Thirteen – The Clean Up
She'd never admit it, because after a childhood cut short Amy took a sort of sick sense of pride in her ability to stifle emotions, but seeing her double so pale and still scared her. Lily's hair was fanned out in a halo, a shockingly deep crimson against the white of her pillow. She looked younger, lying there, and if it weren't for the blistering wound on her chest she could have even passed for just being asleep. But Amy knew that she wasn't asleep; she recalled in vivid, horrifying detail the way all of the colour had drained from the other girl's face as her lungs had given out, the weight of her limp body as she'd had to drag her to the med bay…
She stopped in the doorway, drawing in a sharp breath. Lily was the one who'd been hit, but with the weight of those memories slamming down on her Amy felt as though the wind had been knocked from her lungs, too. She stood frozen, staring at the mirror image of her own face, and for a moment she felt as though it was her lying on that bed.
Until she felt someone grasp her hand reassuringly, pulling her back into herself. It was James. He'd stopped beside her, looking just as shocked as she did by the sight of his unconscious girlfriend. He didn't look at her – just squeezed her hand once before dropping it and making his way to Lily's bedside.
Before Amy could move, the Doctor stepped in to take his place.
"Is that what I looked like?" she asked in a low whisper, "When I was unconscious before, did I look like that?"
The Doctor grimaced. It was an expression that was gone in seconds, but Amy hadn't missed it. And she didn't miss the pain lingering in his eyes when he turned to smile at her, either.
"Something like that, yes," he said, tone forcibly light. "A bit more covered in rubble. Not as much hole-y clothing."
She elbowed him in the side, sending him stumbling forward a few steps, and tried not to laugh too loud. He chuckled too, and Amy felt a great deal of the tension that had been weighing her down lift. When the two of them came to stand together at the head of the bed she kept her shoulder resting comfortably against his.
The Marauders were all gathered around the bed, waiting for their friend to awake. Dumbledore and McGonagall had asked to explore the TARDIS, and the Doctor had gladly obliged, so long as River went as tour guide. He also gave the ship and the professors a stern warning to be on their best behaviour before they set off. The only other person in the infirmary was Madam Pomfrey, who was hovering towards the back of the room, observing a number of coloured liquids in beakers and a shelf of morosely coloured medical books in a variety of languages.
James gripped Lily's hand between both of his. "Is she okay?" He asked, voice strained. When he looked up at the Doctor Amy saw that his eyes were glassy.
"She'll be alright," the Time Lord said comfortingly. "Amy got her to the bay in time, and the TARDIS locked her in a kind of stasis until Minerva and Poppy could get to her."
"Stasis?" Amy and James repeated simultaneously. Amy added, "I didn't know it could do that."
The Doctor nodded sagely, brushing a lock of Lily's hair back off her forehead as he spoke. "She was lucky to have made it here, though. Someone with a weaker will wouldn't have even been able to get to the TARDIS door."
James smiled down at her proudly. "That's Lily. Always stubborn."
"What happened to her?" Remus asked from behind James.
"I think Poppy – sorry, Madam Pomfrey - is best equipped to answer that, don't you?" The Doctor stepped back, and the nurse swept over.
She was holding a small vial of yellow liquid, which she held up to the light over Lily's head. "It was definitely dark magic," she said sombrely, looking down at the girl with genuine concern. "Non-verbal though, thank heavens. Means the effect was muted, so she'll have a nasty mark and quite a bit of pain for a few weeks. But, if she rests and remembers to take this twice a day, she should be okay."
"What's that do?" James asked, glancing warily at the vial.
Madam Pomfrey smiled. "Helps her heal, Mr Potter."
The nurse was true to her word. As soon as she'd poured the honey-like substance past Lily's lips, the girl's eyelids fluttered. A few seconds later she awoke, emerald green eyes immediately locking onto James.
"What happened?" She asked in a whisper.
"Oh, you're okay." At this realisation James seemed to collapse with relief. He dropped forward, head resting on Lily's shoulder, and Amy thought she heard him sob. His voice was muffled as he repeated, "You're okay, you're okay."
Lily's hand came up, fingers twining in his hair. "I'm okay," she said soothingly. "Are you okay?"
James lifted his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. I mean, I kind of died, but -"
Lily shot upright, knocking James back and causing Madam Pomfrey and the Doctor to rush forward and usher her back down. "You what? Ow, ow, now look what you've done," she grumbled as she was lowered back down.
James looked a bit flustered. He ran his hands through his hair, ruffling it up. "It was nothing, really -"
"Nah, don't listen to him Lily, it was awesome!" Peter cut in eagerly. "He was hit by a curse and he was dead, we all thought he was gone -"
"Shut up, Wormtail," James snapped.
"Yeah he was a total goner, but then Fawkes swooped in and cried on him… It was epic, Evans. Like one of those muggle movies you're always going on about," Sirius added in an animated fashion.
Remus grabbed them both by the collar and pulled them backwards. "Probably not the best time."
"But -" At a glare from James, Peter finally seemed to get the point. His objection trailed off to a squeak. "Okay."
Sirius just laughed and brushed the creases off his shoulder as soon as Remus let him go. He caught Amy's eye and even had the nerve to wink before saying, "Can you believe it, Evans? He gets into one fight and the crazy sod goes and gets himself killed."
Remus went to grab him by the hair this time, but Sirius sidestepped his attack and slipped around to stand by the Doctor. He casually leant on the alien's shoulder, brazenly antagonising Lily.
"Padfoot, come on," James hissed, somewhat desperately.
"What is he talking about, Potter?" Lily demanded.
"Oh, we're back to last names. Right, that's not a good sign…"
"James."
"Okay, fine! I may have been hit by a curse," he finally admitted.
Lily went to sit up again, and this time no one was quick enough to restrain her. "Hit by a curse?!"
"It's not like you can speak!" James shot back, gesturing at her singed uniform. "Nice hole in your jumper."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's not even the same thing and you know it -"
"It kind of is the same thing, actually, Lily," the Doctor tentatively interjected, and the couple immediately stopped their bickering to stare at him. He swatted Sirius's arm off his shoulder and told them, "You were both hit by curses and you're both extremely lucky to be here. James didn't die, technically – phoenix can't bring people back from the dead, they're not quite that talented – but he came extremely close. As did you. And as such, I think it's extremely important that you both get some rest. Madam Pomfrey, where do you want them?"
"Hospital wing would be best," the nurse replied. She held up a thick, leather bound book. "Would you mind terribly if I took this one with me?"
The Doctor swiped the book from her hands, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and ushered her to the doorway in one smooth move. "I would, unfortunately, as humans aren't meant to have this knowledge for another four hundred years. Sorry, Poppy."
The nurse was disappointed, but allowed herself to be lead into the hallway regardless. "You two be careful making your way up there. You're going to be sore for quite a few weeks," she called over her shoulder to James and Lily.
"Don't worry, Madam Pomfrey," the Doctor assured her, "We've got stretchers."
James immediately refused. "I'm not lying on a stretcher!"
"Oh yes you are," Amy asserted, getting the portable trolley from the cupboard the Doctor had just opened. "Look at your leg, you're lucky you made it into the TARDIS."
James tried to hide his bloodied leg beneath Lily's bed. "Really, it's not necessary, I'm totally -" Halfway through his denial, Sirius tapped the back of James's knee with the toe of his shoe, and he collapsed. He clutched for something to hold on to, grabbed the edge of Lily's bed and nearly toppled them both.
"Ow, James!" she cried, trying to roll to the other side to keep the bed weighted down.
"Okay," James sighed, managing to get back to his feet. "I'll lie on your stupid stretcher. Merlin."
"You're never going to live this down," Sirius promised, grinning evilly as James gingerly sat on his own wheeled bed.
"I know," James muttered. "Can't a guy catch a break? I did just come back from the brink of death, you know."
"And the more you remind me of that, the closer you come to returning there," Lily said.
Amy tried to turn her laugh into a cough and failed miserably, and soon everyone was laughing along with her. With everyone conscious and relatively unharmed, the Death Eaters rounded up and the Daleks sent into the void, it looked like things were wrapping up quite nicely. Except for the fact that Amy still didn't know how they were going to get back to their own universe.
[[…]]
While Lily and James were levitated to and settled in the Hospital Wing, the other Marauders – along with all the students who had participated in anyway over the course of the day – were sent to their Common Rooms to be given a brief run down of the afternoon's events by their Prefects. Dumbledore was consulting with Madam Pomfrey about the best way to care for those who had been injured, and River was reading a bedtime story to little Ariel, who was propped up on three pillows and had a bowl of rainbow coloured ice-cream in her lap. Amy hoped it was an appropriate story being told; one with no guns.
With everyone else occupied, Amy had a rare moment alone with the Doctor.
"Doctor," she asked, leaning against the wall beside him, "Are we still stuck here?"
"Hm?" He didn't appear to have heard her. He shook his head to get rid of his vacant expression.
Amy followed his gaze to see that he'd been watching James; the boy had pulled his bed right over next to Lily's, and the two of them were now holding hands atop their bedcovers. It was a nice sight to see, after everything they'd been through. And seeing them like that triggered Amy's memory, too.
Totally forgetting her earlier line of questioning, Amy pulled the book the TARDIS had given her from her pocket and showed it to the Time Lord. "Look what I found in the TARDIS library."
The Doctor's eyes widened at the sight of the book. He took it from her hands, thumbed through the pages – probably speed reading the entire novel – and then smacked himself in the face with it repeatedly.
"Oh, stupid Doctor, stupid Doctor," he muttered. "Of course, how did I not see this? Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, urgh."
"See what?" Amy asked. "That we've fallen into a fictional dimension?"
"It's not fictional though, Amy, that's the thing," the Doctor said, tapping her on the top of the head with the book. She scrunched her nose up in distaste but he didn't seem to notice or care. "It's fictional in our universe, sure, but here – well, this is all real, isn't it? You should know, you've been living it."
"Yeah, but I mean -"
"It's real, Amy," he cut her off, eyes boring into hers. "It's real, and we've changed the course of history."
"The course of the books, you mean," she corrected.
"In a way, I suppose," he admitted. He tutted and gave her the novel. "Have you shown this to anyone?"
"Uh." She bit her bottom lip. "It might have fallen out of my pocket in the fight. And the Marauders might have seen it."
"They saw it?" The Doctor pushed his fringe back off his face and paced forward a few steps before turning back and repeating the path again. "Did you tell them anything about it, anything at all?"
"Um… No, not really," Amy lied, twisting her fingers together. She added in a hurried mumble, "Just that Harry was James and Lily's son."
"You what? Amy! You can't just go around telling people their futures -"
"Sorry, I was under a little bit of stress at the time if you hadn't noticed," she snapped, folding her arms over her chest.
The Doctor sighed. "It's alright. At this stage they were always going to stay together anyway. I suppose telling them they have a son can't be any worse than blowing up half their school. Although technically you are responsible for both those things…"
"Shut up."
Before their bickering could escalate, Dumbledore joined them. He looked over the rim of his half moon spectacles at Lily and James, and then back to the Doctor.
"Unless I'm mistaken, you'll be leaving us shortly," he stated.
To Amy's surprise, the Doctor didn't disagree. He just gave the professor a proud smile that reached his old eyes. "Humans," he said quietly, "Never fail to surprise me."
"What?" Amy asked, "What do you mean, 'leaving shortly'?"
"The crack, Amy," the Doctor said simply. When she gestured that she was going to need more information than that to understand, he elaborated, "We re-opened the link between worlds. It's funnelling enough energy from our own dimension through for the TARDIS to resume working. We've got an hour, and then that crack's going to close and everything will be back to normal."
"One hour…" Amy breathed.
The Doctor talked over the top of her. "Well, I say normal. I don't really know about that. I suppose things will be as normal as they ever are at a magic school."
Dumbledore smiled fondly. "Thank you for your help, Doctor."
The Doctor looked almost offended. "Help? If it weren't for me you wouldn't have been attacked, half your school wouldn't be in ruins -"
"Voldemort was looking for a reason to attack. If it weren't you, he would have found some other excuse. And if you hadn't been here, we would have been annihilated by the Daleks," Dumbledore said sagely.
The Doctor opened his mouth to respond, decided against it, and just sighed thoughtfully. "I suppose," he eventually conceded.
"Now, I'll let you say your goodbyes," the Headmaster of Hogwarts said. "But before I go – here. To help you feel better."
He pulled two purple cardboard packets from the pocket of his robe. Amy took the oddly shaped box he held out to her, and read the words Chocolate Frog on the front.
"Chocolate?" She asked, quirking a brow.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "It's the next best thing to ice-cream, Miss Pond."
With one last smile, he left the Hospital Wing, humming a jaunty tune as he went.
[[…]]
The corridors leading to the Gryffindor Common Room were empty. The figures in the portraits, however, more than made up for the lack of students. As Amy and the Doctor made their way up to the tower they were chased by figures running from painting to painting, asking questions about the battle and their identities and what that loud noise they'd heard was. The Doctor wanted to stop and talk to them, but Amy was progressing steadily upward with a single minded determination that made him wary of leaving her alone.
"Amy," he said as they stepped onto a staircase that swung out beneath their feet and connected them to precisely the landing they'd been hoping for, "Are you alright?"
"Fine," she said, but she refused to meet his eye.
It wasn't in this Doctor's nature to press people to reveal their deeper, darker emotions. He preferred the happy side of things, the one were everyone was bright and good. But he knew – perhaps more than anyone – that it was impossible to be like that always, and that sometimes sadness crept in with a stealth that was almost overwhelming. He tilted his head, trying to catch Amy's eye. "Really?"
She finally looked at him, and he saw confusion in her hazel eyes. "One hour and we're leaving here forever. Less than that, even."
He nodded, because what else was there to do?
"It just… It's a lot, you know. To come here and find out that magic's real, to meet all of these amazing people and then just… leave. I mean, we're not even going to help them clean up," she said.
He laughed once, humourlessly. "That's what we do, Amy. We don't stay for the clean up."
"Coz the clean up's the boring bit, right?" She teased.
His next smile was much more genuine. "Exactly. And who needs boring when you have a TARDIS?"
He meant that entirely – boring was not the type of the thing the Doctor ever enjoyed. Hogwarts, however, was about as far from boring as you could get. He didn't want to let Amy know, but he was even more fascinated by this world than she was. If he could have, he would have stayed for much longer, studying Lily and James and the mechanics of the dimension at large. As it were, fate had decided that he'd had time enough in the Wizarding World. This foray to the Gryffindor Common Room, he felt, was to be his last.
When they climbed through the portrait hole, they were met with rapturous applause. A blonde girl threw her arms around Amy with a level of enthusiasm far too high for a stranger, and the Doctor was immediately pounced on by Sirius.
"What's all this for?" he asked, gently pushing the boy away.
The crowd of Gryffindor students calmed slightly, quietening down in order to listen to what they had to say.
"It's for you!" Sirius crowed, stepping up onto the arm of the nearest chair to address the room at large. "For the heroes of the day!"
"Heroes of the – what are you talking about?" The Doctor was suddenly feeling flustered with all those bright, young eyes focused on him.
"Aw, don't be modest," Remus said from the chair, behind Sirius's legs.
"I'm not being modest," the Time Lord started to say, but Amy shushed him.
She'd disentangled herself from the blonde, and they were now standing side by side. Her eyes sparkled mischievously as she said, "Doctor, if they want to praise our heroic efforts we should let them."
"Yeah!" Peter agreed, nodding enthusiastically from the front of the crowd. "If it weren't for you who knows what those alien things would have done."
There was a cheer for that, and the Doctor was certain he was blushing now. His hands instinctively found their way to his bowtie, which he straightened as he cleared his throat.
"Well now, I think you're all underestimating just what a hand you had in this," he said. Confused murmurs rose from the students, and he held up a single finger to silence them. "If a single one of you hadn't cooperated, and hadn't been willing to trust a practical stranger – that's me, in case you were wondering – then my plan never would have worked. The portal wouldn't have reopened, the Daleks wouldn't have left, and the Death Eaters would still be here. So, really, I think you should be applauding yourselves."
The Gryffindors didn't need to be told twice. A great round of applause broke out and lasted for quite a while as the students clapped and cheered and patted each other on the back, toasting imaginary glasses and boasting of their conquest.
A first year boy broke off from the group and tugged on the Doctor's trouser leg. He looked down to see a small, round face peering up at him, freckles smattered across the nose and cheeks. "Professor Doctor," he said in a small voice, "Are they gone forever?"
The Doctor crouched down to the boy's eye level. For the briefest of seconds he considered warning the boy; telling him that the Death Eaters were far from done, that the worst was yet to come and he was going to have to live through the First Wizarding War. Of course he couldn't do that, though. Ignorance was a bliss that the Doctor could no longer afford, and so he looked to ensure that other people retained their own. He simply smiled and said, "The Daleks definitely won't be coming back."
That increased the celebratory mood in the Common Room, and when Sirius broke out a stash of some contraband drink – "Firewhiskey!" he shouted as he thrust a cup in the Doctor's face – the party really got started.
As the students broke off into their own friendship groups around the room, the Doctor and Amy found themselves sitting on the couch by the fire, sandwiched between Remus and Sirius. Peter was sat in the armchair to their right, but the Doctor found that he couldn't meet the boy's eye.
"So, what now?" Remus asked, and Amy turned to him in confusion.
"What do you mean?" she asked, taking a swig from Sirius's cup.
He snatched it back off her and elaborated, "You know, what now? Obviously You-Know-Who isn't going to be happy about being beaten, and you said that portal thing's still open above the school, yeah? So what's gonna happen now?"
Amy deflated, sinking back into the soft couch cushions. "Oh."
The Doctor took it upon himself to answer the question, dropping his voice low so no other students would overhear them. He wanted to tell them everything, right then and there, about the books and what was going to happen to them, but he knew that he couldn't do it. "The Death Eaters will be back. But you're better prepared, now. You know how they fight, you know how to fight them."
Sirius skulled the rest of his drink and slammed the cup down on the end table beside the couch. "Great."
"And you'll help us, right?" Peter asked.
The Doctor looked directly at him for the first time all night, and found himself at a crossroads. He stood and clapped a hand onto the boy's shoulder, talked directly to him. "Peter," he said seriously, "I won't be here to fight every battle with you. There are going to be some fights that are all your own. Those are probably going to be the toughest of all. Just try to remember who you are, okay? Remember who your friends are."
Peter looked utterly bewildered, but he nodded anyway.
"What was that about?" he heard Sirius murmur behind his back.
At the same time, Amy gave an exaggerated cough and said, "Ahem, Doctor."
"Ah, yes!" He sprung up, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "We'd better be getting back to the TARDIS, Amy. Lots to do."
She stood slowly, and the Marauders followed suit. Without warning, Amy threw her arms around Sirius and Remus and hugged them tightly. "Thank you," she murmured into Remus's shoulder.
The two of them awkwardly patted her back, exchanging glances behind her head.
"You're right, Scottish Lily," Sirius said, patting her roughly on the back.
When she pulled away, her eyes were dangerously glassy. The Doctor swept in and draped his arm around her shoulders, steering her towards the door.
"Thanks for your help, boys. Couldn't have done it without you," he called as they climbed into the portrait hole.
"Thanks Doc!" Sirius called out. "We'll save you some firewhiskey for tomorrow night."
The Doctor kept his arm around Amy as they emerged on the other side. She didn't say a word, but she did snuggle closer into his side, slipping her arm around his waist as they made their way back downstairs, away from the Gryffindor Common Room.
[[…]]
A good hour had passed since the Doctor and Amy had disappeared through the portrait hole, and Sirius was only just acknowledging the sinking feeling in his stomach. He stared at the fire dancing in the hearth and said, "You know, I don't think they're coming back."
Remus swore under his breath beside him.
He turned to his friend with wide eyes, startled by his reaction. "Calm down mate. They were a bit weird, but I'm sure we'll be able to find someone crazier to become friends with," he joked.
Remus shook his head, and he wasn't joking at all when he said, "They've definitely gone. And we forgot to ask them about the book."
That was unfortunate.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Sirius tried to ignore the anxious feeling clawing at his insides. He took another swig of fire whiskey to dampen it. "Well, I guess we're not meant to know the future."
Peter and Remus raised a toast to that, and the three boys made a silent agreement to not talk about it again. The possibility that book had presented had been too tempting, and with it gone they'd only torture themselves by thinking about it. Sirius certainly wasn't going to waste the best years of his life worrying about a future that was going to come whether he wanted it to or not. Nothing he could do about it now.
He leant over the arm of the couch and called to the girl who'd practically tackled Amy earlier. "Hey, Marlene, you should have seen the way I took out those Death Eaters today!"
a.n. ergh i'm so, so sorry for the delay, as always. this year has just been spectacularly busy because i'm moving to north america in january (i'm australian) so i've had a massive amount of stuff to organise for that, as well as finishing my final year of uni, and yeah it's been a bit stressful. but i finished an exam today (my second last one EVER that's right guys one more exam next week and then i graduate from my degree, awyeaahhh), came out feeling alright, and smashed out this chapter.
one more to go (and i actually mean it this time, there really is just one more chapter) and this story is finished.
i'm sorry if there's typos, i haven't edited it. even though i know i should and i'll probably come back tomorrow and make changes, i'm too excited to get this chapter out to you. so yeah. i hope you enjoy it and please review, i love hearing from you!