Chapter 8

Well fed and full of excitement, the four time travelers walked out of the TARDIS doors into a London that wasn't theirs.

No paved streets greeted Harry as he put his foot down for the first time in a completely different time. No tall buildings towered over him. No cars zoomed by. Instead, people walked along dirt roads seeming to be in no hurry to get anywhere. The town seemed smaller but still busy. If Harry had to compare it to something he would say that it looked like a larger version of Hogsmeade.

"Move, Pup," Sirius tapped Harry's shoulder. "You're blocking the exit."

"Sorry," Harry stepped to the side.

Harry heard a snippet of Martha and the Doctor's conversation.

"But what if I end up killing my grandfather?"

"Do you plan to?"

"No,"

"Well then," the Doctor said. "Just don't step on any butterflies. What have butterflies ever done to you?"

Harry smiled at the Doctor's response. Don't step on any butterflies indeed. That was a thing easier said than done.

"So," Sirius said, facing the Doctor. "Where is this Shakespeare?"

As it turns out, Shakespeare was in the Globe Theater. The original Globe Theater, that is. And not only was Shakespeare there, a large audience and a full cast of actors inhabited the Globe as well. That was common for when the Globe had a play.

If Sirius' jaw could open any wider it would be lying on the ground. The four time travelers had stood and watched the entirety of Love's Labour's Lost, and Sirius was enthralled.

"I always knew that there was something I was lacking in my life," Sirius said. "When we get back home, I'm joining the theater."

"You could play one of the women, Padfoot," Harry said. "Your hair's already almost long enough."
"Not yet it's not," Sirius grumbled. "The nurses at St. Mungos made me cut it."
"You'll get back to your past awesomeness, Sirius," Harry gave his godfather's arm a pat.
Sirius grumbled something under his breath before turning his attention elsewhere.
"Will we get to see Shakespeare or does he just hide backstage the entire time?" Sirius asked.
"Author! Author!" Martha started a cheer.
The crowd followed suit and soon almost everyone in the theater screamed for the author of the play to come out on stage.
Harry felt a small shift around him. It was barely noticeable but still there.
"Did Martha just put an event into time that didn't happen before?" Harry turned to the Doctor and asked.
"Looks like it," The Doctor seemed unbothered yet slightly amused.
"How's that work?"
Before the Doctor could answer Harry 's question, the audience's chant turned to cheers and whistles.
The Doctor and Harry turned to look at the stage and instantly saw what the commotion was about. There, waving from down stage center, stood William Shakespeare.
"He looks way different than how I pictured him when I read his works," Martha said.
The excitement built in the audience. Even the Doctor gushed about what the famous play write would say. The noise got to the point that William Shakespeare silenced the crowd himself with five wise, well timed words.
"Shut your big fat mouths!" Shakespeare yelled into the audience eliciting a laugh.
"That's a disappointment," the Doctor mumbled.
Harry had to partially agree, but the excitement of being in another time was enough to keep him happy. He took the time to properly look around the theater. The tetradecagon walls of the theater allowed for many seats along the edges plus standing room in the center. The play they had just watched was wonderful from the ground. Harry wondered what it would be like up in the seats along the walls.
As he looked at the seats, he noticed a strange woman up in one of them. She sat there staring intently at Shakespeare and stroking a small doll. She kissed the doll and smiled.
Harry didn't have long to ponder over the woman's actions because the crowd began to once again cheer. Harry returned his attention to the stage in time to see the literary genius saunter off.
"Did I miss something?" Harry asked, hoping that someone would fill him in.
"If this play gets written and performed," The Doctor said. "Then everyone in the future missed something."
"What?" Harry definitely missed something. "What play?"
"Love's Labour's Won," The Doctor informed him. "I've only ever heard about it in rumors. It's the lost play."
"And we're going to get to see it!" Martha said as they began to make their way out of the theater.
"I can't wait," Sirius said. "Any chance we could just get in your ship and go to tomorrow so that we don't have to?"
"Ah," The Doctor waved Sirius off. "Waiting a day won't kill you. We'll just find some place to stay for the night. If I'm not mistaken, the inn that Shakespeare stays at is right around here."
The group strolled through the street managing to avoid any ill thrown chamber pots. They made their way to a small inn with a wooden sign out front reading 'The Elephant Inn'. The Doctor walked up to the desk and asked for one nights lodging for the four of them. He passed over the correct currency. Harry wasn't sure where he had gotten the money from. The Doctor left no time for Harry to ponder about it, though, because as soon as their accommodations were secure, he was off up the stairs. Harry headed after the Doctor, Sirius followed Harry, and Martha brought up the rear.
About a third of the way up the stairs, Harry could make out the voices of people arguing.
"Wait a minute," Harry said right before the Doctor pushed open the door. "Is that him?"
"Who?" Sirius did not follow what Harry who implying.
The Doctor just grinned, pushed the door open, and walked in with a ridiculous amount of self confidence.
"Excuse me," The Doctor said. "I hope I'm not interrupting."
The Doctor might not have intended to interrupt but as soon as Sirius saw who the "who" Harry mentioned was he certainly was interrupting.
"It's Shakespeare," Sirius gasped.
"No, no, no, no," Shakespeare's voice dripped with exasperation. "I can't have any of that tonight. I'm not signing any autographs, I didn't sell my soul to the devil for my ideas, and I won't write you as a character in my next show. Now, please go away. I have an entire play to write tonight and it's far too important to be interrupted by some- "
Shakespeare's rant was cut short as soon as he saw Martha enter the room.
"Oh," Shakespeare's voice lost all of its annoyance as he put on a flirtatious lilt. "Hello there. Come right on in and sit down here by me."
Shakespeare dismissed his two cast members and the maid to instead focused his full attention on flirting with Martha.
The Doctor took that opportunity to introduce the four of them. He pulled something out of his coat pocket and flipped it open. He held it out to Shakespeare.
"I'm Sir Doctor of Tardis and you're talking to my companion Miss Martha Jones. My other two companions are-"
"There's nothing on that paper," Shakespeare cut the Doctor off.
"But it says it right there," Martha pointed at the paper. "It's just what the Doctor said."
"It's psychic paper," The Doctor said with a promise to explain it later.
"Here's something a bit more real for you then," Sirius stepped forward and held out the hand that he wore his house lordship ring on. "I am Sirius Black, Lord of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. This is my godson, Harry Potter, heir to houses Black and Potter."
"Ah, so it appears that I'm in the company of nobility and a beautiful blackamoor lady," Shakespeare said.
"What did you just call me?"
Before Shakespeare could do a poor job of justifying his word choice, an enraged looking man burst into the room.
"This is unacceptable, Mr. Shakespeare," The man declared. "I am Master of the Revels and every script must be approved through me before it is performed. You can't just go off promising the crowds new plays before I've seen or even heard about them."
"You'll have the script first thing tomorrow morning," Shakespeare promised. "You'll be the first one to see it. I'll personally see that it gets delivered straight to your desk."
"I don't work on your schedule, you work on mine," the man said. "The script, now."
"It isn't even done yet."
"Then you can cancel your performance tomorrow night. I'll see to it that this play is never performed!"
"No!" Sirius shouted.
"I beg your pardon," the Master of the Revels was not expecting Sirius' shout.
"It has to be performed tomorrow," Sirius said. "We're leaving after that and I need to know what happens. I need more!"
"Well, you'll have to take that up with Mr. Shakespeare because I'm returning to my office to write up a banning order," With that the Master of the Revels stomped out of the room.
"But, but, no," was all that Sirius could muster out in his dejected state.
"I guess that that's that then," Martha said.
"A bit less mysterious than you expected?" Harry asked.
"Yeah," Martha said. "But this was still great!"
"Excuse me, Mr. Shakespeare," Harry said. "Would you mind if Sirius read what you have of the script? I won't hear the end of it if he doesn't find out what happens."
"I don't see why not," Shakespeare said. "Someone might as well enjoy it."
Sirius cheered up at those words but his good mood was cut short by screaming in the street.
The four time travelers rushed outside to see the Master of the Revels choking on nothing. The Doctor and Martha pushed their way through to examine him, Harry and Sirius close behind.
"It's like he's drowning," Sirius said.
"I've got to start his heart," Martha began CPR but it was too late. He was dead and not coming back.
Water gushed from the man's mouth.
"Somebody call a constable and tell them that this man has died of an imbalance of the humors," The Doctor said.
Harry saw a familiar looking woman run off to follow the Doctor's command.
"Why did you tell them it's an imbalance of the humors?" Martha asked.
"I've got enough to deal with hear without a witch hunt on top of it," The Doctor said. "And if I told them anything else then they'll think that it's witchcraft."
"So what is it really?" Harry was prepared for a scientific explanation, not for what the Doctor said.
"It's witchcraft."
Harry met Sirius eyes in a panic. Martha was looking at the two of them as well.
"It wasn't me," Sirius defended himself. "I was content to just read the script."
"I know," The Doctor said. "Normally I'd say that this isn't from a human but now I don't know. We'll have to look into both human and extraterrestrial meddling."
"Should we go to Diagon Alley?" Harry asked Sirius.
"We could start there," Sirius said. "But this is more similar to something that would come from Knockturn Alley."

"We'll have to look into all of our options," the Doctor said. "But first we need a plan."
The four decided to get some sleep first and begin their investigations first thing in the morning.

New Author's Note: So, this is a revised chapter 8. I was sick when I wrote it and some things in it didn't read right and the pacing didn't work very well.

I'm honestly not happy about how any of the Shakespeare part of the story went. My original plans were to have this chapter close to canon and the next chapter different but it didn't happen when I initially wrote it. Having said that, keep your eyes out for a mostly rewritten chapter 9.

(Originally Published late December of 2018. Revised 6/12/19)

Have a great day!

-Aniala (catz4444)