"Hullo, ladies. Done quibbling?" I asked, sliding onto the bench between Colin and Sam. Colin made a rude gesture tempered by a grin.
"Sorry," Sam said sheepishly. "Mycroft just really gets under my skin, you know? Swear it won't happen again."
I rolled my eyes and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's alright, mate. So, must be a pretty drastic change, moving to England and then coming to Hogwarts? Did you know you were a wizard?"
"Hard not to," Sam responded darkly. "My father was big on making sure we knew everything about keeping ourselves safe if there's ever another war—he only moved to America when Mum got pregnant with me. Actually, this class will probably be a review."
"Ooh, I hope not! Reviews are boring!"
We all jumped at that. The Doctor bloke, our professor, was standing right behind us with a huge, daft grin on his face. "Hi, I'm the Doctor!"
"Bloody hell," Colin muttered.
"Good morning, sir." I said politely, stomping on Colin's foot. "What will we be studying in class?"
"I was going to spend the first half of it making sure you all get to know one another. Inter-House rivalry is pointless and rather stupid, don't you agree? So very human. You're all brilliant, so why fight so much?"
"Sir… Aren't you human?" Martha Jones asked.
"I'm a Time Lord," He replied happily.
There was a quiet scoffing noise, and the entire room turned to stare at the Gryffindor girl responsible. "Time Lords are a bedtime story. They died out centuries ago, in the Great Purge. Azazel and his demons destroyed them, at cost of their own existence." She explained.
"Well, that's a lovely bedtime story," Colin muttered.
"I heard much the same growing up," Sam agreed, meeting the girl's eyes. "I'm Sam, by the way."
"Quinn," She smiled.
"Yes, well, some of us escaped," The Doctor said.
"It's true," Arthur Pendragon added. "Father insisted that we get the Time Lords to work for Hogwarts."
"Smarmy pureblood gits," Quinn retorted.
The pale boy sitting beside her laughed quietly—Merlin; I remembered him from the Sorting.
"Shut up, Merlin." Arthur snapped.
"Forget inter-House rivalry," Martha said. "They're going to kill one another all by themselves."
"Sorry," A short blonde Gryffindor boy said slowly, "What's a Time Lord?"
"Someone explain it to the muggleborn," Arthur said dismissively.
"Oi!" A redheaded Gryffindor girl said sharply. She sounded rather Welsh, and high pitched. "You say that like it's a bad thing, blondie!"
"I vote we lock all the Gryffindors in a room and see who comes out alive," Colin said.
"My money's on Quinn," I offered.
Quinn looked surprised. "Really?"
"You've challenged both the headmaster's son and the professor in the past five minutes alone."
She shook her head and pointed to the blonde muggleborn boy from Gryffindor. "John would win. He's like a tiny little ball of evil." She assured me.
"I'm not tiny!" John snapped.
I had to agree—he was my height, after all. "Maybe you, John, and… Sorry, what's your name?"
"Donna. Donna Noble," The ginger Welsh muggleborn said.
"Quinn, John, and Donna," I said firmly.
The Doctor had gotten rather involved in listening to our conversation, and finally seemed to remember he's supposed to be teaching us, because he jumped a little and regained our attention.
"Well, I'm going to team you up and teach you the most basic defence spell—well, the most useful basic defence spell—which disarms people. It's really good, because humans sometimes try to hex first and ask questions later."
"You mean expelliarmus?" Sam said. "Isn't that a bit dangerous? It can really cause damage if someone gets thrown back."
He shrugged out of his brown coat and threw it over his desk, then pulled a strange looking wand and waved it around. The desks disappeared, replaced by cushions.
"Merlin's pants!" I squeaked, then glanced apologetically at Merlin. "No offence," I added.
"None taken. Mum says it a lot, though usually in reference to the laundry."
Everyone dissolved into laughter, even Arthur Pendragon.
"See? Cushions make everything better. Well, unless you're a transitive shape multiform. Okay! Rory Williams and Molly Hooper, you two work together. Amelia Pond and Sam Winchester. Martha Jones and Gwaine Moon. Tarquinia Finnegan—"
"Quinn!" Quinn piped up.
"Quinn Finnegan and Colin Caraway. Theodora Miller and Merlin Emrys. Arthur Pendragon and Donna Noble."
I crossed the room to smile at Merlin shyly.
"Right, everyone! The spell is expelliarmus. Expelliarmus. Expelliarmus."
"We get it!" Quinn said, and we all laughed again.
The Doctor sniffed and straightened his well-fitting blazer. "Well," He said. "Go on, try waving your wands, say it. It'll take a few tries."
I turned to Merlin. "Ladies first," He said hastily.
Grinning, I shook my head. "Sorry, mate. Purebloods go first."
"Expelliarmus," Merlin tried half-heartedly.
"Come on, mate, you're brilliant. Just put some feeling into it!"
He shrugged. "It seems a bit useless, saying incantations."
"Why's that?" I asked, confused. Merlin sighed, tucked his wand in his back pocket, and lifted his hand. "Merlin—"
I was cut off rather abruptly when I was tossed backwards like a ragdoll. My wand flew from my hand and landed at least 3 metres away, at the Doctor's feet. He looked down, then at me, and finally his gaze came to rest on Merlin.
"What?" He said, shocked.
Merlin shuffled his feet awkwardly. "Yeah…"
"What?" The Doctor repeated. "WHAT?"
"I can do magic without a wand or words. Have done since I was a baby—I just can."
"That's impossible," The Doctor breathed.
Quinn snorted. "Bit rich, coming from a bleedin' Time Lord."
"I'm good with the whole Time Lord thing, but warlocks are a myth," Arthur said.
"Sh, sh, shh." The Doctor snapped. "Merlin, did you incant a spell in your mind? When did you come to be able to do that outside times of dire need? How long did you say you've been able to do this? Have you ever studied silent spell-casting?"
"No, when I was seven, my whole life, and no." Merlin said, ticking them off a mental list. I'm only a Halfblood, but even I whistled long and low in appreciation. That takes some serious inherit ability.
Sam turned away from Quinn and stared at Merlin. "Was your father a warlock? What do your parents do?"
"We raise dragons… Legally!" He added, when Arthur started to say something. "It's one of the last dragon reservations in Wales."
"Dragon Lord," The Doctor breathed. "You're the son of a Dragon Lord! I've always wanted to meet a Dragon Lord!"
"You're such a girl," Arthur said, rolling his eyes.
"Do you mind me asking—what's it like, being around dragons?" Molly asked.
"It's brilliant. My favourite one is a Hungarian Horntail, kind of a gold colour, named Kilgharrah. He's watching this egg—on of the last of the Frost Dragon eggs in the world. We're pretty good friends, I guess, but he can be rude."
"You can talk to dragons?" I gasped.
He shrugged, self-deprecatingly. "It's genetic."
"Dragon Lords, Time Lords, we get it, you're ah-mazing. Can you teach us how to defend ourselves now?" Donna interrupted.
Even the Doctor joined in the laughter this time.