Doctor Who, Special Series; Episode 8: The Predator of the Daleks

A/N: We are now at the halfway point in terms of chapters and episodes. 7 down, 7 to go! Theoretically, also halfway done in terms of words, but since original plotting put halfway at 70k, and we're already at 100k… Anyway, the chapter. :D The second chapter of Twicked's one-shot-turned-epic-rabid-plot-bunny is up; if you're missing Jack, you might want to go see that.

Thanks to: Paul, JoojooBrother, Ptroxsora, Iamthe42, OhShirleyUJest, FlyingLovegood123, Twicked, FaeBreeze, and LilyLunaPotter142.

Fun fact: English isn't actually built to allow someone to write about an event that has not, is not, and will never happen(ed)(ing), but what if it did? (ie, trying to write about breaking a fixed point in time. See below.)

Mathias Henri d'Aumâle was, perhaps, a bit drunk. At any other point in the process, he would have been eager to clarify that this wasn't his fault, but being at that state of pleasant inebriation where everything is a source of vague amusement, he was far more likely to ask, in French-accented English, for another glass of wine.

Since he was in a pub, he would end up with a mug of ale. This was, in point of fact, his fault. It had been his idea to go get drunk in a Muggle pub, owing as how he had never been through the experience before and was rapidly approaching the age where things of that sort were Not Done. The list of things Not Done was formulated by his mother, and included such items as Not Killing One's Siblings and Not Buttoning One's Shirt Up The Wrong Way.

Mathias could, however, be forgiven for being a bit drunk in a Muggle pub. He will, after all, die the next day. This had always been a fixed point in time. If he would have had lived, he would have was going to discover the edge of the universe. Since the universe obviously had a problem with people finding its non-existent edges, this would have had had to be prevented. In one timeline, he would have was going to die in a mock battle gone horribly wrong two weeks after the bout of drunkenness in a Muggle pub. This was, in any timeline, also something Not Done, but it would have didn't matter to Mathias anymore.

In this timeline, however, Mathias will die the day after the pub incident.

This, it must be made clear, will not be his fault. Nor will it be the fault of the drunkenness. That, in fact, will preserve his life long enough to save the universe. More or less.

Not that Mathias Henri d'Aumâle knew any of this, of course. He knew a lot of things – and thought he knew more – but his impending death was not one of them.

One thing in particular that Mathias Henri d'Aumâle knew when he woke up for the first time on the morning after the Pub Incident – now awarded capitals in his mind – was that he was hung-over. This almost immediately resulted in his turning over and going back to sleep, an action that saved his life.

The second time Mathias woke up, it was to screams.

Mathias Henri d'Aumâle was a pureblood of the d'Aumâle House. He could recite his lineage back to the Norman Conquest, and, unlike the Malfoys – something that his father delighted in pointing out at every opportunity – their ancestors had been noblemen in France, rather than liegemen ennobled in the new country. Everyone in his family had been Sorted into Ravenclaw or Slytherin for the past three centuries – he had been the scion of Slytherin house for seven years – except for that one Hufflepuff cousin that nobody liked to bring up. The majority of the family were bureaucrats or lobbyists or not infrequently both, but spell inventor or Potions Master were both considered Respectable Positions, as his mother never failed to point out when he went home.

Mathias was an Auror Trainee.

This was a source of great displeasure to his mother, who felt that her eldest son could really do something better with his life. That his chosen profession annoyed his mother was something Mathias found very cathartic. The pretty women were just a side benefit.

Being an Auror Trainee was normally a step on the way to becoming an Auror, but Mathias had his career path mapped out all the way to his election as Minister for Magic. He was, after all, a Slytherin.

He was also blissfully unaware that he was currently top-ranked in the long-running Auror poll, "Most Likely To Remain A Trainee For All Eternity." He never found out about this, but it does provide an accurate impression of his character.

The d'Aumâle family was an old pureblood family, but none of its members supported He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. They universally viewed the Dark Lord as a maniac, his Death Eaters as terrorists, and their methods as unsavoury. Mathias joined his family in this, sharing with them as he did a love of pleasure and a general impression of elitism. The d'Aumâle family did not need to kill to prove their worth. It was simply expected that they were better than anyone not them. It was one of the Fundamental Truths of Society.

Mathias was, in short, a product of his class. He was not a nice man, but he was a typical product of a society that, while it had left the Middle Ages, seemed to be stuck around the Gregorian Era for lack of a reason to move on.

None of this – not his family, his money, his pride, or his intelligence – would make any difference against the horror that was coming.

Grumbling, Mathias pulled on his Auror uniform. He shared the room with five others, none of whom were there. Head pounding, he vainly wished for a Hangover Potion, or, barring that, some good wine. Neither materialized. He groaned, realizing that he was probably missing morning drills, something he prayed for, usually, because they took place outside, with the entire Camp watching, but being caught missing them meant two weeks patrol duty.

The headache remained. It was probably a result of the screams, and not of the ale from the night before, he rationalized.

Wait.

Screams?

Brain beginning to function, Mathias stumbled over to the window. Even in the Auror Training Camp, screams were not a normal occurrence. He stuck his head out the window and looked out into chaos.

A storey below, Aurors and Auror Trainees were fighting – something. Many somethings. And dying, by the sounds of it. He winced as he watched Maddy Balmer fall to a burst of blue light. He didn't like her – she had attempted to disabuse him of the notion that all members of the lower classes were morons and their relationship had gone downhill from there – but that didn't mean she had to die.

Mathias had to sit down for a minute and think.

There were one hundred Trainees at the camp at any one time, and ten teachers. There couldn't have been more than ten of the monsters, which left eleven fully-trained wizards for each attacker. The attackers were winning.

Mathias was not the best Auror Trainee – in fact, he was in free-fall towards earning the title of the Worst – but he was good with spells. They just, on the whole, weren't the right ones. And one of those spells was a rather tricky Transfiguration that turned a piece of parchment into a bird, and another was a Charm that would send the bird to any person he wanted.

Quickly, he ran to his trunk and pulled out parchment, quill, and ink.

To whom it may concern, he wrote neatly – having been taught that a proper introduction and good handwriting were the two most important things in any letter – The Auror Trainee Camp is under attack. Enemies are unknown, but seem to be very powerful. They are not human. His quill stuttered on this last, but he didn't have time to rewrite the whole thing. Please help. Sincerely, Mathias Henri d'Aumâle.

He didn't bother with his titles. Even his admittedly bizarre sense of priorities didn't extend that far. Pulling out his wand, he cast the two spells, sending the small parchment bird off into the dawn – to the only person he could think of – to the Head Auror, Rufus Scrimgeour.

Then he left his room, running down the stairs and headlong into one of the monsters. He was dead before he could cast a spell.

"EXTERMINATE!"