17. Times are changing.
A few minutes later, Dumbledore came hurrying into the room, looking slightly ruffled by battle, though from the twigs sticking out of his beard River surmised that this was more due to the slippery nature of the snow than the fighting skill of the Death Eaters. He stopped just inside the room and regarded the Doctor solemnly.
"You must be the Doctor," he said, gazing at the Doctor over the rim of his glasses. "How are you feeling?"
"Never mind that," the Doctor rasped, flapping a hand weakly, "we need to stop him getting to the Master!"
"Severus?"
"Another Time Lord," Snape explained to Dumbledore.
"A dangerous one," the Doctor added. "Headmaster, if he gets to the Master, there's no telling what could happen!"
Dumbledore nodded gravely. "I see. Do you have any idea how Voldemort intends to find him?"
"By going back in time," the Doctor said even as he jerked at the name.
"With what?" Snape interjected.
"Time Turners, I believe." Dumbledore said.
"But Headmaster," Snape protested, "long distance travel with Time Turners has never been achieved. The Dark Lord must be using something else."
"Never been achieved until now, perhaps," Dumbledore replied. "He would only have to ask a Ministry insider to give him one or two and modify them. What time is the Master in?"
The Doctor's eyes glazed over slightly as he tried to work that out, the process taking longer in his current state. River stepped in instead.
"Christmas Day 1993."
"The Dark Lord only sent several Death Eaters as far as I am aware," Snape remarked.
"Unfortunately we do not have any Time Turners," Dumbledore mused.
"I have a vortex manipulator," River offered. "I can take two or three people."
Dumbledore nodded. "It would be best to keep the numbers low-"
"Nasty way of travelling," the Doctor agreed. "Full of glitches."
"-so perhaps you and Severus should go while we ready things here."
"Headmaster?" Snape asked. Clearly he had not liked the Doctor's remark about glitches.
"You know best where to look, Severus."
"Don't worry," River added, flashing Snape a smile, "I'm a very good driver."
Snape scowled. Dumbledore looked between them all to check that there were no other pressing matters before nodding slightly and silently taking his leave. Snape busied himself with packing up the Doctor's medical supplies.
River turned to the Doctor. "I'm coming back," she promised, forestalling his question.
The Doctor swallowed. "Be careful. He's dangerous."
River brushed his concern aside. "Just stay here, ok? I'll be back before you can blink."
"Don't blink," the Doctor murmured, looking slightly over her left shoulder.
River frowned and placed a hand to his forehead. He was starting to burn up. She sighed and gave him some medicine from her backpack, worried when he didn't complain about the foul taste as she would normally expect.
The Doctor's eyes drifted shut. "Just don't blink, River, or the Master will get you."
River patted his hand sadly. "I know." Once the Doctor had drifted off to sleep, she looked up at Snape. "Ready?"
Snape nodded. "Let's go to the disapparition point."
"Why?" River asked. "We can do it from here. It shouldn't be affected by magical wards – how do you think I broke into Hogwarts?" She grabbed him by the arm and jerked him closer, tapping in numbers.
Snape looked down at her wrist and studied the buttons as she worked, eyes taking in every detail. They disappeared in the normal flash and fanfare of a vortex manipulator, and reappeared on top of the Eiffel Tower. A very scared looking couple was staring at them.
"I may have got the coordinates wrong," River murmured, whacking the manipulator. "Different universes, different rules. Maybe I was wrong about the magical interference."
"That is a distinct possibility," Snape drawled.
"Quoi?" The Frenchman asked, clutching his wife close. He was starting to look vaguely angry. "Je fais un peu de tourisme pour la première fois dans ma vie et tout d'un coup je suis mort ? Mais je suis pas encore vieux!" (What? I do some sightseeing for the first time in my life and suddenly I'm dead? But I'm not old yet!)
His wife looked Snape up and down. "Calme-toi. Tu crois vraiment que ce type est un ange? Non. T'es pas mort." (Calm down. Do you really think this guy is an angel? No - you're not dead."
The man looked Snape up and down. "OK, t'as raison." (Oh, right.)
River smirked.
"What?" Snape demanded.
"Nothing," she replied. She keyed in different digits. "Let's try again, shall we?"
This time, they ended up in a park near a children's playground. Other than a few ducks quacking in panic at their arrival, they went unnoticed. River scanned the area, noting the distinct lack of obvious threat, and checked her watch.
"We're a bit early," she said.
Snape sneered at her. "I thought you said you were a good driver."
"I'd like to see you do better," River retorted. "Anyway, it's only a day. Do you see anyone you recognise?"
Snape slowly scanned the park, eyes narrowed. "Over there, by the pavilion."
River followed his gaze to see two men standing near a small wooden hut where children were feeding ducks. One of them was talking to the children, who were staring at him as if he was insane. The other was trying very hard to look as though he wasn't with him.
"You go right I go left?" River suggested.
Snape nodded, and they split, both walking across the park as innocuously as they could while still keeping the two Death Eaters in sight. Just as River lined up her wand to take one of them down, the other happened to turn and catch sight of Snape, who had just moved to get a clearer aim.
"Hey!" The Death Eater yelled. "It's the traitor!"
Snape quickly fired off a nonverbal Stunning Spell, but the Death Eater ducked it. The two Death Eaters bore down on him, yelling angrily and firing spells at him, though Snape managed to deflect every single one of them. River immediately ran over to help and aimed several unsuccessful Stunners at one of the Death Eaters, who eventually located her and shot off a few rounds of their own, sending her wand flying to the depths of the pond. River simply withdrew her gun from her holster and shot him. As River scooped up the fallen man's wand and tucked it safely away, Snape managed to make the most of this distraction and pinned the remaining Death Eater to the ground.
"What did you call me?" Snape asked dangerously.
"You heard," the man spat, fighting to reach the wand that lay just out of reach.
"I'm just as faithful as you are."
"No you're not," the man replied. "The Dark Lord found out. It was in that alien's mind."
"The alien had been tortured," Snape scoffed. "He can't be trusted."
"Our Lord trusts it," the other wizard replied. "So do I." He laughed when Snape opened his mouth to protest. "You're not really going to tell me I'm wrong, are you? There's a reason he didn't tell you about the other thing he found," he said, gesturing around him. "Tell you and the whole Order knows."
Snape stared him in the eyes for a few moments before nodding grimly. "Very well."
That took the other man back. "What?"
"I'm a spy, a traitor, and I can't be trusted," Snape said tersely, smirking at the other man. "And, knowing that, the last thing you should have done is tell me."
With that, he pointed his wand in the other man's face. The man thrashed and struggled but soon went slack, his eyes losing focus and sliding shut despite his protests.
"What did you do to him?"
"I'm sending him off to join Lockhart," Snape replied. He nodded at the man that River had knocked unconscious. "Him too."
"You can't," River replied. "He's dead."
Snape looked at the fallen man for a few moments before quietly levitating him and dumping him in the duck pond. Fortunately, any bystanders had long fled in terror, so there was no one to witness this bizarre act.
"You're just going to leave him in the pond?" River asked.
"There is no time to give him a proper burial," Snape explained, "and we cannot carry him back with us to do it in the future. We also cannot risk the others finding him."
"Well," River said, "I hate to break it to you after that loving burial, but we have to go back to the future anyway."
Snape glared at her.
"I have to replace my wand," River replied.
"Use his," Snape replied tersely.
"I can't. I have to do this or it'll be a paradox - I've already done it. Besides, is it really a good idea to have the only one who can get the Doctor back safely running around with a wand that doesn't work properly? We can take him, too," she added, nodding to the unconscious Death Eater. "Three shouldn't overload the vortex manipulator."
Snape scowled at her but yanked the fallen Death Eater to his feet and prepared for travel. River glanced quickly around to see that there was no one watching, before tapping in the required numbers and dematerialising. Fortunately, they reappeared in an empty alleyway.
Snape lay the Death Eater on the ground. "Hurry up," he said roughly. "And don't bump into yourself."
"I know the basics of time travel, thank you," River replied, and hurried off, burying herself in the crowd.
Fortunately, she reached Ollivander's without incident and walked in. By another stroke of luck, there was no one else in the shop.
"Can I help you?" Ollivander asked.
"Yes – I would like to buy a wand."
Ollivander nodded. "Of course." He studied her for a few moments. "Forgive me, but I don't believe we've met – that makes it rather more difficult to know what to look for," he added, "as I have no history to go on."
"River Song," she replied. "Mrs," she added, remembering that he had called her Mrs Song when they had first met. Well… first met from her perspective, in any case.
"Hmmm." He looked her up and down for several long minutes before starting to look through his many boxes of wands. "I think I may have just the wand." He pulled out a box. "Holly and phoenix feather-"
River shook her head. "If you don't mind, I already know the type of wand I need."
"Oh?" Ollivander asked, unable to hide his surprise. And, she thought, slight annoyance.
"Vine wood and dragon heartstring," she said.
"It is rather unorthodox…"
"I'm sure it'll work," River replied. "I have a way with these things."
Ollivander coughed, clearly sceptical. "Would you like to give it a try?"
River picked the wand up and pointed it at a feather. Like the first time she had done this, it rose slowly, perfectly controlled. She lowered the feather and put the wand down.
"As I said," River said, though not rudely, "perfect."
"Yes…" Ollivander agreed, clearly not knowing what to make of this development.
River bought the wand and quickly made her way back to Snape, who was still standing in the alleyway and looking very impatient.
"Ready?" He sneered.
River rolled her eyes at and grabbed onto him. This time when they appeared Snape immediately pulled them both behind some trees. The Death Eaters were right in front of them though, fortunately, they hadn't seen them.
"We're late," he hissed.
"No we're not," she replied, looking at the manipulator. She whacked it once. "We're just in time." She frowned. "I need to do something about this magical interference. I'm as bad with that as the Doctor is with wood."
"There are too many of them," Snape said, ignoring her completely. "We could have stopped them team by team if we'd been on time," he continued, "but, wonderful driver that you are, you managed to get us here at the start of the ceremony instead!"
River peeked out from behind the trees. Sure enough, the Death Eaters were standing in a circle, chanting. A cage stood in the middle of them, currently empty. River's heart sank when she counted the number of Death Eaters. Not even she would attempt to fight that many; it had to be a third of Voldemort's army.
"We can't attack now," River said. "You're right; there are too many."
"Obviously."
River took a step back, intending to ponder their options, but was distracted when her foot caught on something and she almost tripped over. Looking down, she saw a pile of Time Turners buried beneath a pile of leaves on the ground.
"What are you doing?" Snape hissed, glancing between her and the circle.
A slight wind was beginning to pick up, now – no doubt a result of the spell – and River knew that they didn't have long to wait until the Master was also dragged into this universe.
"Time Turners," she said. "How many of them did Voldemort have to begin with?"
"I have no idea," Snape replied. "But I think this," he said, jerking his head in the direction of the circle, "requires more of your attention."
"There are loads here," River said, more to herself than Snape. "They must have sent one team back. That team left the Time Turner hidden, another grabbed it from this exact spot in the future, came back, and left it for the next, and so on. It's the same one, but replicated many times." She looked at Snape.
Snape, meanwhile, was staring at the group. "There are less than when we pulled the Doctor through. Perhaps if we create a diversion…"
"That makes sense. The Time Turners have created a paradox," River explained. "It's made this exact point in time weaker than normal, so they need less people to pull the Master through."
"Will you stop fixating on how this happened," Snape snapped, "and help me find a way of stopping them!"
"We can't," River replied. "Even if we did manage to create a diversion big enough to distract them and take down as many as we could, the process has already started and the weakness of this spot in the time stream will help pull him the rest of the way through, whether we stop the Death Eaters or not."
Snape scowled at her. "There's nothing we can do?"
"The only thing we can do," she affirmed, "is watch and wait."
The chanting had stopped, now, and River was briefly blinded by a burst of lightning. A howl of rage tore its way into her ear drums.
"How could you do this to me?!" The voice was on the edge of its tether, completely out of control and not caring who knew it. "My whole life I've heard this drumming, I bring you back, like a good little servant, and for what?"
There was another flash of lightning, and River shielded her eyes. Despite the Doctor's gift for over exaggeration, he hadn't really managed to do justice to the Master's ability to use his life force as a weapon. Eventually, the tirade and the electricity died down as the Master realised that he was no longer before Rassilon but in a cage in the middle of a park. River watched as the Master stared around him in shock.
"What is this?" He asked. "Who are you? What have you done?"
"Are you the Master?" One Death Eater asked in awe.
The Master blinked. "The one and only," he said, smiling and spreading his arms.
"Our Lord has told us much about you," the Death Eater continued.
"Right…" the Master replied. "And who would that be, exactly?"
"You're-"
"Enough!" A different Death Eater cut in, clearly the one in charge. "We've established it's him, let's just get him back to base."
The Master pouted. "I take it you're not part of the fan club, then? Actually," he continued, suddenly changing track and looking angry, "who puts their idol in a cage? Really? I could break out of here in five minutes."
"He can't," River told Snape, though he hadn't asked, "or he would have done by now."
"Take him back to the future," the Leader Death Eater ordered, and two jumped forward to grab the cage. The Leader gave them what River could only assume was a larger and more powerful Time Turner. "We will meet you in three years."
River had to say she wasn't at all surprised by Voldemort's readiness to condemn so many loyal followers to living the same three years again: going back by Time Turner would mean that they would never have left them there for their future selves, and therefore would never have managed to get to the past.
"And remember," the Leader said, "not to go to the old prison base – it's been compromised. Go to the New Forest instead. And for goodness' sake, get the date right. We don't want it all to be ruined because you turned up at the wrong time again."
"Er…" One of the Death Eater's contributed.
"20th January 1996," the Leader growled. "Now go!"
"Right," River said. "The date when we left was the 17th, wasn't it? Why go back three days later?"
"The Dark Lord will have arranged it that way so that the Death Eaters in 1996 can extricate themselves from… prior commitments," Snape said, clearly not wanting to say 'Muggle raids and Ministry corruption', "in order to be there when the Master arrives."
"Thank God that man loves his performances," River said. "That might give us just enough time. Come on – we're going back to the 17th."