Doctor Who, Special Series; Episode 6: The Nativity Story

A/N: Right. There were three things to put here… gimmie a sec…

1. I Worship Steven Moffat, your one-shot is up. It's called "A Single Rose Can Be My Garden – A Single Friend, My World," and is Episode 5, Chapter 3 from 10.2's POV. The 200th reviewer gets a one-shot!

2. I am using arc-words for this series; they've already come up four separate times.

3. Title, due to complaints, has been changed: We are no longer "Harry Potter and the TARDIS," as it doesn't make sense to name the fic after a character that has yet to show up midway through. We are now "Weaken the Lock." More on this later.

Thanks to: Paul, Ptroxsora, Ashlee Pond, Suuki-Aldrea, FlyingLovegood123, LilyLunaPotter142, and JoojooBrother.

Blinking, the Doctor stood up gracefully, straightening his jacket. "Well. This is new." It was mostly a sentence he liked, because it was so often true, but this time it happened to be rather spectacularly correct: he had never fallen through a crack in space-time only to come out in the middle of a castle. He tasted the air. As he'd thought. Earth, same time period, only now they were back in Scotland. Hogwarts. And it was cold.

Tonks exploded into reality behind him, swearing. "What the fuck was that?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Language, Tonks. Didn't you say this was a children's show?"

"Not anymore," she muttered, disgruntled. "Where are we? Hold on – when are we?"

The Doctor grinned. "No idea. Shall we find out?" Turning, he took off down the corridor.

With one last look at the crack in the wall – the one that matched identically with the one in her house – she began running after him. "Forgot about how much running there was."

He wasn't paying attention any more, having found what he was looking for: a window. Wiping fog off it, he peered out, and then gave up and just opened the thing. With his whole head outside, he began laughing. "Look! It's Christmas! Oh, I love Christmas, don't you?" He said this as he pulled his head back in, beaming at Tonks.

"Christmas," she replied flatly. "Christmas."

He giggled. "I know, isn't it great?"

The steady glare from her told him that no, it was not great. For some reason. Personally, he rather liked snow, though he didn't get enough of it for his liking. And up in the middle of Scotland, pristine wilderness for a hundred miles in any direction, the snow was pure and wonderful.

Frowning at her, he took a step away from the window. "No, not great. Why isn't it great?"

Tonks continued glaring. "Doctor," she said, as if pointing out something painfully obvious, "It's Christmas."

Yes, he knew that. What was the problem? "Sorry – don't you have Christmas here? It was in the books but maybe they were adapted for my universe –"

"No. I mean yes, we have Christmas, but Doctor!" She seemed to be oscillating between shock and hysteria. "It was just June."

Oh, that made sense. "First time's a bit of a shock, innit," he said conversationally, turning back to the window. "And – I think it's even the same year. Should be, at least. That's what the crack said."

"Doctor."

Apparently he was being stupid again, although he couldn't figure out why. It really was a very simple first excursion, just a quick hop six months or so into the future, he didn't know why she was making such a big deal about it.

Tonks stepped closer to him, her hair steadily turning red. "My parents. They must think I'm dead."

"Oh." He blinked. He hadn't had to think about that for – ooh, a while, and it was odd to remember that other people had families that cared. "Ah. Well. It's only six months. That's not too bad, isn't it?" He'd been gone for a hundred years the first time, although admittedly that was only for him – for everyone else it had been two weeks. This was the reverse, interestingly enough.

She gaped at him. "You absolute prat. You couldn't have warned me, oh look, I'm about to touch a crack in space-time, you might wanna let your parents know, because you're gonna be gone for six flipping months!"

He opened and closed his mouth several times. "I – I – I – you didn't have to follow me!"

"Yes I did, you bloody wanker 'cause who knows if you'd ever come back!"

The Doctor took a step back. "Oh." Well, yes, there was that, but surely he would have – no, he wouldn't, if he was really being honest with himself. He wouldn't have remembered one human girl, not with the Master running around.

She shoved his chest. "Don't you ever – you know, just think for a minute before doing something? Or do you always jump in, damn the consequences?"

He looked away, a muscle working in his jaw. "What's done is done," he said quietly, as much for his benefit as hers.

"Can't we go back? Touch the crack again?" Tonks asked desperately. She wasn't crying, not yet, but there were tears welling in her eyes.

Sadly, he shook his head. "No. No, I'm sorry. It's one-way only. Tonks, I am so, so sorry."

She slapped him. "Oh piss off, you wanker! Flaming prat – I should have expected this, I just thought it would be longer before you did something so incredibly stupid! Why couldn't you have just waited to indulge your damned curiosity?"

He rubbed his cheek slowly, wondering when he had ended up with companions who felt the need to hit him all the time. "A Time Lord can sense the presence of others."

"What?" Tonks stared at him, stepping back again.

He made eye contact with her. "With some effort, I can know where the Master is. And that means he can do the same." He stopped there, waiting for her to put it together.

Tonks paled rapidly. "Merlin. He would have killed us, wouldn't he?"

The Doctor swallowed, raising his chin. "He would have tried. I had to leave." Had to keep them safe the way he had so failed with Martha's family.

Tonks didn't quite buy this explanation, crossing her hands over her chest. "And it was so urgent you couldn't have waited five minutes for me to tell my da?"

Yes!

He looked away again. "It wasn't a risk I wanted to take." Even if it meant Tonks was upset with him, he wasn't going to let that happen again. Wasn't going to let the Master get his hands on another companion's family.

"Alright then," she said calmly. "You're not forgiven, but –" She shrugged. "I kind of expected this."

That was… not expected on his part. Wonderful, but not expected. He beamed at her. "Brilliant. Off we go then. What do you lot do for Christmas?"

She shook her head. "You're a lot less focused than you used to be."

He snorted. "'S not a bad thing. So – gifts, trees, that sort of thing?"

That got a raised eyebrow and a snicker. "Yeah, 'course. You? Don't remember seeing you on Christmas."

The Doctor grinned cheekily at her. "The normal. Explosions, alien invasions, getting shot at. You know me."

She laughed. "Is that what I have to look forward to, then? No feasts or presents, instead I get Daleks and dead bodies?"

"Nah," he told her, mock seriously. "No Daleks. Can't say about the rest of it."

Tonks grinned back, shaking her head. "I didn't expect any different."

The air was split by a loud scream. Tonks winced, clapping hands over her ears. The Doctor perked up. "Ooh? What's that?"

"Only you," Tonks muttered.

He grinned at her. "Let's go find out, then!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her into a run, snickering at her struggle to keep up.

Tonks ended up leading him down to the Great Hall, through corridors he hadn't seen the last time he was here – had it really only been five days? Wow. He was busy, even for him. "The screams came from – oh my god."

The Doctor tried not to snicker at her change of focus and failed miserably. Stepping forward, into the Great Hall, he looked down at the large puddle of blood on the floor.