Chapter 53
Jack's first stop was the Owlry to send the Brigadier an update. He enclosed one precious pill in the letter for UNIT's scientists to analyze (with the express commands that what they found was never to be published or made common knowledge. If he ever got word, he would retcon the lot of them. He had a vague idea that the Brigadier would be annoyed at him for mentioning that).
He then ran down to the kitchens. While he desperately wanted to go directly to the Doctor, he had just had an encounter with a dementor, and while he felt fine, he figured a bit of chocolate before facing the force of nature known as Madam Pomfrey would be a wise decision. One chocolate bar later and he was ready to deliver the medicine. If the Doctor did not awake by Monday, he would have to go back into his mind. Even if he did wake before drastic measures were taken, he was likely to have an awful headache.
"I have no idea what this is," Madam Pomfrey announced, looking from her identification spell to the innoculous white pill on the table to Jack. "You're sure it's correct?" she asked.
Jack nodded for what felt like the tenth time. "I told you, ma'am, it is without a doubt the Doctor's medication."
She pursed her lips. "I just don't like giving a patient something I am so unfamiliar with. Did Sir Alistair send anything with the pills?"
"Ah, no," Jack said, relieved that she hadn't questioned his story of having just gotten a package from the Brigadier. "His chemists are still working on the analysis."
"I believe I will as Severus to take a look at this," she said quietly to herself.
"No!" Jack shouted. She turned to him, an eyebrow arched. "It's just… the Doctor and UNIT don't really want anyone more than absolutely required to know about his precense on Earth."
"Mr. Harkness, I won't tell Professor Snape about the Doctor. I will only ask him to run a few tests on this pill."
"But he'll gather that it's not from Earth, and he'll suspect something. It could…"
"It could what?"
It could alter the course of history, Jack thought. He doubted she would accept that excuse, despite its truth. "What will you tell him about it? Where you got it from?" he asked instead.
She paused, thinking. "I will tell him that I was treating a student with a headache and summoned a bottle from my office. A bottle of these pills arrived instead of the tincture I was expecting. I would like to know what they are. If they are indeed as toxic to humans as you say, he will likely lose intrest after the initial analysis; after all, he has knowledge about many other poisons that are magical in nature instead of derived from mundane techniques."
Jack wondered idly if she would consider the pills spontaneously appearing in an empty medicine cabinet so mundane, but of course, it was not something to ask about. Slowly, he nodded his acceptance, wondering how annoyed the Doctor would be when he woke up.
Madam Pomfrey dismissed him, and he made his way back to Slytherin. He had a slight backlog of homework to do after all (the results of splitting the majority of his weekend in the Hospital Wing and the TARDIS). Maybe Al would share his essay? But no, Jack remembered. Al was still not sharing his work with him unless it was through Ash. At least they were talking again. Perhaps it would be worth apologizing? Not that Jack knew what he was apologizing for. But Al seemed to expect it.
It was times like this that Jack missed Ianto most acutely: sentiment aside, he was excellent at translating the actions of 21st century people for Jack (and Jack absolutely lumped late 20th century people into this category). It was not just that Jack had grown up in the 51st century (things were so different from the present… strange that he did not miss it at all), it was not even that the Time Agency retrained their people to only be able to think of non-agents in the most mercenary of ways (yes, he could get a pure stranger to do practically anything he wanted, but he had no clue how to maintain relationships), the truth was, somewhere in the last hundred years, Jack had lost his ability to empathize with people. Humanity was ultimately driven by their need to survive. Without death or permanent injury, Jack no longer had a need to strive for survival. Without this most basic connection, how could he hope to understand other people?
Maybe he should ask Al what was wrong? That would probably work. It would not get him closer to getting a copy of the essay, though. Asking for it right after apologizing would be tacky. Maybe Ash already had a copy of it. One thing at a time though, he figured. It was time to settle the Al problem. He was still on the stairs to the dungeons. He turned to go up the stairs to Gryffindor tower.
Daniel, the only muggle born first year Gryffindor, answered the door. "Jack!" he exclaimed.
"Daniel," Jack answered, wondering at the boy's enthusiasm.
"You're okay," he said, flinging his arms around Jack. Jack blinked then slowly wrapped his arms around Daniel's shoulders. "I was worried about you."
"Worried about me?" Jack asked, pushing the chubby boy away enough to look him in the face.
"Well, yeah, we're friends, aren't we?"
Acquaintances, maybe, Jack thought. Daniel studied at a table next to Jack and the Doctor when they were done with homework and were tinkering with the de-aging problem. Sometimes they would chat, mostly about muggle stuff. It then occurred to Jack that he never saw anyone studying with Daniel. He was suddenly very sad. "Course we're friends," Jack answered as brightly as he could, slapping Daniel on the back.
Daniel smiled broadly. "Do you want to borrow my homework? I'm guessing you didn't do much over the past few days."
Oof. Jack did not want to encourage the idea that homework equaled friendship, despite his current motivations for making up with Al. "Not now, Daniel. I actually needed to talk to Al. I did something a few weeks ago, and I want to fix things."
"Oh." Daniel's face fell. Before Jack could think of a way to tell Daniel that it did not mean that he did not want to be his friend, Daniel grabbed his arm and started tugging him inside the Gryffindor common room. "He's been in our room the whole weekend. You should probably come inside."
"Daniel, stop! I'm a Slytherin; I'm not allowed inside!" Jack protested. It was not that he cared; he just did not want the other boy getting in trouble.
Daniel rolled his eyes and started muttering under his breath about profiling and prejudism. He tightened his grip on Jack's arm and pulled him through the door. Being that it was late afternoon on a weekend, the room was much more crowded than last time Jack was in there. Most people did not seem to notice the two first years, but Jack saw Ellie off in the corner staring at them. She opened her mouth and Jack winced, prepared for shouting. But slowly, she closed her mouth, shaking her head slightly. She was still glaring, but Jack breathed a sigh of relief.
Daniel led Jack up a stairway to a door labeled "First Year". He pushed the door open to reveal a spacious room with five cushy looking beds. The Doctor's was obvious by the large tomes scattered around on the floor and bits of gadgets strewn across the beadspread. Daniel's was equally obvious with a Star Wars poster hanging on the wall and a handful of twenty sided dice on the nightstand. Jack hid a grin as he noticed small model rancor standing guard over a small stack of muggle comics. Al's bed was also obvious, but this was because Al was laying face down on it.
Daniel approached the bed. "Al?" He touched Al's shoulder. Al shrugged it off. "Please get up. Jack's here," he said.
Al sat up with a jerk. "Jack?"
Next thing Jack knew, he was getting hugged again, Al clutching at him desperately. "Okay, okay," he said, trying to simultaneously extricate himself and comfort Al at the same time. "Calm down. What's wrong?"
"I was so mean to you and then you and John got sick and Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let us see you and I thought you had died!" Al wailed.
"I'm not dead, it's okay. Madam Pomfrey didn't let you in to see us because the Doctor gets weird when he's sick. But I'm okay and he's going to be okay. Alright?" Jack peered, worried, into Al's face. The boy sniffled and rubbed at his eye with the heel of his palm. He nodded.
Daniel stepped next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "He's been fretting about this the whole weekend," Daniel told Jack. "I tried telling him you would be fine, but he was really upset at the idea that you were dead and he never got to apologize." Daniel studied Jack. "What'd he do to you, anyway?" he asked.
"Beats me," Jack said. "Al?"
"I stopped talking to you for a few days and then didn't share my homework with you," Al sniffled.
"Really?" Jack stared. "That's what you've been working yourself up about?" Al nodded, staring at the floor. "You idiot, I was just coming over to apologize to you!" Al looked up in surprise. "Look, Al, I did something, and it hurt your feelings. You had every right to be upset at me."
"I didn't want to be like Ellie…"
"Apples and oranges. For one thing, she's still not talking to anyone. For another, her reason for not talking is completely ridiculous. Yours makes sense," Jack then remembered that he did not actually know why Al was angry. "It does make sense, right?
Daniel snorted. "I told you he didn't mean it to be mean," he said.
Al nodded. "I know. I know you were just joking."
"But what did I do?"
Daniel answered for Al. "You said that Cadogan was brash and idiotic."
Jack cocked his head slightly. "Isn't he?" he asked cautiously.
"Just like Gryffindors," Daniel added.
Jack's shoulders sagged. "Oh. I didn't mean it like that," he said. "It was just…"
"No, I get it. That's the joke. Gryffindors are brave but idiotic, Slytherins are clever and cruel, Ravenclaws are book smart and people dumb, and Hufflepuffs…"
"Are Hufflepuffs," Jack finished with a wry grin. It faded. "I didn't realize that's why you were upset with me."
Al shrugged. "It was a dumb reason. That's why I felt so bad when you were sick. I was being so unreasonable."
"No," Jack insisted. "It's fine. I should have realized sooner. As I said, you had every right for being upset. And Al? I am so sorry for hurting your feelings like that." Al smiled slightly and reached forward to give Jack another hug. Jack hugged back tightly. "And don't worry," he added. "The Doctor's still healing, but he'll be fine in a few days."
Al smiled then said "Ash has a copy of the homework."
Jack smiled. "Okay, I better go copy it then. See you later." He hugged Al once more, clapped Daniel on the shoulder, and went off to find Ash.
A/N: Oh my gosh, sorry this is so late! I've been in study mode the whole day and completely forgot! Thank you, Smiley101 for reminding me! Sorry there's not a lot of action, but hey, at least it's pretty long, right? The next update is March 5. Thank you for reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing!
