Chapter three
"You're going to what?" Clara asked. The Doctor had just run back into the Great Hall, and almost ran into Clara.
"You heard me. Now that I know the exact geometry of the castle, I know how I'm going to get Hogwarts out the Time Vortex." The Doctor said.
"And how are you going to do that?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Easy, I just need to use a triple folded wave length amplifier to…no, wait, sorry, hold on." The Doctor said before he paused. "Sorry, that's something I had to do a few years ago." He said. "Anyway, what I need to do is something that has to work." He then said.
"What?!" Clara asked, now getting impatient.
"Look, in simple terms, what we need to do is turn Hogwarts into a Tardis." The Doctor said.
"And how are you going to do that?" Hermione asked.
"Well, follow me and you'll find out." The Doctor said before he ran out the Great Hall. Clara looked at Hermione and Professor McGonagall before she ran after the Doctor. Hermione and Professor McGonagall followed.
"Harry, Ron, come on!" Hermione said. Harry and Ron ran after her. They went into the courtyard, and saw the Doctor running to the Tardis. It was now calm, no lightning striking, and it wasn't groaning. The Doctor looked through his pockets. Clara, Hermione, Ron, Harry and Professor McGonagall reached him. The Doctor took his hand out his overcoat pocket, drawing out a small, silver Yale key. He put it in the Tardis lock, and turned it. The sound of the lock unlocking sounded.
"Welcome…to the Tardis." The Doctor said before he opened the double doors and stepped in, followed by the others. But the console room was lit red. A loud bell was ringing.
"What's wrong with it?" Clara asked.
"She doesn't feel right. It's like she's…sick." The Doctor said. He ran to the hexagonal console and looked at a scanner on it. "Oh, come on, what's wrong with you, eh? What've the nasty wizards done to you, eh?" He asked, more to the Tardis than the others. Hermione, Harry, Ron and Professor McGonagall looked around the Tardis.
"If you really are a muggle, how can you do things that only a wizard or a witch should be able to do?" Ron asked.
"Oh, I'm not a muggle, more to the point, I'm not even human." The Doctor said. He pulled a few leavers, only to have the console room light a darker red. "Ok, maybe that wasn't a good idea." The Doctor said.
"Doctor, what do we do?" Clara asked.
"Well, first things first, we need to get to one of my old console rooms." The Doctor said.
"Right, where are they?" Harry asked.
"Who knows? The Tardis is like a maze sometimes." The Doctor said. He then ran from the console, up some stairs to the balcony, across it and through a door, the others following him. They were in a hexagonal corridor, lit green from lights on the ceiling. The Doctor was running through the corridor, and everyone ran after him. After about thirty minutes of running through the corridors, Ron leaned against the wall.
"How…many…corridors…has…this…place…got?" He asked, panting. Suddenly, they were all standing in front of a pair of sealed doors.
"Ha, ha, atta girl." The Doctor said. "But what was the passkey?" He then asked.
"Can't you just open the doors?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"No, the doors need a passkey to get in. But what was it?" The Doctor asked. "Ah, of course. Crimson, eleven, delight, petrichor." He then said. The doors remained closed.
"Why haven't they opened?" Hermione asked.
"The Tardis is telepathic. You don't say it, you think it." The Doctor said. He looked at the doors before he thought of four things: A crimson table cloth, the number eleven, Amy Pond's wedding day, a drop of rain falling onto soil. The doors opened. Everyone ran in, and found themselves in a large, white room with roundels on the wall, and a hexagonal console in the center of the room, with half of a coelom with a red block in it. The Doctor walked around the console, looking at it. "Now, the second thing we need to do is detach this console from the Tardis and place it in Hogwarts." The Doctor said.
"And how are we going to do that? This thing is far too big to fit through the doors." Clara said.
"We could use a shrinking charm." Harry said.
"No, the Tardis will resist anything to do with your magic." The Doctor said.
"Well, what do we do?" Ron asked.
"I'm going to have to dismantle the console, piece by piece, so we can then reassemble it in Hogwarts." The Doctor said. He got out his screwdriver, and crouched down behind the console, pointed it at the bottom of the console and turned it on. Something bleeped. The Doctor looked up. "You didn't press something, did you? Any of you?" He asked.
"No." Harry, Ron, Hermione, Professor McGonagall and Clara said.
"Hmm, perhaps I should detach the time rotor first, then the console panels, then the bottom of the console." The Doctor said. He then used his screwdriver on the coelom, the time rotor, walking around the console to get at every point of the time rotor. When he finished, the time rotor lifted slightly, till the Doctor pulled it out, with some difficulty. "Clara, a little help." He said. Clara walked to him and helped the Doctor pull the time rotor out the console, leaving a circular hole in the middle of the console.
"Why is this thing so 'eavy?" Clara asked.
"No idea." The Doctor said. He and Clara placed the time rotor on the floor. The Doctor went back to the console, and looked under it. "Right, now I just need to detach the console panels then the bottom." The Doctor said. About ten minutes later, the console was divided into three parts, the time rotor, the console panel and the bottom. "Right, now that's sorted, we need to get these parts of the console to the castle. Professor McGonagall, I'm sorry, but we need to use that entrance hall as a console room." The Doctor said.
"Do what you have to do, Doctor." Professor McGonagall said.
"Right, good. Now, I'm going to need some help to get this lot to the castle." The Doctor said.
"We can use the levitation charm, it works on anything." Hermione said.
"Good, good. Well then, we'd best get to the school." The Doctor said before he walked out the doors, Clara and Professor McGonagall following, while Harry, Ron and Hermione got out their wands and pointed them at the three pieces of the console. They levitated. Harry, Ron and Hermione then walked out the doors, the console parts in front of them. Five minutes later, the Doctor was closing the Tardis doors. He and the others then walked back into the castle. "Right, if you three can put those down I can get to work." The Doctor said. Hermione, Ron and Harry flicked their wands and the parts of the console dropped to the ground gently. The Doctor went to the bottom, and pushed at it, trying to move it to the center of the entrance hall. Clara went to him and helped. Finally, when the bottom was in the center of the entrance hall, the Doctor crouched down and used his sonic on the bottom, connecting it to the floor. Harry watched him before he went into the Great Hall, and walked to Ginny.
"Harry! Where've you been?" Ginny asked.
"With that man, he says he can get us out of this place." Harry said.
"And he does?" Ginny asked.
"Yes." Harry said. In the entrance hall, the Doctor was connecting the console panels to the bottom.
"Could somebody pass me some sodium chloride?" He asked.
"What?" Ron asked.
"He means salt, Ronald." Hermione said.
"Oh, right." Ron said before he walked into the Great Hall. When he came out, he was holding a small bag of salt. "Here." He said before he cucked it to the Doctor. He caught it in one hand.
"What do you need the salt for?" Clara asked.
"One of the leavers is lose, and keeps slipping down, so I needed salt to strengthen it." The Doctor said. He opened the bag, took out a handful of salt, and sprinkled it over a red leaver. He then blew on the salt. It scattered everywhere. The Doctor beamed. "Well now, only two more things to do." He said.
"Which are?" Clara asked.
"I need to reconnect the time rotor to the console, then I need to fly Hogwarts through the Time Vortex and back to Earth." The Doctor said. He then went to the time rotor and tried to pick it up. "Little help, Clara." He said, his voice strained. Clara went to him and helped him pick up the time rotor and placed it in the console. The Doctor got out his screwdriver and pointed it at the time rotor. It was fixed in place. "Right, now then, let's see if I remember how to fly a Tardis with this console." The Doctor said before he pulled a leaver. The sound of the Tardis dematerialising sounded, but the time rotor on the console in Hogwarts was rising and falling. The Doctor continued using the controls on the console, before the entire castle shook.
"What was that?" Hermione asked.
"Time bump. We're getting closer to Earth." The Doctor said. He pressed a few switches and pulled two leavers and the castle flew through the Time Vortex. The Doctor smiled at Clara, before he pulled a leaver. Suddenly, the sound of a lightning bolt sounded, and the entire castle was consumed by a bright, white light. When the light disappeared, the Doctor looked up from the floor. The time rotor was stationary. The Doctor stood up, and saw Clara on the floor. He went to her, and helped her up.
"Did we make it?" Clara asked.
"Hopefully." The Doctor said. He ran to the doors and opened them. Sunlight streamed into the entrance hall. Later, the Doctor and Clara were standing outside the Tardis. "I am sorry about what has happened." The Doctor said.
"Oh, don't worry about it." Professor McGonagall said.
"Yes, well, tell you what, why don't you keep the console I placed in the entrance hall?" The Doctor asked.
"If it wouldn't bother you." Professor McGonagall said.
"Oh, no, not at all. Besides, I don't really need that console." The Doctor said. He unlocked the doors. "C'mon Clara, we've got things to do, exciting things to see, the universe is waiting for us." The Doctor said before he and Clara stepped into the Tardis. When the doors closed, the Tardis groaned and the lantern on top of it flashed on and off before it dematerialised from the Hogwarts courtyard. Professor McGonagall looked around, before she walked back into the castle. Inside the Tardis, the Doctor and Clara were looking at the console. "So, Clara, where to next?" The Doctor asked before he grinned.
The End.
Doctor Who XI by Murray Gold begins.