," The Doctor said, "and I think you'll know them."
To be honest, she was quite impressed she didn't faint. After she'd opened the doors and stepped through the blue portal with The Doctor (was she dreaming?), they 'landed' inside a small dark corridor. It smelled damp and looked oddly familiar. There was green wallpaper, peeling wallpaper, from ceiling to floor. The carpet was coming away at the edges and was definitely moldy. Why did Hope recognise this place?
She could hear voices at the end of the corridor. But she couldn't figure out what they were saying. She thought she caught the odd word here and there… was she imaging it or could she hear her name?
"They're here!" The Doctor rushed forward. As Hope followed she spotted a brown door at the far end, and a windy set of stairs to her left. She could hear more voices coming from upstairs. These ones were louder, someone was angry, and they sounded… younger? Kids? Another shout. No, not kids, moody teenagers.
Before she realised The Doctor had flung open the door and rushed inside. She had no choice but to follow, and when she was inside the next room, she was once again impressed she didn't faint.
Inside were three people, and The Doctor was right, she did recognise them. She saw them pretty much every day at work.
Lupin spoke first. "Who's this?"
"I said I was bringing Hope", The Doctor said, as he flung himself down on a big plush sofa.
Lupin wrinkled his brow, "I didn't realise 'Hope' was a person."
Sirius jumped up then. "Doesn't matter! She's more than welcome. Our new friend," he shot a side glance at The Doctor, "must have a good reason for bringing her in."
He moved forward and shook her hand. Hope stared at him in a kind of daze. She looked over at The Doctor who raised his eyebrows at her and grinned.
"I brought her in," he said, "because she works there. She knows that place better than anyone and is our best chance at finding…" he hesitated. He glanced at Hope again who was staring at Tonks, the third person in the room.
Hope's mind was going into overdrive. Clearly this was Grimmauld Place, and Sirius was alive which made this… 1995 or 1996… or 2005? Was this real time, or the movie time… or a whole different reality…?
She needed to sit down.
"I don't think she's ready," Lupin finished for The Doctor. "She looks like she might puke."
At that Tonks leapt up and moved to the other side of the room. "You know my feelings towards vomit," she warned.
Lupin laughed and shook his head, then sat down in front of The Doctor. "So," he said, "what's the plan? Where do we stand with… our problem?"
"He's set up camp in the mirror dimension that is parallel to the Great Hall. I contacted Strange, who should be waiting for us there, to help with navigating and such. Hope will guide us through things on this side," he paused, "Oh! And I tried to reach his… brother and I don't know if I was successful."
"Basically," Sirius said, "we need to get over there as quick as possible."
"The rest of the Order are on their way," Tonks chipped in. "The Weasleys will be here tonight, Dumbledore probably in the next hour or two… and Snape," she pulled a face, "maybe tomorrow?".
"We can't wait that long," The Doctor said, "we need to act. He is trapped in the mirror dimension for now but has the Tesseract, so he could tap into that energy, create a portal, and escape, at any moment."
There was a lull. No one spoke for a few moments which gave Hope plenty of time to process everything she'd just heard. She had a pretty good guess who they were fighting.
"If we need to move now," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, "why doesn't Sirius stay here and send the others on when they arrive? Then the rest of us… can go ahead and come up with a plan."
"I can show you how the screwdriver works", The Doctor said in agreement, "so you can let them straight through the portal." He flung the sonic across the room at Sirius who (Hope imagined) was meant to catch it. Instead it hit him in the face.
Tonks stifled a giggle. "Sounds like the best idea we have. We need to move now".
"Er," Sirius said rubbing his nose, "why I am left behind to be messenger?" He sounded hurt.
"We are better casters," Tonks said. "You haven't practiced any fight spells in weeks, you might hurt yourself."
"Besides," Lupin added, "you need to wait for Dumbledore's permission before you leave the premises."
Sirius pouted, but scooped up the sonic screwdriver and sat down.
"You'll need this," Hope broke the awkward silence. She placed her pass on the table. "Each group that goes into the corridor will need to be able to get to the Great Hall."
Again, she was fairly sure everyone involved in this could get around without a pass, but it would be easier to move around without attracting a DM's attention. Plus, she wasn't bringing much else to the table.
"Go to the Great Hall in our dimension," The Doctor said, "then when you find Strange, he'll let you through into the mirror dimension."
"Do it without Snape," Lupin said suddenly, "we can't wait until tomorrow. And we'll need Strange with us in there as soon as possible. He can't be hanging around outside for hours."
As he said this Lupin stepped up to the table and muttered 'Geminio'. Hope watched in awe as her pass multiplied three times. He handed one back to her.
"Then we have enough for the others," he said, "even Snape." He glanced over at Tonks.
"Excellent," said The Doctor, "Alloys-Se! "
It took Sirius a lot longer to get the hang of the screwdriver then Hope expected (wasn't he meant to be clever?) but finally there was a flash of blue light and they were back in the last shot corridor. Hope checked her watch. It was half eight. The platform would be closing soon, they needed to be fast.
On her recommendation, they went out the back and long the side of J Stage. This way they wouldn't pass any visitors or Inters who posed a much bigger threat to uncovering who they were. Lupin and Tonks strode ahead, wands outstretched, while Hope hung back with The Doctor.
"How are they even… are they… was it time travel, or…"
"A bit of both," The Doctor cut across her. "I found out about our 'problem' about a week ago, and when I realised where he was connected to it seemed to make sense to contact them. At first, I went to J.K. Rowling," he laughed, "big mistake, she thought I was crazy. Then I just tried telling the TARDIS to take me to Hogwarts. She didn't like it, but it worked. I think… I travelled through time, space, and dimensions to reach them."
He paused, allowing Hope time to absorb this.
"Turns out," he continued, "I made a… misjudgment. They had never heard of this place, and thought I was a dark wizard when I started explaining it. Eventually I managed to convince them of the existence of alternative realities and when the realised the extent of the problem, they refused to let me do it alone. I've never worked with wizards before, so I was excited to allow them to help."
"How did…" she hesitated, and then took the plunge, "Loki get trapped in the first place?".
The Doctor beamed at her. "You know your shit," he remarked.
Hope turned a little pink.
"Thor." The Doctor told her. "I don't know whether he was protecting his brother or humanity. Either way, Loki's not pleased and wants out. He harnessed enough energy to latch himself onto a single place," he gestured to the tour. "And is now trying to break through the mirror dimension into the real world. Thor didn't realise he had the Tesseract when he trapped him, and once he taps into the right energy he'll bust out and cause chaos."
Hope stayed silent through this, letting it sink in.
"We push six thousand people through every day," she said. "Roughly 131 every ten minutes from 9am until 6.46pm. If Loki breaks out..."
"That's why I sought your help. Because you actually know this place, inside out. You know how we can avoid anyone getting hurt. Plus," he looked at her and grinned, "I thought you'd enjoy meeting these people… especially on your birthday."
Hope blushed furiously. This was all so surreal.
"What about the Avengers?" she asked.
"I… haven't told them." The Doctor admitted. "Truth be told, I was a little excited to deal with this myself."
That made Hope smile.
They caught up with Lupin and Tonks at the Education door, where Hope beeped them through. They hurried down the corridor, where they passed Emma Dukes. Hope made a joke about The Doctor being in the wrong costume, convincing her that they were visitors being escorted. Dukes nodded at her as they passed, so it seemed to work. They went in through the cinema (thankfully there were no Inters working lurking there, thank god for Rachel insisting everyone stay on position all night) and stopped in front of the Great Hall doors.
"Here we go," The Doctor said excitedly.
To be continued…