"No, she didn't run away. We're not talking jitters. She literally vanished. Now, go and check the house and see if she's there." Donna's mother, Sylvia, said into her phone.

Everyone had been in a panic ever since Donna had disappeared.

"Mom, for the last time it had nothing to do with Magic." Bree growled at her mother.

"Then what could have possibly happened?" Bree's mother asked.

"Huon energy particles."

"What?"

"Science. Science happened. Well aliens really."

"Like what happened at Canary Warf?"

"Carnary Warf?"

"Right, you were at school-"

"Cybermen, Daleks, lots of people dead."

"You heard about it where you were?"

"No. And that's really worrying. A global event, and not a trace of it in the wizarding world. That's… that's some extreme isolation." Bree frowned.

"This is wrong, this is really, really wrong. The ministry knows, but why would they….?"

"What are you talking about?" Bree's mother inquired.

"I have to go talk to Aunt Lisa." Bree stood up and went to find Lisa.


"It's pureblood prejudice really." Lisa explained once they were seated at the reception, which was still happening without the bride.

"They think that anything that happens in the muggle world doesn't matter, so they censor it." She elaborated.

"That's stupid." Bree replied. "If the world explodes then everyone dies, not just muggles."

"I won't be the one to say that wizards have any sort of common sense." Lisa replied. They sat in silence for a moment, watching the people on the dance floor.

"Disgusting, isn't it?" Lisa asked, indicating the groom, Lance, who was dancing with some blond.

"His bride is missing and he's dancing with some tart." Lisa stated.

"Speaking of the bride…" Bree said.

"YOU HAD THE RECEPTION WITHOUT ME!"


The Doctor's tenth incarnation was different from the eleventh one. Skinnier, no bow tie, pinstripe suit, and converse sneakers, also a bit more attractive.

Donna was on the dance floor with Lance, having a good time. The Doctor was on the sidelines. Bree approached him.

"Huon energy particles." She said. The Doctor turned to her.

"What?" he asked.

"Bree Smith, nice to meet you." Bree replied, holding out her hand.

The Doctor stared at her for a moment. "I'm the Doctor. What was the you were saying?" he said, shaking her hand for a brief moment.

"Huon energy particles." Bree repeated.

"Why would you say that? They're ancient, haven't been used for centuries."

"It's one of the things I remember about today. Huon energy particles, giant spiders, and the stars are going out." Bree paused. "Well that last one won't really be relevant for a while."

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked.

"I'm the girl who knew too much." Bree replied.

"But how do you know?" The Doctor inquired. Bree was silent for a moment.

"When I was fourteen, a blue police box appeared in a hallway that had once had a crack in the wall. Three people came out of it. You were one of them, or, you will be. You knew who I was, but I… I didn't think you were real." She explained. She sighed.

"You knocked me out, kidnapped me, and took me to a hospital in New New York, the one with the cats. I would have died if you hadn't. Slowly, but still, psychic worms tend to ill their victims." She stated.

A look of understanding flashed across the Doctors face. "The worm fed you information, that's how you know so much… but why aren't you dead? Without the worm there's nothing to regulate the flow of information… Oh, I am clever. Psychic blocks! Keeps you from overloading! What else can you tell me about what's going on here?"

Bree looed rather amused. "Nothing. You dulled down the memories to stop me from going insane. What I told you is what I am able to access."

"Huon energy particles and giant spiders." The Doctor said. Bree nodded.

"Well that's rubbish!"

"It's not my fault, it's yours." Bree replied.

"My fault! How is it my fault!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"You are the one who dulled the memories." Bree explained.

"That hasn't happened yet!"

"Not for you, but it has happened to me. We're just not meeting in the right order."

"Yeah that does happen sometimes."

"… You know the cameraman recorded everything that happened at the church." Bree said, gesturing across the room.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?"


"So that's what you meant by Huon energy particles." The Doctor muttered after he had watched the video of Donna's disappearance. "That's impossible, that's... ancient! Huon energy doesn't exist anymore, not for billions of years! So old that... it can't be hidden by a biodamper!"

He ran off and looked outside before running over to Donna. Bree sighed.

"Things are about to get hectic, and me without my umbrella." She said to herself as Donna and the Doctor began to search for a way out of the building. Soon they were shouting for everyone to get away from the Christmas trees.

"Oh, for God's sakes, the man's an idiot! Why? What's a Christmas tree gonna... oh!" Sylvia said as orbs began floating off the tree and hovering over the guests. They started dive bombing everyone and exploding. People started screaming and running for cover. At some point Santa robots entered the room. One of them was holding what appeared to be the controller for a video game.

Bree threw up a barrier. It broke from the force of one of the explosions. Bree was flung to the ground. She hit her head, hard. She was vaguely aware of someone shouting.

"Oi! Santa! Word of advice: if you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver... don't let him near the sound system."

A high pitch screeching noise came out of the speakers. The Santas started to vibrate violently until they fell to pieces. The screeching stopped. Bree stumbled over to where the Doctor was examining the remains of one of the robots. Donna was trying to get him to help everyone who was injured.

"He's not that kind of Doctor, Donna." Bree stated.

"Bree! Oh, what's happened to your head?" Donna fussed.

"Fell." Bree replied, touching the back of her head. Her hand came away bloody.

"Doctor, can't you help?" Donna asked. The Doctor turned to Bree.

"Bree, when you hit your head, did it knock anything loose? Can you tell me anything else?" he asked.

"Giant spiders can talk." Bree replied.

"Talking giant spiders." The Doctor said.

"What do giant spiders have to do with anything!" Donna demanded.

"I don't know yet." The Doctor answered. "Are you sure there's nothing else?" he asked Bree.

"The cat's trying to get out, I can't think." Bree murmured.

"What cat?" Donna asked.

"She's disoriented." Ben explained as he walked up. "Come along Bree, there are paramedic's on the way. We'll let them have a look at you."

With one last glance at the Doctor, Bree allowed herself to be led away.


Later that night, Bree had been cleaned up and her head had been bandaged. She was in the hospital overnight because the Doctors and nurses wanted to keep an eye on her. One of the hospital's residents was shining a light in Bree's eyes.

"Have you ever thought about traveling?" Bree asked the resident whose nametag read M. JONES.

"Not really, been too busy." Jones replied.

"So you've never wanted to go to New York, or see a play in a famous theater?" Bree questioned.

"That would be nice, after I've become a Doctor." Jones answered.

"Hmm."


Christmas morning in a hospital was as bad as you might think. It was even worse than that for Bree. Something terrible happened in the night. Most people were worried about that fact that something had appeared in the sky and attacked London and that the Thames had been drained. Bree didn't care about either of those things, not after what George had told her.

"There was an ambush last night. Otto's dead and a lot of people were injured, including your Uncle." He explained.

The Doctor explained that Vince was stable, but there was a possibility that he could take a turn for the worst. Bree had never seen her uncle looking so weak. The tubes, the wires, the hospital bed, the smell of antiseptic cleaners, the stark white room, and the constant beeping of the heart monitor all made him seem smaller somehow. Lisa wouldn't leave his side, except for Otto's funeral.

All the arrangements were made quickly. The service was held the day before Bree was supposed to go back to Hogwarts.

Everyone was dressed in the traditional black. Many people had umbrellas to keep the falling snow on of them, Bree wasn't one of them. The snow gathered in her hair and on her eyelashes. She stared blankly at the coffin.

Someone had died. Someone Bree new had died. Someone on their side had died. That wasn't supposed to happen!

"We will avenge this death." Bree heard her Aunt say. "They sent one of ours to the grave, we'll send one hundred of theirs to hell!"

"Hey, are you crying?" someone next to Bree asked. She looked up. It was a young man with sandy brown hair and blue eyes. He was skinnier then Vince, but just as tall.

"I'm not crying Leo. It's just melted snow." Bree replied. There was silence for a moment. Bree went back to staring at the coffin. Leo stared to.

"It's scaring isn't it?" he asked.

"What is?" Bree responded. Neither of them looked away from the coffin.

"Realizing that we're not gods, we're not invincible, we can be killed." Leo stated.

Bree was silent.


After the funeral there was a small gathering at Lisa's. Lisa herself had retired to her office to deal with business. Leo was with her, trying to convince his mother to rest. Everyone else was in the sitting room. Bree sat between Fred and George on a sofa and Percy and Ben each had their own armchair.

"Some holiday, huh?" George asked tiredly.

"Bree gets attacked, Vince and his men get ambushed, all the water in the Thames drains out, and the minister uses me so he can talk to Harry… Yeah, I can't see how it could have been any worse." Percy replied.

"World could have been destroyed." Bree said.

"Okay, other than that, it couldn't have been worse." Percy stated.

"Could have been better." Bree responded.

"That goes without saying." Fred told her.

"I'm serious. The shield charm I put up broke and I know it wasn't that weak when I used it at Hogwarts." She explained.

"I have a theory about that." Said Ben. "When did you first use a shield charm, before or after you formed a bond with Hogwarts?"

"After. Why, does it matter?" Bree asked.

"Yes. I noticed something after I had made a connection with the Slytherin keystone. The spells I used afterward were stronger. After I left Hogwarts for the holiday the strength of my spells had returned to what it had been before." Ben explained.

"I believe that those connected to Hogwarts become stronger as long as they are in the castle. Since you're still learning there are some spells that you haven't been able to practice without the aid of Hogwarts." He continued.

"I thought that was just from bush magic making me more connected to the eatrh." Bree said, bewildered.

"Partly." Ben replied. "If you practiced spells outside of Hogwarts while using bush or old magic to power them then they would be very strong. I imagine that's what you were trying to do when you attempted the silent jelly-legs jinx on Draco. The extra boost from Hogwarts is what caused you to vanish the bones in his legs."

"I'm going to have to talk to the founders' paintings." Bree muttered.

"That would be wise." Ben replied.


Students returned to Hogwarts by Floo that year as a security precaution.

Hermione had changed the password to get into the common room to "Abstinence." Bree didn't know whether to laugh or roll her eyes.

Bree called a meeting in Ravenclaw's room. Ben explained the boost that Hogwarts gave those tied to her to Luna and Neville while Bree talked to the painting.

"We were not expecting students to be connected to the wards." Rowena explained. "An adult would naturally have already learned most spells and would be able to practice any new ones outside of school. Being tied to the wards makes learning new spells more difficult because you end up relying more on the boost Hogwarts gives you then on your own reserves. Once outside of Hogwarts you would find the spells you learned weaker."

"I already knew that." Bree grumbled. "Any way around it?"

"You could modify the wards so that the power boost is not in effect in a small part of the school. Similar to what the headmaster does when students are taught to apparate." Ravenclaw answered.

"We'll get on that right away." Ben stated.


Bree didn't follow Harry to his next lesson with Dumbledore. She was tired because Ben was forcing her to relearn every spell she had been taught since she had bonded with the castle. He had been doing the same with Luna and Neville, but he didn't push them as hard.

"They're not next in line after Lisa retired. You are." Ben stated after Bree had asked him why he was being easier on her two friends.

"Only if I want to. I have other options." Bree protested. "Alice's cash for gold thing, hunting, the twins shop."

"You'll need to learn this for hunting as well. Hunters that learn-as-they-go end up dead." Ben replied. "And this past holiday has caused a great upheaval. The disastrous wedding, Vince's injuries, Otto's death." Something unidentifiable flickered in Ben's eyes.

"At any moment your Uncle could take a turn for the worst. Between the curses and the injuries it's a miracle that he's still alive. Once word gets around of the hit we've taken rivals will move in like vultures. Whether you what to be part of the enterprise or not doesn't matter. You are already a target. They'll come after you to get to Lisa and you need to be prepared before you become another casualty." He said.


Bree heard the bullet points of Harry's meeting through the grapevine, and by that I mean Ben. Dumbledore had revealed that Voldemort had killed his father and grandparents, by way of another memory. After that Dumbledore had showed Harry another memory that had been heavily modified by Horace Slughorn in which young Tom Riddle had asked the potions professor about Horcruxes. Harry had been tasked with getting the real memory from Slughorn.

Harry had asked Slughorn for the memory directly. It hadn't gone well and Slughorn started avoiding Harry.