9 is in the time after leaving Rose but not going back for her yet.
10 is pre End of Time, post Waters of Mars.
11 is post Day of the Doctor, pre Time of the Doctor.
12 is post Husbands of River Song.
and none of them have a companion along currently.
~Twenty-Four hours later~
In that day, several rather unusual things happened.
While all Doctors were out cold for all of that time, they didn't see what had happened. For one, something really hadn't agreed with them on the way in.
Point A, none of them had seen it, but there was a slight golden glow around all of them, during the first few hours. It wasn't quite as bright as regeneration energy was, and it dispersed quite quickly.
Point B, Nine, Ten and Eleven started shrinking. Fast forward most the day away, they stopped shrinking, but now in the TARDIS there are three young boys wearing, well, practically swamped by clothes sizes too big for them.
It wasn't actually as if they looked that different, but chubby eleven year old faces do have that kind of effect.
And yet, Twelve was still same as he ever was.
The TARDIS whuffled in concerned tones. This wasn't normal, was it?
A gentle humming sounded throughout the console room. Lights flicked on one at a time, but much of it was still shrouded in dimness. With each glow of light, it stirred the occupants from their unconsciousness.
But, slowly, one by one, they all awoke, blinking doe-eyes at each other in fits of wooziness.
First to completely recover was Ten, whose eyes widened in shock. Not because of the appearance of his future selves and his past self, but rather the thought that he had thought it an unusual dream.
As it were, the slightly-girly scream he let out after was more than enough to stir the other two, who soon found themselves in a similar situation.
"What?! WHAT?! WHAT?!"
Each became progressively louder and high pitched.
"WHAT?!"
Seemingly perfectly practised, they all cried out in unison. They stared, aghast. Funnily enough, they all had the same expression. The second thing they all did, natural instinct ingrained in all their conscious thoughts.
When in doubt, scan it with the sonic.
Admittedly, it was a terrible plan, and none of them accounted for the literal scream of the tool that occurred from that.
"QUIET!"
The rough Scottish voice, amazingly, cut through the overwhelming noise. Twelve rose with half-lidded eyes set in a glare.
This time, it was enough to keep them all quieted.
"Now, would all of you numpties calm down enough to find out what happened?" Ten glanced either side, and when the others looked at him expectedly, cleared his throat.
"Well, I'd say that our four TARDISes merged into one, probably because our shields were down, don't know how that happened, and we fell into another dimension, universe, parallel reality, whatever you want to call it, and…" He petered off, unwilling to say what had happened to them.
"And physically regressed into children, yes. Eleven or so, from what I can see." Twelve finished for him, arms crossed.
"But hang, why only us? Not, you?" Eleven gestured weakly at himself and the others who had de-aged, then at Twelve.
"A certain threshold, perhaps. Only those of a certain age and below are affected?" Twelve shrugged.
All this while, Nine had been growing more annoyed and confused as the conversation led off without him.
"Yeah, that's great and all, but what about us? Can we even get back? To both our proper ages and wherever we left off? Don't know about Chinny and Gobby," Ten and Eleven made protesting sounds. "But I have things to do."
"Ah," At this, Twelve sighed. "Why are you asking? I'm smarter than that, of course we can't, no. Not until the crack opens enough again. I'd say… Seven years. Give or take a few months. Plenty of time for the Old Girl here to catch her breath. Dimension-jumping isn't easy, you know. Should be alright for small hops, though."
There was silence for a moment as all of them digested the information dejectedly. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, seven years weren't a whole lot to a Time Lord. Then again, this was the Doctor, and none of those rules applied to him, in almost any incarnation.
"Well," Eleven said briskly. "No sense in standing round here for now. Library, chop-chop! Anything there is on these sort of events."
They all looked at him, disgruntled, but moved away into the depths of the TARDIS in search of the library. He was right, doing something would be better than doing nothing.
Well, after a quick stop by the wardrobe to find some better fitting clothes, that is.
A few hours later found them back in the console room with a small stack of books and none too happy expressions in the case of the younger Time Lords. Frankly, they were all pretty much useless. As far as they were concerned, there was nothing on this having happened before, and of course, it was just the Doctor's luck to have it had happen to him. Right now the four had taken to the Twelve's blackboards in an attempt to find a solution themselves.
There was a sudden rapping at the door. All looked up bemusedly, with Nine, being closest to it, shoved rather unceremoniously towards the door.
He opened it, ready to shoo off whoever had come knocking. Instead, he found a neat pile of three letters and an owl hooting at him.
:Sorry, it's just that there's some letters for you, and they've been there for a while, so I thought I should probably tell you so? I didn't deliver them by the way, so I don't really know where they're from…: The owl shuffled his feathers awkwardly.
:Um, you don't mind if I come in?:
"Uh, no. Not at all…" Nine bent to pick up the letters, the owl, a Great Grey, swooped over him, coming to light on a railing.
Everyone else shot looks either at him or the owl, who again, shuffled his feathers awkwardly.
"Guys, I think we have a problem…"
The letter on the top of the pile was read out aloud, the words themselves seemingly innocent.
Mr J. Smith
Console Room
The Alley
TARDIS
London
Everyone cast shocked looks at the youngest Time Lord. It was obvious they were all thinking of the same thing. He swallowed, opened the letter and kept reading.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr Smith,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
So there's the chapter, brought to you by creative writing English periods. While everyone else did work I finished already, trashy me wrote fanfiction :D Anyway, I hope I got them all in character enough :/ I won't be able to guarantee the next chapter in the next week since exams, but i'll definitely have a try!
Secondly, BIG BIG thank you to everyone who followed, favourited and/or reviewed! You have no idea how much I freaked out seeing those notifications in my inbox. I honestly don't think I would have been able to write this so quickly without those little nuggets of encouragement~ So once again, thank you so much!
