Chapter 2.

It would have been pitch black to a human. That much the Doctor could tell; even though he could still see fairly well in his peripheral vision. Digging once again in his pockets, the Doctor pulled out a flashlight, automatically using it for the benefit of the companion he didn't have. Fiddling with it for a moment, he finally managed to turn it on. It illuminated a small strip of ground in front of him. He waved it around, looking rather surprised. The TARDIS had landed in the middle of a forest. Where this forest was, the Doctor had no idea. But he didn't get that good a feeling from the noises issuing from the woods around him.

Putting the torch away, the Doctor pointed his sonic to the sky. Activating it, he frowned as it stuttered and died. Looking shocked, the Doctor smacked it against his palm. Quickly messing with some controls, he pointed it up again. A few moments of silence, and the screwdriver stuttered back into life. Now looking rather concerned, the Doctor pulled the sonic back down to eye level, straining to see the readings. For once, he was rather confused by what he was looking at. There were readings that shouldn't even exist, readings that would kill any electrical circuit that came within fifty feet of this place. It was oozing with it. The Doctor didn't understand, which meant he would never walk away.

Forcing his sonic to trace the centre point for what could be only described as a magical current, the Doctor began to walk.

It took him less than ten minutes to find the boundary of the forest, the noises that had been issuing around him definitely helping to speed the time lord up. When he did finally managed to extract himself from the trees, what he saw made him stop dead in wonderment.

"Brilliant!"

The Doctor's mouth lolled open and he put away the torchlight. Light streamed from a huge castle at the top of a hill, over the rolling grounds, greenhouses and a small hut on the edge of the forest. The Doctor stared for a moment longer before spinning on the spot to look behind him, his tongue on the top of his mouth.

"This is...no! This is...it can't be! Well...ok. It could be. Bit unlikely though. I mean, imagine! JK Rolling writes about Hogwarts, and unless I'm wrong, which doesn't happen often, this is Hogwarts..."

The Doctor trailed off again, finally realising he was alone. He stuck both his hands in his pockets, kicking at the ground slightly as he made his way forward towards the castle. The TARDIS wouldn't be able to take off for a few more days yet, and the Doctor felt that he definitely needed to explore. Security didn't seem too tight, so right now there was no need for his psychic paper, but one could never know when it would come in handy.

Quickly, the Doctor arrived at the front door. A push told him that it wasn't locked, and he quickly opened it and entered into the hall.

"You know, I never get sick of this. Never at all!" he exclaimed, looking around him. The hourglass's, the marble staircase...it was all there. For the Doctor, it was a dream come true. Noises were issuing from behind a door over to the side, leaving the Doctor to assume that it was the Great Hall, where everyone was eating right now. This, he knew, would leave him free to investigate other areas. Sooner or later, hopefully sooner, he would be able to find out what the date was.

Jumping up the steps at two at a time, the time lord could barely contain his excitement. Almost running, he dashed around a corner and up another set of stairs. He stopped to watch the stairs moving by themselves, his face lit up with the emotion he was feeling.

"Who would have thought? Me, at Hogwarts! This is so brilliant!"

The Doctor bounced, pressing his face up right close to one of the moving portraits. His sonic seemed to fly to his hand and in no time he was picking up traces from around the frame.

"Excuse me!" the occupant exclaimed. The Doctor simply gave a cheery little wave and not missing a beat pulled out his psychic paper. He wondered if it would work on a portrait, but figuring that if an invisibility cloak would work, so would the paper.

"Hello, I'm...John Smith. Department of...backfiring wands. Ministry of Magic. Yes, that's me. Um...just...picking up some residue, hope you don't mind. Bit intrusive, so sorry," the Doctor gave the portrait a charming grin and continued to pick up what he could with the sonic. Stepping back, he checked out the readings, his brow furrowed.

"That's interesting..." he muttered, turning around. He looked up to find himself confronted by three students. All were in black robes. The tallest was a red headed boy, the second was a black haired boy and the third was a brown bushy haired girl. All seemed to be around sixteen years of age. All of them had the look of just arguing with each other, an argument which had come to a halt as soon as they'd seen the Doctor.

The time lord stood there, watching them. The girl had put her hand underneath her cloak, presumably clutching the wand she had under there. The red headed boy was staring at him with a slightly dumbfounded look on his face. The black haired boy was simply watching him, his gaze cold and calculated.

"Ahah..." the Doctor gave a sheepish laugh. "John Smith, Department of backfiring wands. Ministry of Magic." He flashed the psychic paper at them. "And you are..."

His eyes trailed over them again before going wide. There was no mistaking the lightening bolt scar set above startlingly green eyes.

"No!" he exclaimed. "No, no, no, no, no! Oooh this is too good! Really? No!"