Chapter Nineteen: Time, Long Ago
With Rose and Mickey exploring the TARDIS – and likely looking for the dinosaur room that they wouldn't be able to get into without the Doctor – the Doctor and I were able to be alone together in the library. The Doctor had been struggling since they met Sarah Jane, and to have lost Reinette without evening getting to say goodbye, it had hit him harder than it would have done otherwise. Instead of the Doctor talking about his old companions and adventures, or the vast knowledge he held within himself, I decided it was time to tell him a little bit more about me.
The Doctor was a man I had come to trust in such a short time, and in a way that I never thought I would be able to. I never thought I would be able to tell anyone the truth off where I came from, of what I was. Of what I could do. A connection to death - that was something that would scare most people. But not the Doctor. He worried, especially when that connection began to bleed with Time. He worried for my health and did what he could to help me. Because that was what he did - he helped.
"I never told you who I was, before." I started the conversation, getting comfy on the sofa which I shared with the Doctor. I created a sort of barrier by sitting with my back against the arm and my feet tucked under me. The Doctor faced me; one knee bent on the sofa while his other leg was on the floor.
"What do you mean?" The Doctor asked with a frown, focused completely on the conversation and not his thoughts. In their time together I had told him of the battles I had been in, of my loses, but I hadn't given him names and rarely discussed how I'd lost people beyond basic information. Nothing detailed enough to give him the information he would need to make the connection.
"I told you I was from a parallel universe, that my people were capable of magic and that due to a devastating war I chose to kill them. And in exchange I was given a new life in this world. You know that my connection to Death is a result of a combination of unforeseen magical circumstances in my last life, which led to me being immortal in that body. Whether that has passed over I don't know, but it has drastically reduced my aging and increased my ability to heal." I explained, picking up the cup of tea that the TARDIS had kindly provided us. I had stopped questioning how she did such things, and simple sent my mental thanks to her. "Just as all you know for certain about my life before you, is that I grew up in the Powel Estate with Rose after being adopted by Pete at the age of five. And that I have some kind of connection to UNIT."
"All true. But I also know that you enjoy learning languages; that you like the colour purple; you enjoy odd facts and have one of the kindest hearts I have ever met. You also have a rather odd fondness for Raspberries." The Doctor rattled off. Making it clear that he didn't need to know my past to know me. Just as I didn't know the details of the Doctor's life on Gallifrey or of the Time War. And his accounting of his tales with his companions mostly focused on them and the subject of the adventure, not himself.
"Mister Bananas in everything." I counted with a smile. If he was willing to make jokes about my like of raspberries then his mind wasn't focused on Sarah Jane or Reinette.
"Hay, don't knock the banana. Bananas are good for you." The Doctor said affronted.
"So are raspberries." I pointed out, before growing serious. "Doctor, I want you to know who I was. Who I am."
"I already know who you are." The Doctor leaned forward seriously. "You're Annamae Tylor, my best friend."
"And you, Doctor, are mine. Which is why I want to tell you." I responded, just as serious as the Doctor.
"Then I'll listen." The Doctor promised.
"That's all I ask." I told him, before taking a steadying breath and deciding where was the best place to start. "Did you finish reading the Harry Potter series?" I settled on.
"Yes," the Doctor answered confused. "The seventh book made me cry."
"JK Rollings didn't come up with the concept of her book alone. I wrote information about my world, and about the war, and then gave it to her. She took that information and turned it into a story, so some of the information isn't correct. But it gives you a basis of understanding into my world."
"Oh," The Doctor breathed.
"My name was Lady Violet Annamae Potter, the last Lady of the Most Ancient and Nobel House of Potter, and the rightful Lady to the Most Ancient and Nobel House of Black, Lady through conquest to the Venerably House of Slytherin, and Lady through right of magic, blood and deed to the Venerable house of Gryffindor. Knight of the Defender of the Faith, Queen Elizabeth the second, Spokeswomen to the Crown and enforcer of her majesties law; General of Justice and Piece, Defender of Freedom, Mistress of Death, The Chosen One, The Women-Who-Conquered and the Girl Who Lived. There are a couple of others, but none of them were made official." I finished my winded introduction with a shrug. By the time of my death, I had been given many titles and I had never used them all before. Only the ones I needed. Near the end, I had most often used General of Justice and Peace and Defender of Freedom because those were the roles I had been gifted by the crown and the mundane council.
"The only one of those mentioned in JK's books are the Chosen One, Women-Who-Conquered and Girl-Who-Lived, if you switch the gender. How much did she leave out?" The Doctor asked. Titles like General of Justice and Piece spoke of bloody times where such a thing was needed. Were these titles that Annamae had gained during the war?
"Everything after I graduated Hogwarts. And quite a bit from Hogwarts itself. She had to keep it PG after all. If I'd wanted a closer retelling of my life, I would have given it to an author like George Martin. Besides, I was the one who told her to change the gender since her writing style didn't appeal to a female hero." I explained. "Although she got the history of Tom Riddle pretty accurate."
"So, you were the Harry of the story?" The Doctor clarified.
"Yes," I confirmed.
"And the Mistress of Death is a result of getting all the Hallows together?" The Doctor questioned. "That's were that connection comes from?"
"Only partially. Someone like Tom could have gotten all three items together and not mastered death. I'll explain fully later. But first I'll give you a basic breakdown of my life from before." I stopped the Doctor from asking more questions on that topic for now since it was such a small part of what happened to me.
"My parents were murdered by Tom when I was 18months old, that doesn't change from the books. And I was given to the Dursley's. JK only brushed over the abuse I suffered, mentioning the neglect and emotional abuse, but not going into the extent of it. If I hadn't had my magic, I wouldn't have survived to see eleven; as it was, I suffered serious health consequence as a result and the only reason it didn't kill me before I was twenty-five was because I took to self-treatment, I was stubborn and then I became the Mistress of Death. Which didn't cure the aliments, but it prevented them from getting worse and killing me." I brushed over the specifics here, but the Doctor was smart enough, and had seen enough in his life time, to work out what I wasn't saying. I might even go into more detail at some point, but for now it wasn't important.
"In a weird way, their abuse probably saved my life. If it wasn't for the high pain tolerance, they had instilled in me from a young age, I would have never been able to get up and fight back as often as I did. They were also the reason I never bowed down to anyone, because I refused to let anyone walk over me like they did."
"But that doesn't make it right." The Doctor reminded me with sad eyes.
"No, it doesn't. But that doesn't change the fact that their abuse of me shaped very important parts of my personality. And I might not have had the strength of character to survive all I did if it wasn't for them. My heart wouldn't have been different, but my drive and my stubbornness likely would have been. I may hate them, but they are a part of my history and that turned me into a survivor." I agreed with the Doctor, while trying to get him to understand what I was saying. As much as I wished to have grown up in a loving home, with a mother and a father, I didn't. And I had come to accept that long ago.
"Hagrid came to introduce me to the wizarding world on the night of my birthday. The Dursley's had been on the run from the letters being sent to them, and they refused to let me go to Hogwarts. Rather fortunately, Hagrid wouldn't listen to them. And he knew it wasn't their decision anyway, it was mine since my parents had already given permission and signed me up to go. Once that had happened, the only way I could have been stopped from attending was if I was imprisoned or I willingly chose not to and withdrew my place and had 80% of my tuition returned.
Oh, the wonder I felt when Hagrid led me through Diagon Alley. It was magnificent Doctor, truly. The colours, the laughter. The magic that sang through the air and danced across my skin. I'll never forget that first walk through Diagon. The way it felt like all my pain was gone, and I could breathe for what felt like the first time. I was with people like me, and I had somewhere to belong." My smile turned sad then. "I can still remember the wonder, and the innocents. The obliviousness that two wars lay on their doorstep.
When Hagrid got to Gringotts, he got me an accounting of my trust vault and informed me that the Potter family had other vaults but I was restricted from knowing about how many and their content until I was thirteen. This was something the ministry had done in an attempt at 'protecting the Potter's future' because of the number of people that tied to claim my family's fortune. The Goblins were however allowed to let slip that the yearly interest for the Potter main vault was more than what was in my trust vault. Which was enough information to allow me to splurge in the book store because I wanted to know everything about the world that I had found myself in. The book store clerk even gave me a free copy of his self-updating catalogue, because of the number of books I brought. That catalogue was probably the only reason I didn't buy him out of his stock of history and language books." I laughed lightly, remembering the look on the store owners and Hagrid's face. "Hagrid even went and picked up a library trunk for me. It could be shrunk to the size of a matchstick and was purely for the safe storage of books. Even had an inventory thing in the lid so I just had to write the subject or book I wanted and they would appear at the top of the trunk.
As you know I got the brother wand to Voldemort, holly with a feather of a phoenix. Instead of storing it in my pocket like Harry did I got a hip holder which doubled as a belt and was charmed invisible to mundane eyes. Mr Ollivander recommended it, said the wand had a great destiny ahead of it and needed the proper storage device. Normally only those going into the Auror's or hit wizards used them, so they were called battle holsters. By the end of the war, everyone had one. Even the children." I had been the one to have them made and given to the resistance and the DA, because if their wand was in a holster it was easier to draw and couldn't be summoned from their person until they drew it.
"My first few years were relatively quiet, in comparison to my fourth year and up. Tom made multiple attempts to both kill me and return to life. I made some good friends, got to know the wizarding world and learnt magic. Then fourth year happened, and it all changed. I wasn't innocent before, not after everything, but I was naive. Even if I stood alone at the end of every year, I still had back up close at hand. But during the tournament, I had no one. I fought alone. And then when I was kidnapped, and Cedric murdered, I once more stood alone. And this time, no one even knew I was gone. All the precautions that should have been put in place, ignored or abandoned. It was the first time I duelled for my life, and saw just how outclassed I was compared to Tom who had far more years of experience then I did. I survived because Tom wasn't at his full strength.
When I had recovered, I went to the library and with the help of Dobby, I copied every newspaper printed from 1946, the year Tom graduated, to that day. I also got a subscription to the Daily Prophet and muggle news. I knew that if I wanted to defeat Tom, I needed to understand what he did last time. See if he started up any of his old patterns. I also ordered more books on defence, survival, charms, warding, anything that I thought might be useful.
I have never been so grateful for my forward planning, because if it wasn't for the mountain of self-assigned work that I gave myself I could have easily fallen to the grief and depression. Because Dumbledore ordered my friends not to contact me. I had already neutered the Dursley's so they ignored my existence, which meant that the only contact I had with anyone was Dobby when he was dropping food and newspapers. But he couldn't stay long without being caught, and I needed him at Hogwarts because he was helping me get the house-elves as my ears. The ministry was hounding me in the newspapers, calling me an insane attention seeker, but I didn't let that get to me. I was more frustrated by the fact that the news weren't reporting anything about Tom's activities. While the mundane newspaper had picked up on several unusual disappearances and had even brought up the similarity to what happened back in the sixteens and seventies with, what they thought, was the terrorist organisation.
When I saw that, I made the decision to contact the Queen. I had discovered that a letter addressed to the palace, using the code word 'Falcon' would be given straight to the Chief Wizard, who would then brief the queen. I told her everything that had happened in the first war, how it started and who Tom Riddle was. I then gave her a brief rundown of Tom's attempts to return, and how he had finally succeeded. Before finally concluding by informing her of what my government wasn't doing and who I suspected were victims of the Death Eaters.
Three days after I sent that letter I was summoned to the palace, with a royal car escort. She wanted to question me more on what was happening in the Wizarding World. By the time our conversation had concluded, I was placed under the chief wizard and his guard for training in combat techniques – magic and not. I was given a portkey that would take me to the palace once a week once I started at Hogwarts. I was also assigned the task of keeping the palace informed.
In the meantime, mundane wizards who had gone back to the normal world were contacted and many of them were drafted into different divisions which were called 'the Emergency Response'. They were ready and willing to act to protect the people and the crown. A subdivision of this consisted of mundanes who were in the know and squibs. They were spread throughout the intelligence divisions, police and armed forces. Anywhere we knew they would be useful. By August 16th, the Queen had amassed a force of 15000, which was growing by the day and getting stronger. And all without the public or wizarding world being aware.
I returned to the wizarding world after I was attacked by Dementors and forced to use my magic outside of the Queen's wards. The trial they tried to force upon me was a farce, and so I did something they never expected. You see, the tri-wizard tournament was worded in such a way that only someone 'off-age' could compete. By being forced to compete, with the agreement of two headmasters of foreign schools, two government employees, the headmaster of my school, the chief warlock and the supreme mugwemp – weather that last was in the same person or not – meant they had all declared me off age. Then, being pulled before the full wizangment for a trail, meant that the wizangment and the minister himself, considered me to also be off age. This effectively emancipated me, and in the eyes of the law and magic I was now considered seventeen. Which meant I could claim my Ladyship of House Potter. Since I had talked with Sirius about it, I also claimed Ladyship of House Black because he officially conceded all rights to the headship to me, his heir."
"Which meant they couldn't prosecute you for underage magic," The Doctor realised. He'd been listening silently to my explanation, knowing better than most people that sometimes you just needed to talk without interruption knowing that there was another person willing to listen.
"More than that. I had the right to vote on the government body and bring forth an emergence meeting. Which was exactly what I did, right then and there. I proved, through the use of my memories that Voldemort was back; that Malfoy and Nott, both lords in the house, were Death Eaters; that my godfather was innocent; and that Fudge was in contempt of his position therefore having him immediately fired and arrested for unlawfully having the Dementors kiss given. Using an emergency protocol, I forced Madam Bones to take the Minister position and begin securing the Ministry against Death Eaters by getting everyone to take an oath of office, or be detained and questioned under veritersurum. Since we locked down the ministry, and had all cleared Auror bring in the rest of the ministry workers we were for the first time working with a ministry that didn't have Tom's influence or corruption.
By the end of the first 24 hours, we had arrested 36 Death Eaters, of which only three were marked, and arrested a further 48 people who were using their position in the ministry to break the law. 94 people were fired due to incompetence. Due to this, the Queen, through me, and Madam Bones with the help of Arthur Weasley and Percy Weasley began to restructure the Ministry. Madame Bones also forced the Unspeakables to step up and help since they had copies of laws and paperwork that the ministry had lost over the years and they needed access to. Mundane borns who had stayed in the wizarding world, half-bloods and low-ranking purebloods suddenly found themselves with job employment opportunities that suited their qualifications and the Auror's saw a huge surge in their numbers.
By the time any information was released to the public about what was truly happening, Tom's support base had been cut at the knees. Fighting the war on the offensive, without raising my wand, as it were. But this clean out, as was inevitable, led to violence."
I sighed. I knew when I swept through the ministry that Voldemort would react violently, but I hadn't been truly prepared for it.
"There was nothing you could have done to prevent that." The Doctor squeezed my hand. "A fight was inevitable, there was no way you could have taken out all of his people by sweeping the ministry. As much as we both wish all fighting could have been ended without actually raising weapons."
"I had started back at Hogwarts by this point, although I still spent a lot of time in contact with the ministry via magical mirrors." I continued my story, offering a grateful smile to the Doctor for his attempt at comfort. "Umbridge had managed to get out of the ministry unharmed and placed at Hogwarts, but I had her fired and arrested by the end of the second week, and a member of the Department of Education brought in alongside a desk bound Auror. Since I was the only student familiar with Tom's, and to an extent the Death Eater's, fighting style I was given sanction to set up a defence association club. I taught the children how to protect themselves, stall long enough for help to arrive or for them to get away, and how to summon a patronus because I knew that the Dementors had gone to Tom before we had been able to contain them. I gave them everything I could to make sure that they would survive into adult hood. I didn't make them into soldiers, but I damn sure made it so they could run and hide.
Tom had set a price on my head, which turned out was larger than the price on Dumbledore's head. There were many attempts on my life over that year as Tom continued recruiting. It took him nearly the entire year to get a force that he felt comfortable with, by which point the ministry and the Queen had also secured their own forces. And so a gruella war started with Tom taking pot shots at places and getting out in under five minutes because he knew that he couldn't engage our forces and win. And while he was doing that, he kept trying to get me, Dumbledore and madam Bones – he knew taking us out would weaken the moral of our forces.
In my sixth year Dumbledore finally revealed to me about the existence of Horcrux's. I was so angry at him when he finally told me about them. Because the Black library was full of information. I managed to locate and destroy three of the objects in under two months, whereas it had taken him three years to locate one horcrux that ended up killing him. I didn't return for my seventh year at Hogwarts because I was needed in the fight."
"You were still a child." The Doctor frowned. "You fought on the front, and you weren't even an adult."
"The Death Eaters would stay on the battle field longer if I was there, and it also increased the chances of Voldemort showing himself." I explained. "With a team at my side I was also able to hunt down and destroy the rest of his horcrux's except the one in my head and his snake." I took another sip of my tea as I steadied myself to tell the next part of my story.
"While we were doing the best to draw Tom and his supporters out, he had found a way into Hogwarts. It was the house elves who alerted us by brining all the muggle-borns and unsafe half-bloods to us under the direction of Severus Snape. He knew which children would have been killed with the school under Tom's control and locked down, and which ones wouldn't and he only had a very small window to get them to safety without having entire families murdered. This put us under a time limit, we didn't want Tom to have control of the school for long because it would cause issues with the civilians who weren't fighting. Might convince them to turn to Tom's side.
So we made a plan, and in May we implemented it. 80% of the Queen's forces remained behind, guarding key locations that Tom might take the opportunity to attack. The rest I led to a point just outside of Hogsmeade where I told them to wait while I infiltrated the school using a secret passage that Neville Longbottom had opened for me in the Room of Requirement. I entered with a small strike force that took down the Death Eaters within the school, and detained the children who were truly loyal. The rest of the children were then evacuated to a safe house and our army entered.
Tom always had designs to take the school, and the fact that he had lost it infuriated him. Me and Madame Bones both being there also made the school a target. And just as we predicted he gathered his entire force and stormed the school. The battle was long and brutal, so many died." I frowned down at my hands. "But when Tom lost his snake, he called a pause in the battle and offered me an ultimatum. Surrender myself, and everyone else will live.
I knew that he wouldn't let them live, but I also knew that we couldn't stop him until I was dead. The Horxcrux was embedded into my soul. And not even the goblins had the ritual magic capable of removing it. Since he had taken my blood to be reborn in body, my life was tied to his. So, I walked to my death, with two Deathly Hallows on my person and a third whose allegiance I had won long ago.
That's why I was accepted as the Master of Death. I wasn't afraid to die. I welcomed death in the end." I briefly swung back around to the start of this conversation and the explanation about the Hallows. "I never hid from him, and yet I had been pulled from his clutches four times before. This time, I had no chance of survival, and I went to my death so that the defenders could finally kill Tom – together. But when the killing curse struck me, and my heart stopped, my mind didn't.
I was taken to a place where the presence of magic was pure and unfiltered. There, I was told the truth about my mastery over death and how it would impact me. But I had the choice to die. I would have taken it, had I not been told what would happen if I did. You see, they would have defeated Tom. But another Dark Lord would have risen at the same time the mundane world found out about us, and no one would have been able to stop the total destruction of my planet. I was the only one with the magical power enough to stop it, and my very influence would have been enough to stop the Dark Lord rising.
So I chose to live an immortal life, with the knowledge that I was going back to the worst war my planet had ever seen. And the death of everyone and everything I knew." I stopped here, looking down at my hands. "I always chose everyone else over me."
The Doctor grabbed my hands, making me look at him. "You don't have to tell me the rest. Not today."
"One day," I promised him after a pause. He was right, I didn't have it in me to tell that entire story in one go. "I'll tell you the rest."
"Come on, I want to show you something." The Doctor smiled gentle and led me from the library and to the console room.
He pressed a few buttons on the console and set us on cause while he ran off somewhere. When he returned, he had two long pieces of rope over his shoulder and a smile on his face.
"Annamae Tyler, would you like to take a walk with me?" he asked once he had tied the ropes around a coral support strut.
I laughed then.