In order to understand parts of this chapter you should have an understanding of the Doctor Who episodes "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang." The episode summaries can be found on wikipedia or you can look up "Pandorica" on the tardis wiki.
If you are already familiar with Doctor Who, don't bother with the above.
Putting her nightmare behind her, Bree focused o the upcoming holiday. The start of December brought wind and sleet to Hogwarts. The Durmstrang ship on the lake was pitching in the high winds, its black sails billowing against the dark skies. The Beauxbatons caravan was likely to be pretty chilly too. Hagrid was keeping Madame Maxime's horses well provided with their preferred drink of single-malt whiskey; the fumes wafting from the trough in the comer of their paddock was enough to make the entire Care of Magical Creatures class light-headed. This was unhelpful, as they were still tending the horrible skrewts and needed their wits about them.
"I'm not sure whether they hibernate or not," Hagrid told the shivering class in the windy pumpkin patch next lesson. "Thought we'd jus' try an see if they fancied a kip… we'll jus' settle 'em down in these boxes…"
There were now only ten skrewts left; apparently their desire to kill one another had not been exercised out of them. Each of them was now approaching six feet in length. Their thick gray armor, their powerful, scuttling legs, their fire-blasting ends, their stings and their suckers, combined to make the skrewts look repulsive. The class looked dispiritedly at the enormous boxes Hagrid had brought out, all lined with pillows and fluffy blankets.
"We'll jus' lead 'em in here," Hagrid said, "an' put the lids on, and we'll see what happens."
But the skrewts, it transpired, did not hibernate, and did not appreciate being forced into pillow-lined boxes and nailed in. Hagrid was soon yelling, "Don panic, now, don' panic!" while the skrewts rampaged around the pumpkin patch, now strewn with the smoldering wreckage of the boxes. Most of the class - Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle in the lead - had fled into Hagrid's cabin through the back door and barricaded themselves in. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, however, were among those who remained outside trying to help Hagrid.
Bree was the only one to go back to the castle. She walked away from the mounting chaos as if there was nothing out of the ordinary going on behind her.
Divination was a little different then it had been. Harry and Ron had made up and were snickering through Trelawney's explanation of the various ways in which Pluto could disrupt everyday life.
Trelawney went on about death and Bree ignored her in favor of staring out the window.
One day, Bree visited the kitchens to find two new elves there. They were Dobby, who had previously belonged to the Malfoy's until Harry freed him, and Winky, who had been Mr. Crouch's elf up until the Quidditch world cup.
"Oi, Harry." Bree called, catching the boy's attention in the hall.
"What is it?" he responded.
"That crazy elf, Dobby, he's in the kitchens. Dumbledore hired him." Bree told Harry how to get into the kitchen so he could visit Dobby.
"Potter! Weasley! Will you pay attention?"
Professor McGonagall's irritated voice cracked like a whip through the Transfiguration class on Thursday, and Harry and Ron both jumped and looked up.
It was the end of the lesson; they had finished their work; the guinea fowl they had been changing into guinea pigs had been shut away in a large cage on Professor McGonagall's desk (Neville's still had feathers); they had copied down their homework from the blackboard ("Describe, with examples, the ways in which Transforming Spells must be adapted when performing Cross-Species Switches"}.
The bell was due to ring at any moment, and Harry and Ron, who had been having a sword fight with a couple of Fred and George's fake wands at the back of the class, looked up, Ron holding a tin parrot and Harry, a rubber haddock.
"Now that Potter and Weasley have been kind enough to act their age," said Professor McGonagall, with an angry look at the pair of them as the head of Harry's haddock drooped and fell silently to the floor - Ron's parrot's beak had severed it moments before - "I have something to say to you all."
"The Yule Ball is approaching -a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above - although you may invite a younger student if you wish -"
Lavender Brown let out a shrill giggle. Parvati Patil nudged her hard in the ribs, her face working furiously as she too fought not to giggle. They both looked around at Harry, Professor McGonagall ignored them.
"Dress robes will be worn," Professor McGonagall continued, "and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then -"
Professor McGonagall stared deliberately around the class.
"The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to - er - let our hair down," she said, in a disapproving voice.
Lavender giggled harder than ever, with her hand pressed hard against her mouth to stifle the sound.
"But that does NOT mean," Professor McGonagall went on, "that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way."
The bell rang, and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders.
Professor McGonagall called above the noise, "Potter, Smith, - a word, if you please."
Assuming this had something to do with his headless rubber haddock,
Harry and Bree proceeded to the teacher's desk. Professor McGonagall waited until the rest of the class had gone, and then said, "The champions and their partners -"
"What partners?" Harry asked.
Professor McGonagall looked suspiciously at him, as though she thought he was trying to be funny.
"Your partners for the Yule Ball, Potter," she said coldly. "Your dance partners."
"Dance partners?" Harry went red. "I don't dance," he said quickly.
"Oh yes, you do," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "That's what I'm telling you. Traditionally, the champions and their partners open the ball."
"Can I delegate the responsibility to someone that is not me?" Bree asked.
"No." McGonagall responded.
"What if I have plans for Christmas that involve not being here?" Bree tried.
"It's already been arranged with your parents."
"I'm not dancing." Harry said
"It is traditional." said Professor McGonagall firmly. "You are a Hogwarts champion, and you will do what is expected of you as a representative of the school. So make sure you get yourself a partner, Potter."
"But-I don't-"
"You heard me, Potter," said Professor McGonagall in a very final sort of way.
Harry had a lot of girls interested in going to the ball him. Though this appeared to be because he was famous and not because they had any actual interest in Harry, so he was still without a date because he wouldn't ask anyone and he rejected anyone who asked him.
Bree didn't have a date either, though for different reasons. You see, Bree tended to hang out with the twins, and the twins had noticed that boys seemed more interested in the blond since she became a Triwizard champion. They also noticed that Bree wasn't aware of the looks she was getting. They took it upon themselves to keep away anyone who even looked like they might be thinking asking Bree to the Yule Ball. Not that Bree noticed.. The blond just wasn't interested in finding someone to ask and unless someone asked her (which they wouldn't *coughtwinsfaultcough*) Bree was just going to kept going on, business as usual, which meant chaos.
"Let me out of here!" Draco shouted from behind a closet door in an empty classroom.
"You promise to stop bothering Harry?" Bree asked.
"…Yes." Malfoy answered after a moment.
Bree frowned. "I don't believe you. You're going to stay in there until you learn how to play nice."
"You're insane!" Draco shouted.
"Well you're a transvestite!" Bree accused.
"What!" Draco exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, I thought we were randomly accusing each other of things that are completely untrue. Are we not playing that game?" Bree said in false confusion.
"But you are insane!" Draco protested.
"No. Einstein defined insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, and I never do the same thing twice! I always seem to have the same result though… detention." Bree stated thoughtfully.
"What am I supposed to do for food?" Malfoy asked.
"I arranged for the house elves to send you meals. I have to get to class now, bye Draco." Bree waved to the door and left the empty classroom.
By lunchtime most of school had noticed that Draco hadn't shown up to any of his classes.
"Where do you think Malfoy is?" Lee Jordan asked through a bite of sandwich.
"He's in the closet." Bree answered immediately.
Hermione scoffed. "Honestly, can't you grow up?"
"But he is." Bree insisted.
At potions class that day Snape was rather annoyed.
"Has anyone seen Mr. Malfoy?" he asked.
"He's in the closet." Bree answered.
Snape glared. "This is no time for one of your jokes, Smith." he growled.
"But he is in the closet. I locked him in it." Bree stated. Snape looked as if he wanted to strangle the blond.
452. Not allowed to tell people that Draco is "In the closet."
-even if it's true because I trapped him in one.
Bree's nightmares were getting worse. She now had them every night and they all seemed to center around the cracks in the universe. Bree now went out of her way to avoid the hall with the crack. In her latest dream she had seen the stars disappearing from existence. Not even a memory of them remained. Only the earth and the sun had remained, only the sun wasn't the sun it was the TARDIS exploding over and over again in a time loop, heating the earth in place of the sun. But it couldn't last and the earth began to be destroyed as well and then… and then…
Two days later Bree felt that something was very, very wrong with the world. Nothing was different. Everything was the same. And yet it felt so very, very off, and Bree felt the urge to flee from… something. She didn't understand until the sun had set. There wasn't a single star in the sky.
"What the heck?" Bree muttered as she stared a the starless sky.
"This has something to do with the crack…" Bree didn't know it yet but more cracks were appearing in the school. Bree's head started to hurt. She winced, rubbed the back of her head, turned around and froze. There was a crack in the floor. It was wide open and emitting white light.
"Oh Sh-" was all Bree could get out before the light consumed her and she was wiped from existence.
And then she woke up with a gasp. She patted herself down to make sure she was all there, then sighed in relief. She got out of bed and walked to the window. It was nighttime, and all the stars were exactly where they were supposed to be.
"Was it all a dream?" Bree thought as she went back to bed.
The next day Bree went to the hallway with the crack. The crack was gone, as if it had never been there. Bree spent a few minutes staring at the empty section off wall. She was about to leave when she heard a noise. She turned toward it and saw a police box materializing in the hall.
Go read Augustiflickan's fic "Our Story." my oc Bree is mentioned in it.
Review please!
