Outside Interference

chapter 30

Gallifrey, TT-capsule Maintenance Hangar 1

Sigma Delta was curious. Well, more curious than the others. For the last week, the newcomers had been the subject of many conversations. Right now, three of the children; the blonde Arachne, Cassandra, and the two humanoids, Azrael and Leo, were exploring the TT-capsule hangar bay. The adult humanoid female, Galadriel was with her, helping to keep an eye on them.

The two red-haired Arachne and the Lamia were with their parents, in the Old-Quarter of Arcadia City. Children. Parents. Both were terms both alien and familiar to many Gallifreyians.

"Don't think about it too much," said Galadriel. "You've been using Gene-looms exclusively centuries."

There was a chuckle from Cassandra as she lowered herself from an upper gantry gantry. "The look on that woman's face, as that man couldn't take his eyes off Okaasan's chest was priceless."

"Well, her height does put your ...mother?... your mother's chest right at eye-level for the average humanoid male," replied Sigma Delta, with a slight blush to her face. "To be honest, those of us who have never been off-world have no idea what these are even for." She indicated to her own chest.

"That's only because you come out of your 'looms fully-grown, and anything to do with having children 'the old-fashioned way' is deemed as unnecessary information for your direct memory implantation," said Azrael, from the gantry. "Cass, Leo, what's the floor like?"

"All clear, baby brother," said Leo. Sigma Delta forgot that the boy clambering over everything with his siblings was blind.

Azrael dropped down Cassandra's web, stumbling slightly on his landing. Bright green runes orbited his hand, and his staff materialised in it.

"It still amazes me how do you do that," said Sigma Delta. Her expression briefly soured. "It's also frustrating. There was a whole branch of knowledge denied to us when the Pythia gained her stranglehold on Gallifrey's spiritual development, and then that branch was completely removed when she cursed our ancestors."

"At least you still keep some of your traditions, even if you've forgotten their original purpose," Cassandra commented. "My sisters get to go to the Untempered Schism in a few hours."

"I wondered about that," said an engineer, who had just finished adjusting something on a nearby TT-capsule.

It was strange, Sigma Delta thought. The TT-capsules always seemed to be 'happier' when Cassandra and Leo were nearby.

"Why were you three excluded from going?" asked the engineer.

"Leo and myself are too young," said Azrael. "We're not eight Gallifreyian years old yet. Also, being blind, I'm not even sure if the Untempered Schism will have an effect on me."

"And Cassandra?" asked Sigma Delta, turning towards Galadriel. "It's obvious she's old enough to join the others. Why isn't she with them?"

The noise of manoeuvring thrusters drowned out the Arachne's answer. Not long after, the other three adult females from the group walked in. "Racist bastards," grumbled Cassiopeia. "As soon as we landed 'only timelords may set foot on this sacred ground.'"

There was a weird flicker from a nearby TT-capsule.

"Shut up, you old hag," Cassiopeia commented, looking towards the TT-capsule. "I can disrespect whoever I choose."

"Anyone?" Ventris asked, in a teasing voice.

Cassiopeia blushed, and squirmed slightly at the adult Arachne's look.

Galadriel and Renata tried to suppress their laughter.

"Do you two need to go back to one of the cabins," Renata wiggled her eyebrows.

Cassiopeia and Ventris suddenly weren't there.

"Why are parents so embarrassing?" Cassandra facepalmed. She looked towards another TT-capsule. "Of course they share a bed. How do you think I came about?"

An offended look came across Leo's face. "Bitch!"

"Oh shit," whispered Azrael.

Galadriel and Renata surged towards the two small blondes, with the Lamia just managing to catch Cassandra mere millimetres before her claws reached one of the TT-capsules. Galadrriel, on the other hand, wasn't quite quick enough. Leo's fist hit with enough force to dent their target's outer casing.

The adults all gasped in surprise, when a blue glow surrounded the TT-capsule, and it turned into a frightened girl, of a similar age to Leo and Azrael.

"No one says things like that about my Mum!" shouted Leo, as they were being restrained. Her voice dropped to an embarrassed whisper. "Mama, Amma, I think I broke my hand."

"I'll take her to medical," commented a resigned Renata.

"What was all that about?" Sigma Delta asked the adult elf, as Leo was led back to where the off-worlders had apparently parked their ship.

'...(mumble) (mumble)..." said Cassandra, as she looked at the floor, refusing to look anyone in the eye.

Before they could coax the blonde arachne to speak a bit louder, their attention was drawn to Azrael, as he draped his shirt over the cowering now-girl. "I know my siblings overreacted, but you really shouldn't have said that about their mutual parent. I know the ultimate goal of a TARDIS is to form a Bond with a timelord or timelady, but you're going to have to accept that, even though Dad is a timelord, Okaasan is who restored Mum, and it is she who Mum formed her Bond with." He carefully lifted her up, and turned his head in the general direction of the adults. "I sensed something similar to Dad's decryption magic when Leo punched the TARDIS. Whatever he did to this girl's chameleon circuit cannot be undone. ...uh ...also," his faced blushed red, "I think I've Bonded with her."

===/===

The Untempered Schism

The group watched as the ship left the landing pad, and headed in the general direction of the hangars. As well as Kuroko, Charlotte, and Sally, who were accompanied by their father, there were a dozen or so 'young' timelords and timeladies being escorted by a priest.

"Performing this ceremony with off-worlders is strictly forbidden," commented a timelord in an elaborate set of robes, as he walked up the path.

"I am sorry High Priest," replied the priest. "Our doctors have examined the children, and they are timeladies."

"Very well," reluctantly commented the High Priest. He addressed the group as a whole. "It has been eight years since you were 'loomed or," he glanced at the children, "...born. We will lead you momentarily to witness the Untempered Schism. Some of you will become inspired by the sight. Some of you will run away," he looked back to the children again. "Unfortunately the view might drive a small percentage of you insane."

"I was one of the ones that ran away," whispered Hiroshi. "Hopefully, none of you three get the same result as your Aunt Mizuchi, when she and I did this as kids."

The High Priest looked at the redhead with pity. "It is distressing witnessing one of your House go insane. Is that why you ran?"

Hiroshi burst out laughing. "I'm older, so I went first. I think my running away pissed her off," Hiroshi's expression grew serious. "When Mizuchi looked into the Untempered Schism, the Vortex ...flinched."

A thoughtful look appeared on Sally's face. "That's why she knows those spells, isn't it? Violet said Aunt Mizuchi could use Space-bridge class Gate spells since she was ten."

"Probably," agreed Hiroshi. "Although, it did take some coaching from Aunt Lucoa for her to learn to control all of that power." He sighed. "However, if my sister hadn't gained all of that power, she never would have met your mother."

"Space bridge? Gate?" asked the High Priest.

"Basically, she can link two points of space-time, using magic. I'm crap at it, and can only do basic Gate spells. The term 'Space-bridge' is pretty self-explanatory."

===/===

Surrey

"Students, it has come to my attention that some of you have been trying to break the school dress code, by using 'cultural differences' and other flimsy excuses. I cannot do anything about the other class, but I can do something about this class. As of tomorrow, I will start handing out detentions."

A boy raised his hand. "Excuse me Mr Brown, but why are you singling out Hareesh? His religion forbids him from cutting his hair, and I don't understand why you think he's faking it."

Mr Brown turned towards him. "I fully understand that some Indian cultures have those requirements," Brown looked down at the seating plan on the table, "Mr Walsh. I'm referring to Miss O'Reilly and Miss Peverell."

The two dragons looked at each other. Violet raised her hand. "You do know this is an ICEP-approved school, yes?"

"Of course it is. The United Nations made Exchange Program schools, so people from other countries can experience new ways of doing things. Dying your hair two different colours is not part of a cultural practice."

"Wyth mlynedd, ac mae yna bobl anybodus mewn awdurdod o hyd," Violet muttered.

"I can speak Welsh, young lady," Brown chided. "You have detention at lunch today for disrespecting a teacher." Dumbledore didn't mention The-girl-who-lived spoke Welsh. Girl-who-lived. I still find it amazing a mere Mudblood knew enough to glamour her child as a boy. The glamour-work on her at the moment is also pretty convincing. You could almost believe she's a half-dragon. Still, Lord Nott's bounty for the kid will set me up for life.

Violet raised an eyebrow. "Mae hud trin cof yn anghyfrethlon," Violet commented. "Hefyd, a ydych chi'n barod am ganlyniadu dwn llanc draig?"

"He's a wizard, isn't he?" whispered the girl on Violet's left. "You and Jun do that whenever you don't want the church kids finding out."

"...psst... Dorea," whispered Hareesh, on Dorea's right. "What's a 'mud blood'?"

Dorea glanced to the boy. Hareesh's eyes suddenly widened, as two sets of pink runic circles appeared in the air just in front of the teacher.

Chaos. Panic.

"Dorea! Get the others out of here!" Violet shouted, as the distinctive colours of stunning and immobilisation spells were absorbed by Violet's mana-shields. /Juniper! Rogue Mage!/

The school's fire alarms suddenly started ringing throughout the school, and Juniper's voice came over the PA system.

:: "Attention, attention! This is a case five evacuation drill. I repeat, this is a case five evacuation drill." ::

===/===

In his office, the new Principal frowned slightly at the sound of the fire alarms. He then paled at the PA announcement.

He had been assigned to the school by the Ministry of Magic, as a way to keep an eye on The-girl-who-lived. His briefing had Violet as the 'secret identity' of the Potter girl, but he suspected that information was deliberately incorrect. Violet was too confident, too protective, for someone who had been rescued from abusive relatives.

Not counting the naturally-timid dryad and aralune who were too young anyway, there was only one demi-human in the school whose body language gave away she was nervous around adults, especially male ones. Merlin, the girl accidentally put her last teacher in the hospital two days ago. Poor Mr Rogers unthinkingly put his hand on her shoulder, and found out the hard way why you don't startle someone who instinctively generates lightning. The only reason he was alive for the ambulances, was Violet using Dryad healing magic.

He looked at the evacuation plans near the office PA console.

Note to self, he thought. Find out how Miss Dwyllphyrn can use the school's PA without access to a microphone.

He looked up what 'case five' meant, and immediately sent a Patronus to the DMLE. He then picked up the phone and dialled 999. A case five 'drill' wasn't actually a drill. Case five meant someone was here to kidnap a student.

Two guesses who.

===/===

Back in the classroom, Brown was realising how badly he had messed up.

He was currently backed up against a wall, on his tip-toes, with the blade of a halberd pricking the soft part at the top of his neck. Violet O'Reilly, contrary to rumours, was not the missing Potter child!Dumbledore had to have 'leaked' false information.

He couldn't Apparate out, due to some glowing device Juniper Dwllphyrn was holding in one of her four hands. She was pointing a pair of pistols at him.

Fellblade Gringott was to his right, wielding a double-headed battle axe. Dorea Peverell was to his left. The sword in her hand looked almost like the legendary Sword of Gryffindor.

He almost fainted in relief at the faint sounds of Apparition. His error, however did at least give him a credible lead to leverage Lord Nott getting him out of going to Azkaban. The 'Hareesh' kid just had to be the disguised Harry Potter. It was so obvious now. No Mudblood could do such a complex spell. He didn't realise until 'Hareesh' asked 'Peverell' what a Mudblood was. Peverell. That should have raised another flag to his mind. She's even wearing the Merlin-damned Hallows symbol as a brooch.

"Afternoon officer," Juniper greeted, as she holstered her pistols. The Aurors had walked into the classroom.

The other girls lowered their weapons, which then vanished, as they took Brown into custody. Brown's face dropped, as Auror Rockwood whispered in his ear. "Taken down by seven-year-old girls isn't going to look good to Lord Nott."