Two weeks before Gwen MacMillan arrived in Charactia, the rain pounded hard against the windshield of the RV and the wind shook it back and forth.
Martin, dark-skinned and Mexican, bobbed his head back and forth to the Spanish dubstep on the radio while his strange companion sat in the passenger seat, gazing silently out the window.
The two had been driving for a half an hour already and yet, there had been no conversation between the two of them. Not that Martin had any sort of problem with that. The hooked nosed, greasy-haired, gaunt man in the black coat and robes frightened him. Out of all the strange creatures that had entered he and Diana's diner, this man had been by far the strangest.
For Martin, if a dangerous person entered his diner, he wanted to be able to see that they were dangerous. He wanted to see the claws, the fangs, the scales, the beady yellow eyes. This man looked very human, but there was an air around him that was very inhuman.
The only physically dangerous thing about this man was the fact that his eyes were jet black which, to Martin, seemed to be some kind of birth defect.
If someone looked human, but didn't feel the way humans felt, Martin found them terrifying. No matter if they had a cold or not.
Sitting in silence with a man who may snap and and grow fangs at any minute scared Martin worse than saying something potentially wrong. Every once in a while, the man would sniffle and it would cause Martin to have a mini-heart attack.
He cleared his throat and fingered the steering wheel.
"You, uh, going to eat something?"
The strange black-haired man looked down at his lap where there was the white bag of diner food. He merely blinked and looked back out the window.
"You know- once you reach outpost, you'll have to deal with Ferengi on your own," Martin said quietly.
Silence. Sniffle.
"They are...manipulative. I should warn you. They look at money and would give their families for it,"
"I have met the type,"
The man's deep voice and thick English accent cut through the dark cockpit like an icy sword, made scarier by the hoarse undertone.
"You've...met Ferengi?"
"No," the man said, barely moving his lips. "But I have met those who would trade all of the beings of the Earth if they could have power over it all."
Martin nodded.
"Only Earth? There are so many other planets,"
A crease appeared between the man's brow.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Well, there are many galaxies, you see. Many futures. Solar systems. Our Milky Way is not only one," Martin explained, shrugging. "Take Ferengi for instance. They are people from the planet Ferenginar, far out in other galaxy."
"Are you trying to tell me," the man said slowly, looking at Martin. "that there really are...live beings from other planets?"
"We had this discussion in diner, remember? You told us that you had met Martians!"
"I didn't realize-" He rolled his eyes and closed them, deciding not to continue.
"Well, just about everyone knows about aliens, it's been something we've known since very long time ago. There are many futures of Charactia that correspond with our present and past. At least, that's what I've heard. The Ferengi come from one of our futures, a future where we establish government with bunch of planets," Martin said. "There are new galaxies and futures all appearing every day, new pasts, new Characters."
"Characters?"
"Significant people who have shaped Charactia and its futures. There are also timelines within Charactia. At least, I think so. How could there be more than one Spider-Man anyhow?"
Martin laughed at his joke but the man did not. Not just from confusion, but because he didn't like laughing.
The man's head began to throb a bit harder from hearing this and he was unable to tell whether it was from his head-cold or not.
"And you expect me to believe all of this?"
"Everyone knows it,"
"Then why don't I?"
"You told us that you met Martians! How did you not realize they were from Mars?"
"It's your bloody medicine," the man grumbled, shivering slightly at the memory of the Tylenol taste. He had probably taken two swallows of it while in the RV and it had been making him woozy.
"That must be it. You've never had that medicine before, Mr..."
"Snape. Professor Snape. For goodness sake, could you pay attention for once?"
"Snape is a...weird name,"
"So is Martin,"
"No...not really..."
"You expect me to believe all of that...ridiculous timeline rubbish and the fact that it is somehow 2018?"
"It IS 2018,"
Snape scoffed. "Please. Last time I checked, it was 1998,"
This statement disturbed Martin very much and he decided not to talk anymore. Everything about this man was unnatural and he really did not want to know much more.
Diana would've scolded him for believing this but a part of Martin really believed that this Snape man had killed someone before. He didn't know why he thought this but there was something in Snape's demeanour that told him someone had died by his hand.
On the other hand, Snape didn't mind the silence between them as he had no time for Muggles and disliked human interaction. However, he hadn't had much interaction with anyone the past few months and a side of him felt comfortable being in the presence of someone who didn't want to jab him with electrical batons.
Snape hated the emotional side of himself more than he hated the rest of himself.
At some point, he dozed off against the window and Martin was left banging his head to Cuban music with heavy drums, the pattering of rain sliding down the windshield.
It was another half an hour of driving. Snape began to mutter uneasily in his sleep and his hands plucked at his cloak.
Martin stopped singing to himself the second he realized that his passenger was having some sort of nightmare but he was too frightened to wake him, afraid of how the man might react if someone were to jerk him during whatever disturbing images he was seeing.
Snape eventually awoke on his own with a jerk against the window but Martin pretended not to notice, especially when the man began to curse angrily and hiss- "Not again,".
It was a relief to both of them when the outpost finally came into view. It wasn't difficult to miss. Through the rain, it's vibrant neon lights flashed out at them, filling the walls of the round and domed building.
"Here we are," Martin announced. They pulled into the dirt parking lot before the outpost.
The mere second the RV stopped moving, Snape grasped his bag of food and medicine, pushing the door open, and exited the vehicle.
He slammed the door and Martin watched him enter the open outpost door where gold light streamed out across the muddy parking lot.
He was gone, just like that.
"Well, you're welcome," Martin whispered to himself in Spanish. He was torn between leaving him there or waiting to see what became of him.
"Crap," he whispered and shut off the RV. His compassionate side took over and he chose the latter.
The 'outpost' was a bar. Not just any bar, but a large and brightly lit casino bar. It was also incredibly loud.
Snape wiped his runny nose as he entered the noisy bar with several layers to the floor, tall golden patterned walls, orange bannisters, and purple orb lights lining a high up balcony, equally filled with people. He observed the situation. The drinking, the gambling, the pickpocketing.
The thing that truly stood out to him was how all of these people looked so...different. There were women with blue skin and antennae, men with a thin bone structure over their mouths, burly men with ridged foreheads and impressive beards, and women with pointed ears and eyebrows.
Everyone was dressed so colourfully, interacting so deeply. Everything was bright, happy, blissful, stylish, laid-back, and vibrant.
This caused Snape to stick out like a sore thumb.
He was well aware, as he neared the bar counter, that eyes were beginning to follow him. To him, everyone in this room seemed surgically altered (he had learned about surgery from an unfortunate source he did not want to think about) and outcasted.
To everyone else, the true eyesore was the depressed-looking man with unkept hair and black, strict clothes.
The Bar was a gathering place for men of the same kin. In an instant, Snape knew these were the Ferengi. Short, bald, huge eyes that stuck from the sides back from their eyebrows, wrinkled noses, brightly decorated suits. They were deep in conversation, hissing through their sharp teeth.
"-and so we have a deal with the newest Gul of the Cardassian Empire. Really quite spectacular," one was saying.
"You'd need three days of space travel to get to Cardassia from here!"
"Oh please. With the technology those pilots from Correllia established-"
"For the last time, hyperspeed is nothing compared to warp!"
Snape felt his heart drop into his stomach and he swallowed a lump in his throat. That stupid Muggle had been right. These people were extra-terrestrials. These were aliens.
The thing was, Snape had seen Martians, but what he neglected to tell Martin was that he had only seen photographs of Martians. He hadn't believed that they were real creatures. The photographs were used as an experiment on him so the images of the Ice Warriors caused him anxiety any time he thought of them.
How could the Muggles have made contact with new species? The last time he had checked, they had never done anything like this. The last time he checked, the Muggles were being massacred- hunted- the world was burning. His world was burning-
"Um, can we help you, Humon?"
Snape blinked back to life to see all five Ferengi at the bar staring at him. He drew himself up and opened his mouth to say something intimidating but he sneezed instead.
The light of the tall orange wall behind the bar flickered and the Ferengi all jumped.
One Ferengi, a Ferengi with eyes lined with purple mascara, laughed heartily.
"That's impressive! Did you do that-"
"Don't ask me that!" Snape cried suddenly with a glare.
The Ferengi men blinked.
Snape took in a steady breath as best he could through his swollen nose and straightened up again.
"Which one of you ugly trolls are in charge here?"
The Ferengi's grinned crooked teeth at one another, sniggering nastily before turning back to Snape.
The Ferengi with purple eyeliner clapped his hands, sauntering out from behind the counter.
"You're in luck, my good sir. I'm Quark, I happen to in charge here and I've got a sale on two spins at the Dabo Table if you wager-"
"Oh quiet yourself. All I want is to get out of this desert," Snape interrupted shortly.
The Ferengi grinned up at Snape evilly, but it had no affect as he only came up to Snape about mid-waist.
"We have plenty of options to head to the nearest city of Phoenix including-"
"Phoenix?" Snape said quickly, cocking an eyebrow. "Did you just say Phoenix?"
"Yes sir, very respectable city. Lots of money to give and wonderful clubs with some very desirable-"
"You can take me to this Phoenix?"
Quark began to laugh back at his friends, who also began to 'hur hur hur' with nasty smirks. Though Snape couldn't figure out what they found so amusing and their laughs made him want to Crucio them right there at the bar.
"It's not that simple, Mister," Quark sighed.
"Professor," Snape barked. "Professor Snape."
"Whatever. Anyway, you gotta offer something up as collateral!" Quark laughed. "I can't just give you a free passage to Phoenix! What will you give me in return?"
The last sentence repeated itself in Snape's head, his stomach being stabbed with an invisible knife. The bar temporarily morphed into the dark cliff of a hill where a white-bearded man in long robes stood over him with a look of disgust, asking-
"What will you give me in return?"
It was the night that changed Snape's life forever simply by uttering that one, desperate word-
"Anything,"
He shook his head slightly, snapping himself out of the setback and blinked, focusing back on Quark's annoying face still gazing up at him. He glared.
"What do you want?" he said.
"Now we're talking!" Quark cheered. "Why don't we have a seat and talk about what you have to offer?"
"No,"
"Well then... Let me buy you a drink!"
"No,"
"You're a right ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Quark said. He dropped his hands to the sides. Then, he smirked. "You remind me of a particularly nosy constable I used to know. And you know, I can't make a deal with you unless you're willing! And willing means a personal discussion with a personal offer!"
"I am very sorry to disappoint you but I am not a personal man," Snape said. "I do not care about you or lust for profit. All I want is to leave this god-forsaken place."
He sniffled and Quark held his hands up.
"Very sorry, Professor Sneep-"
"Snape,"
"Whatever. I'm sorry, but those are the rules. Unless you have something, er, worth my while, I can't give you anything," Quark laughed. "I- I'm sorry. This hurts me more than it hurts you."
There was a short silence between them and Snape stared down his hooked nose. He stared unblinkingly into Quark's annoying cheerful eyes and focused hard.
He could feel the diabolical layers of Quark's mind and the walls set up very carefully by them. They were strongly fortified and very difficult. But, still staring, Snape pushed his mind through Quark's walls and found all of his thoughts and memories easily at his disposal.
"Still desperate to make a name for yourself?" Snape asked coldly.
It was incredible how Quark could somehow laugh about everything, even if he wasn't sure what he was laughing about.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Slowly, Snape bent over and whispered-
"If you're hoping that this one extension of your bar will be one of a many, in hopes to make a larger name for yourself and own your own set of moons, I'm afraid that making difficult deals with outsiders is very much going to hurt your cause. Especially when it comes to humans,"
The smile on Quark's face finally faded to frowning shock.
"What did you just say?"
"Please," Snape snarled under his breath. "You don't need to act so stupid, you do that quite fine on your own. I am also very aware that you have cheated Mr Gork out of a deal you made four months ago. There is no requested coaxium, is there?"
"Who told you about that?" Quark demanded, glancing over his shoulder fearfully as the other Ferengis were beginning to become curious at the hushed meeting.
"How I know does not matter. All that matters is that I know and unless you'd like me to alert Mr Gork early about your lack of coaxium..."
"Is that a threat?"
"I don't know. Is it?"
Quark and Snape sized each other up carefully, silently, testily. Finally, the Ferengi laughed and waggled a finger.
"Well sir! You certainly drive a hard bargain!" He said this loudly and looked over his shoulder when he said it. "If you would follow me to the back hangar..."
His eyes darted from side to side and Snape hesitated. Then, he followed Quark him across the bar side to a shadowed archway in the back, giving a look of venom to the other Ferengi men as he passed.
Snape was relieved to leave cheers and bright colours of the bar left behind them. He was much more comfortable in the long dark corridor he stalked behind Quark.
To hide the look of surprise on his face when he saw the hangar actually proved quite difficult. Inside the dimly lit and sandstone hangar were machines of such impressive design, Snape's jaw dropped ever so slightly. He had no idea Muggles could be so...resourceful and intelligent.
"Well, we mainly have Starfleet supplied roundabouts, those are the small ones. I have bad memories of those, you understand- and we have some Ferengi cruisers in the corner, those are the purple ones- there's a Klingon cargo carrier in the other room-" Quark droned, waving his hand to each machine as they passed through the hangar.
"Yes but... What are they, exactly?" Snape breathed.
"What- What are they? You- You can't be serious!" Quark laughed but ceased to upon seeing the curled lips on Snape's white face. He cleared his throat, folding his hands behind his back. "Well, these are spaceships."
"These? They...fly to space?" They looked so much different from the moon-landing photographs he had seen.
"Precisely,"
"And...one can take me to this Phoenix bird city?"
"Well, it's just called 'Phoenix' but...'Phoenix Bird' works great! Listen, I've got a nice small roundabout out back, lemme see what it's got in it for energy,"
Snape opened his mouth to ask another question but Quark had already bounded away down the aisle between two ships.
He swallowed and coughed, examining the two ships that sat on either side of him. Cautiously, as if it may come to life at any second, Snape moved to the right and ran his fingertips down the side of the ship.
He recoiled backwards at its cold surface but, timidly, he lowered his palm onto the side.
Metal. Real, solid, smooth metal. Somehow, without magic, these Muggles had created metallic ships that could take them to the farthest reaches of the galaxy... something wizards were still barely comprehending.
He was finding it difficult to believe that while he was still studying exactly why Jupiter was where it was, Muggles had already figured out how to visit there.
Seeing all of these non-magical artefacts caused Snape's stomach to knot and he suddenly felt very homesick.
He drew his hand away and scowled spitefully at the ship, as if it would be offended.
"I've seen better models but I will admit, that is a nice ship,"
Snape's head snapped to the left and he dropped the white diner bag in horror, it's contents rolling onto the sandy floor.
Leaning against another ship parked behind the roundabout Snape had touched stood a tall, lanky man with wild hair, a tooth-filled grin that stretched from ear to ear, and a brown suit with blue pinstripes and a blue tie.
Barty Crouch Jr.
A million images of cold and sucking Dementors, the contorted and stretched face of Mad-Eye Moody, and the slurping sound of a flicking tongue flashed through Snape's head all at once like exploding Christmas lights. His hand plunged into his robes, whipping out his wand.
"You," he snarled. "You shouldn't have your soul."
Crouch's eyes went wide and he stuck his hands into the air. "Woah, woah! What are you talking about?"
"Don't you dare play stupid with me!" Snape barked, advancing on the man steadily, fury coursing through his veins. "I know what you've done- I know your story- And you know mine- you bloody well know mine-"
"I'm just looking for a mechanic, mate!" the man cried. "My ship broke down and I need- a- mechanic!"
"What the hell is a mechanic?" Snape spat. "Tell me."
"What's a m- What's a mechanic?" the man shouted. "Goodness, what planet are you from?"
"I know bloody well what a mechanic is. But YOU don't, which is why I'm asking-
"-And what's with the little stick-"
"It's a wand, you blithering idiot!" Snape yelled. "You have one too! Or was yours snapped when your pitiful little soul was kissed from your body?"
The man squinted. "What?"
There was a slight pause between them when suddenly, Crouch's hands grasped his spiky hair and he grinned wildly. Snape twitched at the movement but the man held out his arms, bouncing on his toes.
"I can't believe it!" he squealed. His voice had gone very high-pitched. "You're Severus Snape! Really Severus Snape! The real deal! My, you're taller than I imagined! Well, taller than was described- well- taller than was at first assumed."
Snape lowered his wand slightly. The man would not cease talking.
"I can't believe it!" he squealed. His voice had gone very high-pitched. "You're Severus Snape! Really Severus Snape! The real deal! My, you're taller than I imagined! Well, taller than was described- well- taller than was at first assumed."
Snape lowered his wand slightly. The man would not cease talking.
"You know, I've read all about you and I must say you are a complicated man. I have so many questions and so little time- Well, I suppose I could have as much time as I wanted but-"
"If you desire to walk out of this place in one piece, I suggest you start telling me the truth," Snape barked.
The man that looked exactly like Barty Crouch Jr shoved his hands into his pockets. "Can't you read minds?"
"Ex- Excuse me?"
"You're a Legilimens! Can't you simply interpret my emotions and see if I'm lying?"
Snape was silent at this. He did not let the scowl waver from his face, and concentrated hard on the man's smiling eyes. He reached out into the man's mind, hissing the incantation in his head.
What he saw made absolutely no sense to him. What he saw were nine other faces- though still the same man before him- with hundreds of bizarre and wild worlds with galaxies that were layered with new eras.
He could see the universe. The entire universe.
The most vivid memory he could place himself inside was a copper desert, where staring up in wonder at enormous glass bubbles that encased jagged copper cities, stretching up towards the pleasant blue sky.
Inside the man's head there was no name, though there were many names. Snape wasn't even sure it counted as a name, or simply sat as a title.
Pulling out from the strange array of memories, Snape blinked and found himself staring into the Doctor's grinning face.
Snape frowned. "Who are you?"
"All those memories and you don't know?"
"Don't be smart!" Snape spat.
"I really can't help it, you know,"
"How did you do that? Those memories can't be yours. You are Barty Crouch Jr. Your soul- it was-"
"This is perfect," the Doctor sighed, still grinning all those white teeth. He shoved his hands into his pockets. "This is really spectacular. I could really use your help."
"My- my help?"
"If you could follow me please?"
"Ex-Excuse me? What-"
But the Doctor had spun on his heel and was bouncing back down the aisle between the ships. He turned right and slipped into a crack between two other ships. Glancing over his shoulder for Quark, Snape followed him.
Both men were quite thin enough (Snape to an unhealthy degree) to shimmy through cracks between the ships. Snape was able to walk fast where the Doctor had to jog.
They made their way through the hangar down two more aisles before both men paused midway through an aisle.
"Here we are! My ship!"
The Doctor smiled Snape, half expecting the other man to ask about the dark blue police box that sat before them. Snape merely cocked his head to the side and said-
"Well this is extraordinarily average, isn't it?"
"What do you mean? It's a police box! How's it average?"
"Amongst these useless contraptions, this box is the most normal thing I've seen in a very long time," Snape shrugged. "Why? Were you not prepared for me to dislike something you're so fond of? You should become used to that. I dislike most things in this miserable universe."
"You haven't seen most things in this universe at all!" the Doctor cried. "I know your life's been rubbish but-"
"What could you possibly know about my life?!"
"Well," the Doctor said, folding his arms. "I know enough. Shall we take a look inside?" He was gesturing to the police box.
Carefully, his eyes reduced to slits, Snape pointed his wand at the Doctor's head. "You first,"
"With pleasure!" The Doctor bounced towards the front door of the blue box and pushed the door in, galavanting inside.
Snape sniffled and stalked after him.
To any other human, creature, or being, the sight of the blue box's inside would've shaken them in an instant. Snape was indeed shocked but almost pleasantly. For on the outside, the box looked as though it held barely enough room for one person. However, on the inside, it was a wide circular room with white circular lights lining its walls, tree branch-like posts protruding from around the grated platform, sitting at the end of the ramp before them. There was a circular control panel in the center of the platform, a pumping aqua light shooting up from its top. Everything in the box's interior was a light caramel colour with a blue tinge from the light.
The Doctor leaned against the left bannister of the ramp as the professor stared around at the room. Snape's jaw dropped and he lowered his wand at the sight of the wide room. There was only one way an interior could be expanded like this...
He spun on the Doctor, raising his wand again.
"You lied to me!"
The Doctor dramatically rolled his eyes. "Oh boy, here we go. Look, you saw my memories! You know who I am!"
"Then how can you possibly explain this? Something like this- this room- is only possible through magic!"
"Sorry but nope!" The Doctor bounded up the ramp and shoved his hands in his pockets, gazing up at the blue light. "This is the TARDIS,"
"The what?"
"The TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space and-"
"What is this?"
Snape had approached the console and was suddenly intrigued by the knobs and dials across it. He bent over them, prodding them with his wand and turning them.
"Ah! No! Don't- don't do that!" The Doctor waved his hands and jogged over to him.
He reached over to pry Snape's hand away from the computer monitor that swung around the computer, when Snape looked up and gave the most venomous scowl he muster
"Tell me the truth or I'll continue to examine this in ways you will forevermore be sorry about," he threatened. "This is magic!" -he gestured to the room- "This is Muggle!"- he gestured to the console- "So explain how the two are meshed into one space?"
"I think that you would be best to explain that," the Doctor said coolly.
This took Snape off guard. His face fell and his eyes went wide. "What did you just say?"
"You heard me. Now, unless you want me to bring up your blood status again, I suggest you listen to what I have to say,"
The bitter scowl returned to Snape's face and he felt something hot, violent, bubbly in the pit of his stomach. He felt as though he was going to be sick but vomit dangerous curses rather than his empty juices.
His silence gave the Doctor the green light.
"This is the TARDIS. It's my ship. Technologically advanced beyond the ways of man's tiny and funny little brains. With this, I can travel through all of time and space. Anywhere I want, and in the case of a surprise- anywhere I need to be,"
"You can travel anywhere you desire?" Snape had a gnawing in the pit of his stomach, and not just from hunger.
"Anywhere. Any time,"
"And...you know who I am?"
"Of course! A while back I visited a world where you are incredibly famous. And I am incredibly famous,"
"Was this place...in Scotland, by any chance?"
"I wish. I love Scotland. Feels like a second home,"
Snape's heart sank and it caused him to scowl harder. "Tell me...Doctor. If you are who you say you are, why is it that you have the exact face someone I knew?"
"Well," the Doctor stared at the ceiling. "When I discovered you, in a world where those know you, I discovered someone else. I liked his face, I suppose. So my subconscious chose it."
Snape fought the urge to wipe his nose while all the same time trying to figure out how a man could choose his face without being a Metamorphmagus. The Doctor clapped his hands together.
"Well! That brings me to my next question!"
"You never asked a first one,"
"Well, I'm going to ask it now. Professor, is there any way you could fix the TARDIS down below? My sonic screwdriver doesn't seem to be working,"
He pulled out a long silver stick with a blue end that
illuminated with a whirring sound. Snape's eyes widened and looked at his wand, stricken by their similarities. He frowned.
"Why should I help you?"
"I can cure your cold,"
"I'm not sick,"
"You're a great liar, I must say. If I were blind, there'd be no way I'd be able to tell you were ill. Listen, if you go beneath the console, I can bring you my medicine. Deal?"
It was a deal. Although Snape knew the risks of a strange man bringing him random medicine, he was desperate to have his nose stop leaking and his throat stop burning.
Underneath the console, beneath the grated floor, was a curved underbelly that allowed him to lie beneath a forest of wires and bizarre Muggle tools, tapping them with his wand and muttering spells one at a time.
But only after he drank the pill the Doctor handed him and he finished examining the primitive but fascinating Muggle artefacts.
He was almost angry that his left nostril had cleared up halfway through his work, because he had been looking forward to reprimanding the Doctor of being a fraud. But the medicine worked and suddenly, the pounding headache behind Snape's eyes and his sweating vanished.
He didn't particularly like lying underneath a- a- whatever he was lying underneath. But it was a lot better than what he had left behind.
At about the twentieth wire he had enchanted, a huge whirring sound erupted from above him.
"There we are!" the Doctor shouted. "She sounds fantastic!"
Snape somehow managed to clamber out from underneath the jungle of wires and mount the stairs back up to the console level, where the Doctor had returned to flipping switches on the control panel.
Snape watched on silently. The Doctor placed his hand on one large lever before he turned to face the other man.
"Anywhere you'd like to go?"
Yes. Hogwarts. But Snape didn't dare speak that out loud. He was not going to take the chance that this man may not know about the magical school. No matter how much the Doctor- if that was even his name- claimed he knew about Snape, there was an odd chance this really could be Barty Crouch Jr and currently- Snape was not taking any chances with a mad scientist after him.
But he did answer.
"As far away from this desert as possible,"
"Describe?"
"On this planet. As far as you can take me,"
The Doctor shrugged and smiled. "Alrighty then," He turned a few more knobs and tightened his grip on the largest lever. "Allons-y!"
There was a sudden low thud, followed by a grinding noise once the Doctor pulled down the lever. Snape looked up at the ceiling- startled- as the light in the center of the console began to bob up down- the whirring filling the whole room.
"What are you-"
"We're travelling! I'm taking you to New York!"
"New- New York? Couldn't we head to- to London?"
"I see London every week! Time for a change! And you didn't say London!"
Snape clenched his teeth together and scowled at the Doctor's back, who was watching the light in the center with his hands in his pockets. After glaring for four or five seconds, Snape supposed that New York was possibly the best place for him. Dr Natalie Brenner would expect him to try and return to Britain. It would only make sense for him to throw her off.
The whirring had stopped and the light came to a slow before a full stop. The room jerked slightly and the Doctor spun around and began to jog back down the ramp.
"Here we are!"
Cautiously, taking one long and spiteful look at the interior of the TARDIS, Snape followed down the ramp where the door was open a crack. What he saw outside the blue box took him completely off guard and caused his head to spin.
The box had completely moved. It was no longer settled in the dingy Ferengi hangar surrounded by silver spaceships. Instead, they were standing in an enormous opening of downtown New York City, where screen and posters of ads shone down the dark and there were blaring traffic horns at every corner.
It was still late at night and yet, everyone seemed to be awake. To Snape, he felt as though he had just Apparated...without actually Apparating.
"What do you think?" the Doctor asked with a sly smile.
Snape chose to say nothing. He was far from Arizona and far from the lab. He stepped out of the TARDIS and analyzed the downtown with awe. So this was what a Muggle city really looked like. Everything felt so...loud and artificial.
"It's...different,"
"What kind of different?"
"I'm not sure yet and I don't think it's any of your business,"
"Listen," The Doctor reached into his pocket, pulling out a wad of cash, handing it to the wizard- who stared at it as though it were the real live Hopping Pot. "Find a rent room, hand half of that to the owner. Should cover you for about a week."
"What- What then?"
"Get a job or something. I don't really know how Earth professions work, to be honest. Unless they have to do with space. I'm good with space,"
"Is this- money?"
"Yup,"
Snape nodded and tucked the cash in his pocket, as well as his wand. The Doctor then pulled out a small slip of paper.
"My number. Take it- I don't give it to just anyone. For really big emergencies,"
Snape did take it, but did not plan on ever using it. The Doctor smiled.
"You'll be alright?"
"I've done much worse than navigate a primitive Muggle city," Snape scoffed. "I don't need anymore help."
"If you say so. Call if you need anything at all. Good luck,"
And with that, the Doctor disappeared back into the TARDIS, the door closing with a satisfying squeak. Snape blinked and watched- frozen- as the blue box whirred and grinding once again- fading away into nothing.
Nobody seemed to notice. Although, that was usually how Muggles were. Snape stood there, in the center of Downtown Manhattan, staring at nothing. He glanced around the bizarre, nearly alien world, and tried to figure out where to go from there.
First things first. An apartment. Then he was not going to rest until he found a way back to Hogwarts and aid in the fight against Voldemort- perhaps become an agent again- maybe not-
He swallowed a rush of fear when he saw the unfamiliarity of the world and set off to the right, stepping directly into the street without hesitation- examining the cars with an air of pride that no wizard had ever indulged in something as clunky as these.
The drivers, who were forced to slam their breaks on the man in the black cape who stared with slight madness in his eyes, all decided amongst their own thoughts that this man was still not as weird as the enormous gorilla that had done the same thing back in the 40s.