Remus slept in. Whatever it was about Hogwarts, it brought back his awful sleeping habits. Clara had gone to breakfast early, considering she'd woken up at the first sign of daylight. It was wonderful, the tables stacked with every breakfast food you could imagine. Professor McGonagall took the liberty of sitting next to her, insisting Clara must come around for tea that afternoon if she wasn't too busy.
"I'm not used to seeing him without his friends, you know." She'd stated, a rather sad expression flickering over her old face. "He was always running around with those silly boys. Inseparable they were." She sighed, shaking herself from her thoughts and forcing a smile as she looked back at Clara's concerned face. "But he's got you now, obviously." She patted Clara's hand affectionately. "And that's a good thing."
"We haven't really known each other very long." Clara insisted a bit shyly, poking at her food. "Just friends."
"Of course. But Remus needs friends more then most people, I think." Minerva gave her a knowing look before finishing her breakfast and insisting she'd better head off to her first class of the day.
And that's when Clara realized that Remus hadn't turned up for breakfast. And all the other professors were leaving for their classes. She dashed back to their room, flinging back the curtain and finding that Lupin was indeed curled up with the blankets pulled over his nose. He was fast asleep still.
"Remus!" she shook him rather violently, throwing his jacket and tie at him. "You're going to be late for your class!"
He sat upright rather quickly, rubbing his head and feeling all muddled before his expression turned to utter horror. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?!" he grabbed his jacket, tugging it on and not caring that he'd slept in the rest of his clothes and it was rather…obvious.
"Because you said not to!" Clara sounded fully exasperated, watching as his shoes zipped across the floor to him and the tie magically ordered itself around his neck.
"Rule number one about me, don't listen to anything I say." Remus replied dryly, dashing for the door.
"Wouldn't that include that rule, then?" Clara asked with amusement, running after him.
/
She stayed for his first class. In fact she attended to hang around for all of them but got a phone call in between the first and the second class. "Clara. Meet me at the dinky little tavern place nearby. I'm drinking something called "Butterbeer"." The Doctor hung up afterwards, not leaving her time to reply. Clara stared at her phone confusion, wondering why he was even here. She hadn't rung him saying she needed anything…unless he was trying to be the control freak still. When would he learn she could make her own decisions and he didn't need to baby her?
After asking Remus about what place the Doctor could have possibly meant, she found herself inside the Three Broomsticks with a rather large mug of the strange drink. "Why are you here?" she decided to get straight to the point. "I haven't even been at Hogwarts twenty four hours yet and you've already parked the Tardis nearby and ring me up for an appointment like you need to check on me."
"I am checking on you."
"No." Clara put her drink down, momentarily pushing it to the side. "I never asked you to—we have been over this. You're my friend, one of the best I have, but this is the world I live in now. This one, right here." She pressed her finger to the table pointedly. "I loved traveling with you. But it has to stop. You need to find someone else to keep you company."
"I don't think you quite understand, Clara." The Doctor leaned forward, his face one that was not to be argued with.
"Don't understand what, exactly?"
"Why you're so good at magic. So natural at something that was foreign to you until less than two weeks ago. Do you want to know why? Because you already learned those spells."
Clara's brown eyes ran over his face with confusion and she slowly shook her head. "No I didn't."
"Yes, you did." The Doctor insisted, in a tone Clara knew far too well. He wasn't kidding. He was being serious and he was being protective. "A different version of you. A Clara Oswald that went to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry a long time ago. A Clara that fought in a war against a terrible darkness and died, doing what she does best. Saving people. That's why you can produce all these spells, that's why you find it so easy. Because it's in your subconscious."
"And you found this out, how?" she asked quietly, though the struggle not to let everyone else hear their conversation was difficult. "Did you go spying to purposely try and find a reason why I shouldn't stay?"
"No. I found this out a long time ago. When I was doing all that research about you. Before I got this face." The Doctor lightly rubbed a hand against his grey hair, looking away. "All those versions of you…didn't just die trying to save me. There's versions of you running around saving other people. And always you die, Clara. You die every single time."
"Maybe so." Clara whispered, "But they are not me—not the real me—and even if they are, who cares if I die protecting good people who need saving. That's what you do. You save people. You told me, that we never walk away."
"That was different!" the Doctor couldn't help but snap a little.
"So what?" Clara hissed, feeling a few pairs of eyes turn to look at them. "This is my decision. You can't run my life for me, can't always protect me."
"I have a duty of care."
"Yes, I know. And I never asked you to do that." She leaned back in her chair, staring at him with flickering eyes. "Is this just because you don't like Remus? Because don't think I haven't noticed you hated him right from the beginning."
"He is a werewolf!" Clara glared at him sharply and he was at least sensible enough to lower his voice. "He might be nice and friendly to you now but come full moon and everything will change."
"He can't help that." Clara replied shortly, feeling defensive over her friend.
"Exactly. He won't have any control and that puts you in danger."
"We are going in circles." Clara finished her Butterbeer and pushed her chair back, pulling on her jacket. "I have always appreciated your friendship, Doctor…for the longest time you were my only true friend. But things are different now. You don't need to protect me—you can't protect me—in a world you're not even apart of." She paused, leaning down to kiss his cheek. "It doesn't mean I won't want to see you sometimes." She added softly.
"Clara."
"I'll be fine. I'll call you soon." She stepped toward the door.
"Clara."
She turned reluctantly, waiting to hear his final words. It wasn't at all what she expected.
"You died trying to save his mother." He didn't need to specify who's mother. She already knew.
And suddenly it made sense…why he stared at Remus the way he did, why he acted around Remus the way he did. Why he didn't like him.
She met his blue gaze, saw the look in his eyes, that he wasn't going to give up on trying to stop her, that he thought it would happen all over again.
"Your friend didn't bother to tell you, did he, that people like you…people born without magical parents were murdered back then. Tortured even. When their "Dark Lord" comes back—"
"Who says he going to come back?" Clara stepped forward to lean on the table, already knowing the answer. "If you've really gone to the future to see what might happen, then don't come try to pull me away. If people are going to die, then I want to fix it. We don't walk away, Doctor." She gave him a long look. "Since when did you start?"
"Since I had a duty of care."
"Which I never asked you for." Clara repeated quietly. "But these people you know die, whatever happens in the future, you can have a duty of care about them. Be a Doctor." She smiled faintly, staring at him with memories clouded in her eyes. "I'll call you." She promised again, before straightening and vanishing out the door.
Her first day at Hogwarts wasn't even half over and she was determined to enjoy it and not worry about the Doctor's predictions and fears. She had lots to do today. She had big plans.
