A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short, I've got half of the next chapter done. Was going yo add it into this one but didn't think it flowed properly.
It had been fun for Rose spending all that time at Hogwarts. She finished the warding and was actually quite proud of herself. The wards were far more intricate and nuanced than before, and all tied into Hogwarts herself so she can switch each one of them on and off if needed. In addition to all of the protective wards Hogwarts is supposed to have Rose added a few more safety features.
A cushioning charm that would activate and catch anyone who fell from a great height like falling off their broom during quidditch, or off the top of the astronomy tower and had a lot of fun demonstrating by flinging herself off the top of aforementioned tower.
There was the wards that stopped the unforgivable curses she didn't tell anyone about, but did tell the general intent behind that is the ward stopped anyone from casting any spell that is meant to hurt someone else. Kids could for example still cast spells in the corridors despite school rules but it would not work if they had bad intentions in doing so. This way anyone in the school could demonstrate a dark spell but if they had the intent to harm others it won't work. This also stopped some of Peeve's mischief, but only some. He being the annoying poltergeist he is, he finds lots of ways around it to get into trouble. Much to the caretaker Mr Flitch and some other Hogwarts ghosts' annoyance. The Ghost population at Hogwarts had also increased as a testament to the battle that had happened. There were people from both sides that didn't cross over, but fortunately Tom Riddle wasn't one of them as a side effect to having horcruxes that were all destroyed.
There were many more wards she added, but most of which will not be noticed until much later. She also spent a fun filled few weeks after she and the Doctor finally got together being playful with him. They'd spend some moonlit nights in dahrama form chasing each other around the wide open grounds of Hogwarts, and even venturing into the forbidden forest. Pretty much all sentient creatures in there learned not to mess with the Doctor. In the end though Rose won their bet because the Doctor thought he could just sneak away somewhere and be back before anyone knew he was gone. Of course it totally slipped his mind there were no less than three time lords in the general vicinity who could hear his TARDIS talking about the wonderful adventure they had.
Not that they were done with schools. Mickey called and told them about an over performing muggle school and UFOs being spotted in the area beforehand. The Doctor wanted to go undercover as a science teacher, tried to get Rose to be a lunch lady, then got promptly slapped by Rose. Then she was the science teacher and the Doctor got to be the 'dinner lady' because Rose claimed he was being misogynistic. So he volunteered to do so just to prove he wasn't, only to realise Rose had tricked him into volunteering to do so. The Doctor was left speechless and kind of impressed she'd managed to do that.
They were checking out the school at night when the Doctor ran into his old friend and companion Sarah Jane Smith. She was investigating just like they were. The two old friends really didn't get to talk much before they heard a scream and ran to investigate to all converge on Mickey covered in vacuum packed rats.
"They're rats! Vacuum packed rats!" Mickey defended.
"So you decided to scream? Like a little girl? I'm seeing pigtails," the Doctor made fun of Mickey.
"Say's the dinner lady," Rose responded. "I mean really, he even wore the female version of the uniform to work today. Not that I got anything against that, wear what makes you comfortable I say. Just you've not got much of a leg to stand on in that argument Doctor."
"You lost another bet didn't you?" Mickey asked, trying not to laugh.
"More like Rose tricked me into volunteering to work in the kitchen. Then I lost a bet," he answered rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Question is, what exactly are vacuum packed rats doing in a school?" Ross asked.
"Well obviously they're for desecrating in science class," Sarah Jane spoke up for the first time.
"No, they've not done that in years. Some sort of health and safety issue. You know the good old British Government, health and safety crazy. So much it's surprising children are still allowed play parks," Rose commented.
"Well you, know you're getting older Doctor when your assistants are getting younger," Sarah Jane remarked.
"I'm older than I look, and I'm not his assistant," Rose retorted. She didn't want to say much in front of Mickey in case he told her mum.
"Well then good for you tiger," she said sarcastically to the Doctor.
"He's actually my assistant, he just hasn't realised that part yet," Rose joked to ease the tension. Her sarcastic remark may be somewhat true but she didn't want to get into some weird sort of contest like she probably would have, had she still been human. The main difference being the weight of years, and the fact Time Lords don't practice strict monogamy like most humans do in this time period. It's one of the key teachings of the Pythia in the Sisterhood of Karn that love is love no matter what form it may take. You don't feel less love for loving someone else, just more love to go around. The common people on Gallifrey practiced this openly, while the houses pretended not to until a Time Lord is over 400 years old, well after the obligatory marriage period of their lives.
"Oi! I'm no one's assistant!" The Doctor protested, "Unless you have some of Mrs Weasley's banana cake. I'd probably do anything she asked so long as she keeps backing me cakes."
Rose rolled her eyes. "She's in luck then, she's decided you're way too skinny and needs to fatten you up." She turned to Sarah Jane. "Hi, I'm Rose." She knew who Sarah Jane was. She'd done extensive research into many of the Doctor's known companions when in the CIA but figured she'd not make the Doctor uncomfortable by showing just how much the Time Lords really knew about his travels. Instead she pulled out a paper sweet bag. "Would you like a Jelly Baby?"
"Sarah Jane Smith," she replied a bit more at ease and took one out of the bag and put it in her mouth.
"Where did you get Jelly Babies?" The Doctor was a little confused as he picked one out of the bag himself followed by Mickey.
"Your coat pocket." Rose took a jelly baby. "He changes, but yet he never changes," Rose said in aside to Sarah Jane as they started to investigate once again and the Doctor took the jelly babies from Rose and stuffed them back in his coat pocket.
Things didn't go so well as they found out the headmaster and the teachers, and diner ladies he brought with him were giant bat-like creatures. They made their escape after taking a sample of the oil they'd been cooking the chips in. They couldn't go back into the school where the TARDIS was at, but luckily Sarah Jane had something to help with that. In the back of her car was the robot dog.
"K9!" Both the Doctor and Rose exclaimed.
"It looks a bit disco," Mickey remarked.
"I think he's wonderful," Rose defended.
The only problem was K9 was in a state of disrepair. So they ended up ducking into a chip shop to repair him, but at one point during the repairs Mickey dragged Rose outside. "What's wrong with you Rose? You've been acting weird since the Doctor changed. You've changed."
Rose sighed, "I just don't want mum to know."
"Know what?" Mickey asked exasperated. "That you and the Doctor are obviously together? I got news for you. She figured that out a long time ago."
"No that's not it." Rose crossed her arms and paced about.
"No point in denying it." Mickey accused.
"I'm not. That's not quite it Mickey." She stopped pacing and turned to look at him.
"Then what is it then? Don't spare my feelings I got the message that we're over already. If I'm being honest with myself it had been that way since before he showed up."
"It really isn't about me and him Mickey." She looked up at what little of the stars she could see on the clear night because of the lights around them. "You were right when you said I've changed." She looked Mickey in the eyes. "I'm like him. I'm not really human."
"Don't be daft. I've known you your whole life," Mickey scoffed.
"All of this one maybe. It was during the time war. There was an accident with our TARDIS and got hit by the time vortex. The combination of that and the explosion in the control room caused me to regenerate. The problem was unlike a normal regeneration I came out the other side as a baby. So the faction of Time Lords I worked for decided to send me and my crew through first as part of our evacuation plan. The time lords have this device that can turn us temporarily into humans. They used it to make me a human baby with no memory of the life I had led before.
"When I looked into the TARDIS she changed me back into a Time Lord along with restoring all my memories. I'm not human Mickey. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey and I'm somewhere around nine hundred years old. I was born in the mount lung region five minutes before my twin brother Narvinectralonum, and two weeks after and five miles away from the Doctor. He was a childhood friend, but then we went to different academies so lost contact. I can also turn into a dahrama which is a gallifreyan wolf."
"Rose you can stop winding me up now," Mickey replied jumpily.
"I'll prove it." Rose shifted form into that of her dahrama and looked over at Mickey heat break in her eyes as Mickey stammered out that he couldn't do this and made a run for it. She let out a long mournful howl as she felt the beginning of the separation in her timeline from her human family. This quickly turned to anger as one of the bat creatures swooped down and across from seemingly nowhere. It miscalculated because Rose was able to jump up high enough to bite it's ankle, but couldn't hold on so it got away.
Rose growled out an indignant huff as she watched it wing it's way far away.
"Language," the Doctor remarked, as he walked over to her from where he had been watching nearby with Sarah Jane and ran a hand soothingly through her fur, "Also I'm not sure that's anatomically possible for that alien either." Rose just glared at him. "Mickey will be fine. I may tease him and call him an idiot but he's far from it. Come on change back and let's get some chips."
Rose really didn't feel like changing back. Being in animal form has always calmed her when she felt turbulent emotions. Was the same way for most time lords she knew. Or animagus' once she thought about it. Instead she followed them back to the chip shop that allowed well behaved dogs into the seating area. She just slunk down under the table, lay down with a huffing noise and stayed there as she pretended to be a dog. She even wagged her tail at the waitress who loved dogs and stopped to pet her, leave a bowl of water and gave her a sausage Rose suspected had fallen on the floor at some point but she didn't really care and ate it anyway. It would have been rude not to after all.
"You've got the whole pretend to be a strange breed of dog act, down pretty well," the Doctor remarked as he started working on K9 again.
'You're just jealous because she said she liked the colour of my coat and you can't show off your own.' She shot back telepathically to him and Sarah Jane who startled a little.
"So you're the same species as the Doctor then?" Sarah Jane asked.
'Yes.'
"I've never seen you turn into a wolf Doctor. Can you do that?"
"All time lords can turn into an animal form yes. Mine is also a wolf with what we call 'fire coat' which is reddish ginger with brighter more yellow highlights. You're from a time when the magical and non magical people are separated and living apart from each other in different societies. I always try and respect the international statute of secrecy and not let non magical people see me obviously using magic." The Doctor explained as he soniced some wires together.
"Magic?" Sarah Jane couldn't help asking.
"Yes. Although really all it is is the manipulation of psionic energy. This universe is more susceptible to manipulation by psionic energy than most. There are humans who can manipulate it, as well as many other species who can, like my own. Right now they keep to themselves because of the persecution they suffered from by the church. They'll not be able to stay separate for much longer though," the Doctor explained.
Any other questions were cut off by K9 coming back to life. The Doctor got K9 to analyse the oil sample which turned out to be Krillitane oil. They spent the night camping out in Sarah Jane's living room for the night. In which the Doctor spent most of which in dahrama form. Both to show off to Sarah Jane now the wolf is out of the bag because he loves his 'fire coat' so much before she went to bed, and to curl up with Rose who was still stubbornly staying in dahrama form.
The next morning they both had to resume their normal forms and go into the school. The Doctor and Rose confronted the headmaster and Rose smirked a bit that he was limping. The headmaster decided to try and up his chances of succeeding in his plan by trying to talk Rose and the Doctor into joining him. It didn't work. They didn't take the bait and stopped them and ended up blowing up the school. K9 was lost in the process but the Doctor made Sarah Jane a new K9 unit and reused the memory circuits from the old one so it would have all the same memories plus some upgrades.
Along the way in this adventure though, they found out there was an orphanage with lots of the kids going to this school. Turns out they were all Time Lord children and the staff at the orphanage, their teachers from the Prydonian academy. It was the first real evidence they had come across that there were more than Rose's crew and Narvin who escaped the war and it was heartening.
Albus volunteered to help the caretakers look after the kids until we find enough people to come up with a real game plan as to what they're going to be doing next.
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Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read and to those who review. Next chapter coming up soon.