Eight – Anger at the Daleks

The magic of Hogwarts was something entirely new to the Doctor. He'd encountered plenty of types of warfare over the course of his long, long life, but never had he seen a destruction that was so deceptively beautiful. Jets of light, showers of sparks, beams refracting off an invisible barrier above the towering front gates; he could see so much potential here, and it broke his hearts that all of that power was being used to destroy, when it could have been used for such good. He'd never faced a threat quite like this one before, but he'd gotten through much worse, he was sure. He'd get through this, too, without letting anyone get harmed. It couldn't be too hard; yes, magic was a highly advanced, highly dangerous form of combat that had been steadily practiced and refined over centuries, but he was the Doctor. And if the hooded people attempting to storm Hogwarts didn't know that now, they would soon enough.

"Really regretting not having a chance to learn some magic now," Amy muttered from where she stood beside him, drawing him out of his reverie.

"No need to fret, Pond," he said brightly, clapping a hand on her shoulder and giving her a convincing smile. "We've got some of the best witches and wizards of the time here with us – Plus there's me and River. They don't stand a chance."

Amy smiled back at him, all signs of worry erased from her expression and replaced by utmost faith. She believed in him, she trusted him to keep her safe, and that's what he would do.

"D-Doctor?" Peter stammered, tearing his watery eyes away from the scene outside to face the Doctor. He was a small boy, somewhat outmatched by his friends, with a mop of mousy hair and fingernails that had been bitten to stubs. Everything about him screamed of fear and doubt, a sharp desire to be protected. The Doctor regarded him closely. Cowardice was sometimes more dangerous than violence. "Have you e-ever fought a D-Death Eater before?"

"Have you ever fought a Time Lord before?" He countered, pushing through the group of students huddled by the window to join River on the other side of the Entrance Hall.

"They don't even seemed fussed," James said as the Doctor walked away, presumably to Amy.

He heard Amy laugh as she told him, "They do this all the time."

Too often, the Doctor thought heavily. River seemed to sense his darkening mood, for she looked up at him with understanding in her eyes and the faintest trace of a smile on her lips. He smiled back and stood up a bit straighter, snapping his braces.

"Got anything?" He asked, gesturing to the portable scanner she was holding.

"Nothing," she shook her head. "All the magic here, it's making it go -"

"Stupid!"

River nodded in agreement with the new voice, "Yes, stupid. Wait, what?"

What indeed. That was an angry voice, and angry voices would not do, not with the Doctor around and trying to think of a way to stop Hogwarts from being blasted with shiny explodey-wodey beams of light. He spun around to see a new arrival in the corridor; a boy, another student, with black hair falling in front of his dark eyes and pale skin, pointing a finger accusingly at Lily, who looked like she might cry.

"What were you thinking, going with these strangers?" The boy yelled. "You've been gone for two weeks, two weeks, we had no idea where you were or what had happened, you'd just vanished! That was the stupidest thing you could have done -"

"Leave her alone!" James roared, charging at the boy.

Rather than catching the boy in a full tackle, though, he ended up just catching his arm, so he was swung around to fully face the Doctor. His face was strained, and he was struggling to get his arm free, reaching for his wand – But the Doctor knew this boy.

"You're the boy from breakfast," the Time Lord said, stepping forward. "The one who doesn't trust us."

"Of course I don't trust you," the boy snarled, still struggling against James's hold.

"Let him go, James," the Doctor said in a calm attempt to diffuse the situation.

James, however, didn't appear to hear him. Alright then, so there was a lot of past animosity between those two. So much tension you could cut it with a spoon; and a lot of hurt, judging from the tears springing to Lily's eyes. Oohh, a love triangle, he hadn't dealt with one of those in a while. Messy things, far too complicated for his liking.

"No, you only put your trust in people who really deserve it, like all those Death Eaters out there," Sirius said sarcastically, "Isn't that right, Snivellus?"

"You stay out of this, Black!" The Snivellus boy yelled, only to be promptly thrown to the ground by James, who was now absolutely livid.

"James!" Lily yelled, panicked. "James, don't!"

James looked up at her and was completely still for a moment, and then he took a deep breath, reigned himself in, and stepped back. Good chap.

"He deserved it," Sirius muttered, but no one paid him any attention.

Lily asked, "Severus, are you okay?"

One of her feet stepped forward, just slightly, seemingly of its own accord; as though a part of her wanted to go to the boy but all her other parts were deliberately stopping her from doing so. James had his eyes locked on her face, but as soon as she glanced across at him she immediately looked away again.

The boy, meanwhile, continued to lie on the ground, holding an arm over his face and not making any noise. Not good signs, although it was bound to be more a matter of pride than physical injury that was hurting him. James had a pretty good tackle, but not that good.

The Doctor knelt down beside the boy and gingerly laid a hand on his forearm.

"Are you alri -"

His hand was flung backwards as the boy heaved himself to his feet, his dark eyes narrowed in disgust. "I'm fine," he said harshly.

"Why don't you run along and go catch up with your Death Eater mates then? I'm sure the rest of Slytherin house is having a right old party at the moment," Sirius snapped, clearly fed up with the boy's presence.

Severus glared at him, shooting him a look of pure hatred. The Doctor noticed that he'd finally managed to reach his wand, although he hadn't yet drawn it from his pocket. The entire party was on edge now, waiting for one of the boys to back down. Severus's hand twitched. Oh, the Doctor was going to have to step in.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the Time Lord said evenly, his own hands resting in the pockets of his trousers.

Everyone looked at him, confusion written all over their features. "Do what?" James asked.

"No fighting," the Doctor clarified. "Not while I'm here."

"Have you not looked outside?" Severus asked, his tone one of disbelief and disgust. "We're in a war, and you're telling us not to fight?"

What was it with humans and unnecessarily violent defences? Was war always their first response?

The Doctor took a few steps forward so that he was standing over the boy, and said, "Look at my eyes. These are old eyes. They have seen war, and they have stopped war, and I am telling you, when the time comes, you will be wishing that you'd listened to me."

In one fluid movement, Severus drew his wand from his pocket – but as soon as he'd moved, so had Sirius, James, Remus and Lily, every single one of them also reaching for their wands. They were quick, some of them incredibly so – but the Doctor was faster. Before they could even blink he had his trusty sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and in his hand, and with one click he had all of them disarmed, their wands lying useless on the floor.

"What was that?" Remus asked, staring at his open, empty hand as though it had suddenly turned to string cheese.

"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor said proudly. No one but Amy looked impressed – they all seemed a bit stunned stupid, really - so he added, "You're lucky it was my sonic and not River's blaster."

"I don't think you need those magic lessons," James commented in a shocked voice.

Severus seemed to recover himself first, stooping down to collect his wand, and then stormed off across the hall out of sight. The Doctor had a feeling he'd make another appearance soon enough.

"What's his problem?" Amy asked no one in particular.

"Me," Lily and James said at the same time.

The young couple looked at each other, clearly surprised, and then Lily continued, "We have a bit of… history."

"Oh, teenage romance," River sighed dramatically, drawing the tension out of the air and getting everyone's attention. The Doctor noticed that her blaster was sitting in a slightly different position in her belt than before, as though she'd pulled it out and then hurriedly returned it to its holster. He couldn't help but smile. "It can make you forget about everything else in the world, even when there's a war on your doorstep."

"Literally on your doorstep," the Doctor said, bounding back to her and peering out the cathedral window set deep in the stone. "Their blasts seem to be getting… bigger. Bigger magic, is that possible?" He trailed off and paced back behind River, across to Amy and back again, flipping his screwdriver from hand to hand as he walked. "I suppose it's possible, gathering power, perhaps an accumulative effect?"

"I don't understand," Remus said, "Hogwarts is meant to be protected, it's the safest place in the Wizarding World. It's meant to be impenetrable."

"Well we got in here," River told him, "So other things can too."

"Reassuring," James mumbled, running a hand through his hair.

"Where is Dumbledore?" The Doctor asked, directing the question at Lily.

She seemed to have calmed down from earlier, and only stuttered once before answering him. "Uh-uhm, the portraits said that he's out there, strengthening the defences." She gestured outside. "I sent him an owl, but I don't know when he'll get the message -"

"Oh!" The Time Lord cried suddenly, banging his palm against the window pane. "Oh, oh, of course!"

"What is it, Sweetie?" River asked, watching as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the hourglass he'd taken from Dumbledore's office, turning it between his fingers and staring closely at the green crystals.

"The time difference, the two week time difference – the hour glass measures time slower when you're having a stimulating conversation, measures it on value and not length. Nifty trick. Old Time Lord technology, actually, you do know how we love to bend Time – as if it's not wibbley-wobbley enough already. Very interesting that it ended up in the Wizarding World, I must ask Professor Slughorn where and when he found it…"

"Doctor," Amy said with a sigh, "Is there a point to this?"

The Doctor pirouetted around and pointed at her. "Of course there's a point, Pond, there's always a point! And I am getting to it, right now. You can call me Mr. Straight to the Point. No, don't, that's a stupid name, absolutely rubbish. Still call me the Doctor."

River bowed her head in an attempt to hide the fact that she was laughing, but of course he caught her. He grabbed one of her curls and gently pulled it down into a straight line before letting it bounce back up again. She glared at him and he smiled apologetically and latched his hands around his braces. "You, River, sent the home box and we received it two weeks and a couple of decades later, because this dimension is running at a slower rate than ours. The time stream in this world is different to the one at home. The TARDIS jumped us forward two weeks to try to catch up to where we should be! She can't get back across the void and her power's all muddled, but she's still trying to sort things out. My clever girl!"

"So… Time moves slower here than at home?" Amy repeated, brow furrowed in concentration.

"Does that mean that you could spend a week here but you'd miss two weeks back in… wherever you're from?" Remus asked.

"Yes. No, not really. Not at all, actually. But think of it like that, if it helps," the Doctor said, but he was clearly distracted again. "Alright, if Dumbledore hasn't come to us then we're going to have to go to him. Onwards!"

He made a grand pointing gesture, like a general leading his soldiers into battle, and then flung open the front doors of Hogwarts and stepped out into the bright glow of a hundred spells being cast.

"What are you doing out here? Get back inside!" A witch came rushing over to the group, eyes wide with worry and her lips pressed into a thin, white line. "All students are meant to be in their common rooms, please return there immediately!" Her eyes fell on Amy, and her jaw went slack. "Miss Evans?"

"Erm, no, Amy Pond. Lily's there," Amy informed her, turning to point just over her shoulder.

"Professor McGonagall," Lily cried, stepping forward. "We're back, we know we've been gone two weeks, we'll explain later, but right now we need to find Dumbledore."

"All students are meant to be in their common rooms," McGonagall repeated, but the Doctor heard her resolve failing. "Why do you need to see Dumbledore?"

"Because we know what's made the Death Eaters think they're strong enough to take Hogwarts." The Doctor had that look in his old eyes again, the one that said that he was in charge and if anyone got in his way they would regret it, because he only gave one warning.

McGonagall saw the look, and she was smart enough to realise that she didn't need a warning. "He's over here," she said, leading them around the front steps to where Dumbledore stood with a giant of a man.

"Hullo!" The Doctor cried gleefully, forgetting for a moment that they were having potentially deadly spells fired at them and becoming transfixed by the man.

He was dressed in a moleskin overcoat and had a huge, black shaggy beard to match the shaggy, black mop of hair on top of his head, which stood at approximately double the Doctor's height. "It's not safe out here!" He said in his deep, booming voice, looking genuinely worried for the safety of the students hurrying along behind the Time Lord.

"Not safe is my middle name," the Doctor said carelessly, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and scanning him. "What's yours? Although perhaps your first name may be more useful."

"I'm Rubeus Hagrid," he said, throwing Dumbledore a worried look. He then added proudly, "Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts."

"Rubeus Hagrid, you are a very impressive man." The Time Lord glanced at the readings on the scanner and then tucked his screw driver back into his pocket.

"Half-giant," Hagrid corrected, sounding slightly embarrassed.

"Half-giant, of course you are," The Doctor agreed excitedly. "Marvellous!" He leant across to Amy and murmured, "Bound to be a bit of an awkward conception, between a giant and a human! Would it be rude if I asked which of his parents was the giant?"

Amy clapped a hand to her mouth and tried to disguise her laughter as a cough, spluttering, "Yes!"

"Ah. Right then," the Doctor strutted forward and enthusiastically shook hands with Dumbledore. "Good to see you again, Dumblydore." He leant forward and kissed the air either side of the Headmaster's cheeks. "So sorry that I ran away with a few of your students for a bit, there was a slight mishap in the TARDIS but never mind, we're all back safe and sound, no missing parts. And I've figured out what's behind all this!"

"Ahem," River coughed delicately, giving him a pointed look.

"Oh, all right, River helped too," he said, waving a hand at her. She smiled, placated.

"What is it, Doctor? Do you know how to stop it?" Dumbledore asked, his gaze intent and focused on the Doctor even as he shot another spell up at the invisible barrier floating above Hogwarts.

"It's the Daleks," The Doctor declared.

He heard gasps behind him, and then Amy rushed forward to grab his arm, squeezing it in a vice like grip. "Doctor, you can't be serious!"

"I am, Amy," he said, prying her hand from his arm and holding it tight in his. "And there's only thing that can stop a Dalek."

"What is it?" Dumbledore questioned, worry visible on his old face.

The Doctor grinned. "Me."

[[…]]

Death Eaters were nasty things. Dressed in long, hooded, black robes that hid their faces and all gathered together in a menacing group, the Doctor thought that they were some of the worst kind of people, so far removed from what it meant to be human it was a wonder that they were still people at all. That was how Dumbledore had described Voldemort, the leader of this army; a man who had become so twisted by greed and a need for power that his bloodlust had destroyed every trace of his humanity. If the Daleks were ever going to align themselves with a human, the Doctor wasn't surprised that they'd chosen him.

"Hellooo," the Time Lord called, coming to a stop just inside the front gates. "What are your names? Or shall I just refer to you collectively as Death Eaters?"

One of the Death Eaters stepped forward and drawled menacingly, "Who do you think you are, to refer to us at all?"

The Doctor smiled disarmingly. "I asked you first."

"We are Death Eaters, servants of the Dark Lord, and if you don't hand Hogwarts over to us we will take it by force," the Death Eater said.

"That's a big claim," the Doctor said, "coming from someone too scared to even show their face." There was a beat of silence, where the Doctor continued to smile at the crowd in front of him until they slowly, simultaneously pushed back their hoods. "Aha, much better! I definitely prefer talking to faces, don't you? Not faces on their own, I generally like them to be attached to bodies; although there was the Face of Boe, he was a lovely fellow, and he was just a head -"

"Enough!" The apparently in charge Death Eater demanded, holding out a hand threateningly. His long, platinum blonde hair shone in the dimming sunlight and his pale skin contrast with the black material of his robes. He was certainly cold, and the Doctor supposed he would have been intimidating, to weaker people. "We have revealed ourselves, now you must do the same."

"Not yet," the Doctor said, his voice level. "Tell me who you're working for."

"We work for the Dark Lord," the Death Eater repeated.

"Well who does he work for, then?" The Doctor exasperatedly. Honestly, humans. So slow sometimes.

"The Dark Lord works for no one," the Death Eater snarled.

The Time Lord gestured to the rest of the group. "What about you? Do any of you know who he's working with?" He was met with silence. His patience running out now, the Doctor's cheerfulness dropped away and his force bubbled to the surface as he stalked forward. "One of you knows something," he said in a low voice, "and if you don't tell me, right now, where they are, I will show you why they call me the Oncoming Storm."

"Doc-tor," a familiar voice sounded from the middle of the pack.

The Doctor rolled back on his heels. "Ah. There you are."

"Doc-TOR," the Dalek repeated as the Death Eaters stepped aside to let it move forward. "You are the Doc-TOR."

The Dalek was old and slightly battered, bronze and smaller than the new brightly coloured ones the Doctor had last encountered. It was weak and it had allied itself with humans, but the Doctor knew that this was all part of a larger plan and that every Dalek was dangerous. As if being in a completely new universe and having to deal with rogue witches and wizards wasn't enough. Right, so he had to gather all his thoughts and get a plan together. A plan, a plan – when had the Doctor ever worked with a pre-determined plan?

"I am the Doctor, and you're not meant to be here," the Time Lord said, talking directly to the Dalek now.

"Nei-ther are YOU," the Dalek stated, its eyestalk moving as it spoke.

"How did you get here?

"There are CRA-cks in the uni-VERSE," the Dalek explained. "You have de-STROY-ed man-y Dal-eks, but the Dal-EKS are SU-per-0IOR and some of US sur-VIVED."

"Yes, you have a habit of doing that," the Doctor said stonily. "So against the odds you survived and made your way to this universe through a crack. How?"

"A Ti-me Por-TAL was HI-jacked and we were BROUGHT here."

"How many of you are there?"

"En-ough." The Dalek's eyestalk followed the Time Lord as he stepped forward.

The Doctor growled, "How many?"

"Three."

"Ha," the Time Lord laughed, but it was mirthless. "So there's three stragglers floating around in a universe that you don't belong in, damaged and in hiding."

The Dalek's eyestalk raised up and its blaster moved threateningly. "DAL-eks are SUP-eri-OR, TH-ree of us is EN-ough to take con-TROL of this world. YOU know this, Doc-TOR."

The Doctor put his hands in the pockets of his trousers and said. "If three of you is enough to take over, why haven't you done it? You've lowered yourself to working with humans. That's not very Dalek of you."

There was silence again while the Dalek considered the Time Lord's words.

The blonde Death Eater decided to take advantage of the pause and said, "This thing needs to remember that the Dark Lord has extended it a courtesy by allowing it to join our ranks, and that it needs to respect him – and us."

"Ha!" The Doctor laughed at that, more genuinely than before - because the ignorance of these people was so astounding it was almost amusing - and the sound startled the group of Death Eaters. They flinched and looked at him as though he was mad. Then again, maybe he was a bit mad, confronting a group of wizards and a Dalek on his own like this. "You really don't know what you have there, do you?"

"It is a machine, recovered by the Dark Lord for our efforts," one of the Death Eaters explained. "They're weapons."

"Weapons," the Doctor said, his voice still tinted with bitter laughter. "You really think you can control them? They've got you tricked, made you think that they're working for you, happily helping your efforts. But this war of yours is tiny and insignificant to the Daleks. They're the ones using you, and once they have what they want they'll murder you in cold blood, like you're murdering innocent people now."

"This war is far from insignificant," the blonde Death Eater snapped.

All humour disappeared from the Doctor's tone as he turned to ice. "You humans, always thinking of yourselves as the centre of the universe. The Daleks have fought in a war that endangered all of Time and Space – do you really think that the Wizarding World will be satisfying enough for them?"

"We WON the TIME War, Doc-tor," the Dalek said suddenly. "We will win THIS one TOO."

"What are you doing?!" The Doctor roared, all restraint vanished in a flash. "What's your plan?!"

"We will WIN," the Dalek repeated. "The Doc-tor can-NOT stop us. We WILL WIN."

"You will lose," the Doctor said, his voice completely flat and his eyes flashing. "You don't belong here, Dalek, and I will send you home."

The Dalek made no response.

The blonde Death Eater declared, "The Dark Lord has faith in these weapons. Hogwarts is unprepared to face them."

"Oh yeah? Go on then," the Doctor taunted, holding his arms out sideways. "Go on. If Hogwarts is so unprepared to face the Daleks, why don't you kill me? Exterminate me. You've never been able to do it in our universe, what makes you think you'll be able to do it here?"

"Ex-ter-min-ate," the Dalek said, rolling forward. "EX-ter-min-ATE. EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" It shot at the Doctor, but the shield surrounding Hogwarts was still holding strong and the beam didn't penetrate.

"Doctor!" Amy's voice suddenly rang out across the grounds as she darted forward and ran to his side. "Doctor, stop!"

The Time Lord dropped his arms back to his sides and turned his icy gaze on her. "Amy, I told you to stay away."

"You are AM-elia POND. YOU are an ass-OC-iate of the Doc-tor. You WILL be EX-TER-MIN-ATED!" The Dalek shot again, this time aiming for Amy. She jumped backwards, but, again, the beam didn't make it past the barrier.

The Doctor gripped Amy's wrist and held her still, trying to calm himself down enough to be reassuring. He saw panic in her eyes, and the fact that he wasn't sure if that panic was directed at him or their enemies was enough to worry him.

"You get one warning," the Doctor told the Death Eaters and lone Dalek, in a menacing voice that left no room for argument. "This is it. Leave now, and I'll let you go. No one has to get hurt. But if you continue to try to break into Hogwarts, I'll be forced to stop you. And believe me, I will stop you."

"Doctor, they're not going to negotiate," Amy whispered in his ear. "Please, come back up to the castle."

"You cannot stop us, muggle," the blonde Death Eater said confidently.

"Oh, I'm no muggle," the Doctor said, taking a few steps backward. "I'm a Time Lord."

The dumbfounded expressions on the Death Eaters' faces and the Dalek's repeated cries of "EX-TER-MIN-ATE, EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" were enough to assure him that, even if they wouldn't back down, he'd planted the seed of fear. Voldemort would be here to see him soon enough.

a.n. Sorry about the lack of Amy in this chapter! I didn't intend for it to be so long, but I got carried away, and yeah... a very Doctor-centric chapter. All angtsy and no flirty. I'm disappointed, too. But it's okay! The next chapter will be lots of fun and flirting and running around. Woohoo. Please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter; are you still enjoying it? What did you think of the Dalek? The more reviews the faster I'll update! Thanks for reading, I appreciate it so much. If I haven't already replied personally to your review I'll do that within the next few days. Thanks for all your support, you're amazing!