The List of the Dead

'Of course, you regenerated! And you stayed the same!'

'Not exactly. I now have a small mole on my left ear.'

'Yes, but you didn't completely change!'

'Well, I couldn't just leave you, could I?' She smiled and got up from the floor. 'I've already taken Bree from you.' There was an awkward silence.

'Yes, well. I've got you now, haven't I?' said Luke. Roda grinned.

'Yes, you've got me. And Time Lords kiss so much better,' she said, and she kissed him hard on the mouth.

A few seconds, or maybe even minutes later, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione burst through the door. They broke apart abruptly.

'Nice to see you're celebrating,' said Ron. Luke quickly removed his hands, which had somehow travelled to Roda's waist.

'We were celebrating a resurrection,' said Roda, smiling.

'Of what?'

'Love.'

o0o

The Doctor wiped his hands on his trousers and moved on to his next patient. Leaving the kids to get rid of the Sontarans, he decided to live up to his name and help the fallen. Nothing could be done for those who'd been hit by the Sontaran's guns, but many were injured from the falling buildings and the starting explosions.

Even though he was surrounded by death, and that made him feel angry and depressed, he still had a little fluttering feeling of happiness under his ribcage, somewhere between his two hearts. His sister, his little Roda, who he'd thought was dead along with the rest of his family and race, was alive and happy and somewhere in the vicinity. Well maybe not happy, but most definitely alive and somewhere in the vicinity, unless she'd run away to Brazil or something.

Just then a third year burst into the barely standing building they were using to house the wounded.

'The Sontarans! They've all just died!'

'What?'

Everyone, except those on the floor, writhing in pain, ran outside to see.

'What actually happened?' the Doctor asked the third year.

'Their guns didn't work, and then they backfired and killed themselves!' The ground was littered with dead bodies, the majority wearing black armour.

'What do you think happened?' Everyone was asking each other. The Doctor grinned and said under his breath,

'I think Luke and Roda happened.'

He saw Harry and Ginny meet with Ron and Hermione, before running off towards the main ship. The Doctor went back inside, remembering he still had patients to attend to.

o0o

'How many dead?' asked Roda gravely. The others looked down.

'Almost three quarters of the village, and lots of students have been found,' Ginny gulped, 'dead, and quite a few are MIA. They think loads of people will be buried underneath fallen buildings.' Luke felt immediately bad. Here he was, feeling happy, when loads of others had died! Including Bree…

'Bree, are you OK? You look different…' Hermione gave Roda a piercing look.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' she said, winking at Luke. 'In fact, I feel better than ever. I feel like a whole new person.' Luke snorted and had to pretend he'd sneezed.

'Bless you,' Roda said, smirking.

'We should go back to the castle,' said Harry. 'Help get the bodies of students back…'

'Good idea,' said Ron, and they all trudged off, not very excited at the prospect of carrying their dead housemates and fellow students back to Hogwarts. As they walked, Luke felt a hand slip into his. He looked at Roda, who smiled and squeezed his hand.

'I'm sorry,' she whispered.

'For dying on me and scaring the life out of me? Or for… you know…'

'Both,' she said.

'Don't worry about it. We've got much worse things to worry about now. And you're still kind of the same person, just…'

'With an extra heart?'

'I was going to say different, but what ever you say, oh Time Lady.'

Roda laughed, and whacked his arm.

'Shhh, they'll hear you,' she whispered into his ear, making it tingle as he felt her breath on his cheek. His smile faded when he saw the destruction of the village. There wasn't one building left fully standing, and the ground was littered bodies, not all Sontaran.

'Oh dear,' he heard Roda say, but before he had time to say anything the Doctor came rushing up.

'Luke, Ro…' Luke shook his head warningly at the Doctor. 'er, Bree! You stopped them!'

'Oh yeah! Course we did!' said Roda, and she held her hand up for a high five. Luke slapped her hand. 'We make quite a team.' If the others noticed the Doctor's slip up, they didn't mention it. Luke thought he saw Hermione's eyebrows travel a few millimeters up her forehead, but the others seemed to be preoccupied.

'If you're not busy, I think Hagrid needs help in the Three Broomsticks,' said the Doctor, and he gave Roda a quick one-armed hug once the others had turned.

'You regenerated?' he asked in a whisper.

'Yup. Slight issue with the Sontarans, but, unlike you, I can still choose what I want to be.'

'What's different?'

'I have a small mole on my ear.'

'You and Luke worked things out?'

'We've got passed a few obstacles, yes. I'm sorry I had to kill the Sontarans, I should have given them a choice, but there was really nothing else I could do…'

'Don't worry about it. They overstepped the mark. I understand.' The Doctor walked quickly back to the wreck of Honeydukes, and Roda stood there, feeling the guilt that had been gnawing at her insides lessen slightly. Then she saw Luke running back over, and it almost faded away completely.

'Are you coming?' he said loudly. The he whispered, 'What did the Doctor say?' Roda felt little shivers running down her spine.

'Just wanted to know why I regenerated.'

'Oh.' Luke looked a bit guilty.

'Don't worry about it,' she said, putting her arms around him. 'I knew what would happen, I told you to do it.' He returned her hug and Roda felt herself melt into his arms, but the moment was broken by a very annoying red-head.

'Come on guys, we've got to hurry!' Ron shouted over his shoulder.

'Coming,' said Roda, and she gave Luke a quick peck on the lips before breaking away, grabbing his hand and running after the others.

'The Three Broomsticks caved in, and they think loads of students are trapped,' Ginny told them.

'At least it kept them safe from the Sontarans,' said Harry darkly. 'You know, I never thought I'd ever see something worse than Death Eaters.'

'Never forget the size of the universe,' said Roda lightly, and Hermione looked at her.

'How did you know about the Sontarans earlier?' she asked shrewdly.

'Oh, err, the Doctor told me about them,' Roda said quickly. Hermione looked appeased by this knowledge, and turned away.

'Nice save,' whispered Luke. 'Are we ever going to tell them?'

'As soon as this is all over,' sighed Roda. 'No doubt they've lost loads of school friends today; I don't want to take Bree away from them as well.'

'When you tell them, I'll be there,' Luke promised. Roda felt a little bit better. But her mouth dropped open when she saw the Three Broomsticks. Or rather, what was left of it.

'That's… a lot of rubble,' said Ron. A few wizards Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny recognized from the Order of the Phoenix were picking their way across the rubble, searching for people underneath. Hagrid was also there, heaving the rubble around, making it look effortless.

'Let's go and help,' said Ginny, dragging Harry over. They all started to pick their way across the heap of rubble that was The Three Broomsticks.

Remus Lupin came over towards them.

'Harry! I'm so glad to see you're all ok. Your mum was having kittens!' he said to Ron and Ginny. They both groaned. 'Oh, hello. Sorry, I don't know your names,' he said to Luke and Roda.

'This is Luke, and that's Bree,' said Harry, 'They joined our year in the middle of last term.' Lupin shook their hands. On touching Roda, however, he gave a little start.

'Sorry, static shock.' He withdrew his hand rather sharply and looked at it. 'Hmm. Well, I better teach you the spell we're using to find them under the rubble. You wave your wand like this,' he demonstrated the sweeping motion, 'and say the words, Homenum locatus. Got it?' and with that he left, still rubbing his hand and sending strange glances at Roda over his shoulder.

They all began to cast the spell while walking slowly over the rubble. Luke made his way over to Roda.

'What was that all about?' he asked quietly, nodding his head towards Lupin.

'I think it was excess energy from my regeneration. I didn't use much, because I didn't really change much, you see?' she asked Luke nodded.

Hermione squealed suddenly. Her foot had slipped on a loose rock and she fell onto another large, very sharp, rock. She bit her lip to stop herself from swearing, and she tried to get back up. Unfortunately, her ankle seemed to have sprained, as it would not support her weight and she sank back down onto the rubble.

'Hermione!' Ron hurried over and helped her up. Harry started over too, when a shriek from Ginny made him stop.

'I… I think I've found someone!' She looked rather pale. 'I think they're…' she gulped, 'that they're… dead.' A few Order members rushed over and began to scoop up piles of rubble with their wands. Ginny was now completely white, her face contrasting oddly with her hair. Harry went over and caught her before she hit the ground as the body was discovered. Ron and Hermione gasped. It was Luna Lovegood, and she was dead.

As the day progressed, more and more bodies were found. It was soul destroying work, and only three people out of the twenty-five that had been in the Three Broomsticks were still alive. Roda found the first one. Shouting over to the others, she started to excavate the body. Neville was dragged out and presumed dead when all of a sudden, he began to cough and splutter, moments after Roda had freed his leg. Luke looked suspiciously at Roda. She looked tired and ill.

'What did you do?' he asked.

'He wasn't quite gone, so I used some of my regeneration energy.' She looked terrible, ashen-faced and worn out. 'I couldn't with Luna. She was already dead.'

A girl was found in the bathroom, who had been saved by the harder tiled walls and ceiling. The Hufflepuff, Megan Jones, was inconsolable at the death of her friends, Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones, who had stayed at their table, and were found dead a few minutes later.

'So many people have died,' whispered Hermione, 'they're making a list and it just goes on and on.'

'We have to keep looking,' said Roda forcefully. 'I think that there are still some people trapped.'

'And we should find the bodies,' said Harry, looking sad, 'so we can return them to their families.' Ginny put an arm around his shoulder and Harry leant into her, screwing his eyes shut with pain.

'Is your scar hurting, Harry?' asked Hermione, looking concerned.

'I think Voldemort's found out about this. He wants to attack, while we're recuperating.'

'Brilliant, just brilliant,' groaned Ron. 'That's just what we need.

'Go and tell Dumbledore, Harry,' said Hermione. 'We'll stay here.'

Harry nodded.

'I'll come with you,' said Ginny quickly, and they set off towards the castle.

The searching continued. Those who couldn't perform the spell or who were still too much shock to do any magic helped out with the injured. Ron grinned over at Neville who seemed to be enjoying the attention he was getting from Megan Jones.

'At least someone's having a nice time,' he said, before turning back to excavating, with a slight grimace on his face.

Luke wandered over to the list tacked up on a half-destroyed wall, which used to be Honeydukes. A long list of names was on the sheet, a list that kept growing. Luke picked out a few names he knew from his year, Steven Cornfoot, Padma Patil, Su Li, Kevin Entwhistle, Tracey Davis, and Morag MacDougal. A few other names from other years he recognized, but as he hadn't been at the school for very long, he didn't know many others. Even as he watched, more names appeared at the bottom of the list.

Terry Boot

Daphne Greengrass

Draco Malfoy

Roda came over.

'It's terrible, isn't it?' He nodded, mutely.

'Yes.' He said. He couldn't quite bring himself to say anything else.

'Do you know what the worst thing is?' she asked, looking at him sadly. He shook his head. 'It wouldn't have happened if I had never come here. It would have been better if I'd died at Gallifrey. It's all my fault.'

AN: Sorry about the long wait. Please review!