Hey all! Thank you for your prompt reviews! For your prompt reviws, you get a prompt chapter! HURRAH!

'Where are we?!'

'Dunno'. Anywhere, I suppose.'

'Did ya' see that green light? Was that an Avada Kedarbra?'

'I wanna' go home!'

'Ginny?! Ginny! Ginny, wake up!'

'Luna…he's not moving…'

'Oh, you're right. Mr Doctor? Are you alright?'

The Doctor heard none of this. He felt too alone to hear or feel anything anymore. The last piece of his soul. Gone. The remainder…all he had left, torn from him with a spoken spell…

She was completely dead. The column was unresponsive. No button or knob nor lever would ever work again; no matter how many times Hermione jabbed, pulled or twisted them in a desperate attempt to get the TARDIS working again.

So…very…alone.

The Doctor felt himself stagger from the console. All eyes fixed on him; each expected him to fix it. Make it better.

He could do nothing.

And, for the first time in the while, he felt his grief turn into rage. Pure, incomprehensible, rage.

Blinded by emotion, he felt himself walk from the console.

From those who needed him.
And into battle.

He threw open the (now) plain wooden doors violently.

Numerous taunts and jeers greeted him from hooded figures that surrounded the empty shell of the TARDIS. Fires sprang up in the forest around, caused by the hooded figures because they had nothing else better to do. Some floated on their broomsticks like great bats of death, while others circled the Doctor and TARDIS, cackling and sneering. The Doctor shut the doors behind him, leaning against them. If there was worth protecting anything now, it was the remarkable students inside. And most of these wore strange masks, covering their identities.

And through his blinding rage, the Doctor pitied them.

'It is him!' A crazed woman shrieked. She stalked towards the Doctor as a cat would her pray. 'Just as Severus promised!' She cackled, pointing a dirty finger at him. The Doctor glared at her darkly. 'Ooh, a temper, this one!' She cackled.

'Now, Bellatrix.' A male voiced drawled. 'Leave the man be.'

The woman gave a mad, anguished cry, and drew back reluctantly, letting a man step forward. As the Doctor analysed him, he knew, from somewhere at the back of his emotionally drenched mind…he vaguely recognised him.

'So…' The man purred. 'You are the Doctor...I presume?'

'Yeah.' The Doctor said bluntly. He shook with rage. The man sneered.

'I am Lucius Malfoy.' The man introduced himself pompously.

The Doctor had lost the ability to be tactful long ago.

'You killed my ship.' He came straight to the point. The woman named Bellatrix gave an insane giggle.

'What?! This old heap of junk?!' She strode forward and kicked the TARDIS with a booted foot. The Doctor glared at her darkly again. She gave an inward hiss, and backed away. 'Let's kill him anyway! The Dark Lord won't care how we bring him!'

'NO!' The man shouted. The woman backed away hastily, tripping over her feet in the process. 'The Dark Lord requests we bring the man alive!' He hissed. Bellatrix tripped over onto the moss, accompanied by a chorus of cackles by her colleagues. She glared up at Lucius, who sniggered, and then turned to the Doctor again.

'You are to come with us, Doctor.'

'Why?' The Doctor demanded coldly.

The man stepped forward, domineering. 'That is for us to know…and you to find out when you get there.' His bottom lip curled. Bellatrix cackled.

'I'll just go and get my coat.' The Doctor replied. He opened the doors, and stepped into the TARDIS.

'Doctor! What's going on?!' Harry hissed, looking up from flitting around Ginny, who was still unconscious. The Doctor looked at every member of the DA, and then to the huddle of students at the back of the TARDIS solemnly.

'I'm going with them.'

'WHAT?!' Ron shouted. Hermione hushed him from the grilling, Ginny's head in her lap. The Doctor said nothing, shrugged on his coat and left. He stepped outside the TARDIS, and strode forward to the already leaving Death Eaters. Two took up either of the Doctor's side and marched forward.

'NO!'

The Doctor wheeled around; Harry stood in the doorway, wand raised.

'POTTER!' Bellatrix shrieked. She lunged, but was restrained by Lucius. 'Are we better now, Potter?!' She taunted instead. 'I killed Sirius! I should finish the job!'

Harry ignored her, and raised his wand higher. 'You can't leave us, Doctor! You can't!'

The Doctor shoved past his guards and faced the young man before him.

'I have to.' He stated simply.

'No you don't!' Harry insisted. 'We can contact Dumbledore…we can go with you! We can…'

'No Harry.' The Doctor said gently. 'I've heard your story. You're too important. And I won't let any of you die instead.' The Doctor looked behind him to the rapt students. 'You've got your whole lives ahead of you.' The Doctor shut the doors on his face, and locked them quickly.

'No…no! DOCTOR!' Harry roared as the Doctor strode away, hands in his suit pockets, circled by the Death Eaters. He banged his fists on the doors. 'DOCTOR! DOCTOR! WHAT ARE WE MEANT TO DO?! DOCTOR?!'

The Doctor was marched away, and he didn't look back once.

***

'What the bloody hell do we do now?!' Ron demanded when Harry finally backed away from the doors.

'Dunno'.' Harry said quietly. 'He left us…'

'Only because he cares.' Luna said airlily, wondering around the dead console absently. Neville followed her like a lost puppy. The other members of the DA were attempting to soothe the terrified students, and to teach them a few defensive spells in case the Death Eaters came back for easier pray.

Harry strode back to Ginny's side and knelt down. Hermione sent him a sympathetic glance. He tucked back a strand of her fiery hair that had fallen across her pale face behind her ear tenderly. Ron watched with a sour expression.

'You and her then?!' He snapped carelessly.

Harry looked up. 'Yeah, Ron. Me and her. But we've got bigger problems at the moment.' He snapped. He looked down into Ginny's unresponsive face…

But her mind was full of activity.

Ginny felt completely suspended in time, as if waiting for reanimation. But she somehow knew that reanimation wouldn't come if she didn't do something about it.

So she looked out across the black space she was hung in, and discovered a golden light, flickering pathetically. She willed her mental self towards it…she felt a small thrill of triumph as it moved closer. She reached out her hands…

'What's she reaching out for?!' A voice boomed down on top of her. She winced slightly.

'Ron! Don't shout!' Protested a voice Ginny recognised to be Hermione's. 'We don't know what's going on in her head…but I reckon its something to do with that.' Ginny had a haunch that she was motioning at the dead console.

'Ginny? Can you hear us?' Harry's voice. Her heart beat faster as she heard the worry and panic.

So she spoke.

'Yes.'

'Oh thank god.' Hermione breathed. 'What's going on? Are you alright? Are you hurt?' She demanded.

'I'm fine…but I can see this light…it wants us to help…'

'DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT GINNY!' Ron yelled. Ginny winced again.

'For heaven's sake Ron…' Hermione muttered under her breath. Ginny ignored them, and reached out closer. The light flickered violently, sending out a small flare. Ginny gasped and retracted her hands rapidly.

'Ginny?! What's wrong?!' It was Harry's voice again. The worry and the panic tore her heart to pieces. She wanted out of this strange, black, empty place with the strange light…and to be back with him again.

'There's this light…' She whispered. 'It needs to be helped, but it doesn't want to be touched…' She watched its further pathetic attempts to flicker pitifully. Its pain was so beautiful…too beautiful.

She felt tears roll down her face.

'I need to help it…' She whimpered. She felt a wonderfully familiar hand grasp hers, and she felt some of her self reassurance coming back to her…

'You can do it, Ginny.' Harry whispered. 'I know you can.'

Ginny felt herself nod. She took a deep breath, and despite how many warning flares the light sent out, she grasped it with both her mental hands, and latched on tightly.

Her eyes snapped open, and the Time Vortex danced within them.

You know the rules... REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!