Part Three
Who you gonna call?
The Doctor lay flat on his back, gasping for breath even though it was technically impossible for Time Lord's to become breathless. The whole respiratory by-pass system very nicely looped around that problem. No, the Doctor simply loved the feeling the oxygen rich air of the Earth's atmosphere gave his already buzzing head. Bouncing to his feet, the Time Lord twitched his bow tie straight, it was a bright blue today, and tugged his tweed jacket on properly. A quick check of his limbs and extraneous parts and the Doctor was bouncing out the doors of the TARDIS only to stop in horror.
He was in the house. The Weeping Angel house, and there were two very big, piles of stones and dust on the floor. Two Angels had escaped and it would be too much to ask if the other two were still stuck in an unfortunate biological limbo. The words he'd left Sally Sparrow, so long ago now, were still scrawled darkly against the ancient plaster, and the Doctor raced downstairs, flying in leaps and bounds down the stairs towards the basement. He had Angels to check on.
The Fourth stared miserably into the mirror that the investor had dropped in shock. It was staring at itself, directly in the eyes and none of its brothers had bothered to help it, too frightened of being trapped in a similar manner; day in day out, staring at its own, terrified, angry face. A flicker of movement at the corner of the Fourth's eyes had its straining to see what had come now, hope, a strange and foreign emotion for any Angel, flaring behind his stone eyes.
"Well at least one of you is still trapped." A familiar drawl said. "But where is the third? And what could kill two Angels?"
The Fourth froze, even more than it already was. The Doctor had come.
"Well, I'm hardly going to interrupt you, am I?" The Doctor was grinning and amused. While that voice, that old/new voice was clearly so very pleased to see his predicament. Fury filled the Angel.
'Doctor!'
A voice whispered in his mind, a voice filled with hate, with anger and with frustration.
"Oh." The Doctor drawled, his voice elongating the sound until it became a sigh, "a telepath."
'See what you have done! Do you see what I have become? I stand here; day in day out, trapped by my own gaze like a child!'
The Doctor reeled back, the heavy handed telepathic waves clobbering him over the head. Oh yes, there was no choice but to leave the Angel where it was, it was very definitely angry and the Doctor hardly wanted to be sent back to nineteen-sixty something. Still, the moon landing had been pretty brilliant.
"Right!" The Doctor said, decided. "I'll be off, leave you to your staring competition." The Doctor backed away, sliding up the stairs to the first floor.
'Doctor!' The scream of rage followed him, echoing like a clanging bell inside his head.
The First darted into the room that the Doctor had scrawled graffiti in, and grinned viciously at the sight of the blue box. Oh, to be sure, the door was closed, but the Untouchable could open it for him. Easily. The painted blue, wooded walls were indented with six panels each, the front held a double door that, from the appearance of the joins, swung inwards, and it had a strange light bulb on its roof. The Angel ignored its surroundings as it easily picked the TARDIS up and carried it from the room. Out to the Untouchable.
The Doctor was decided; he needed to leave immediately. He had tangled with the Weeping Angels more than enough this regeneration, and he had no desire to do so again. He skidded to a halt in the room that he had once drawn all over. The words 'Duck', 'Sally Sparrow' and 'Love from the Doctor, 1969' were all that was left of the original message. The floor boards were strewn with the wreckage of the two stone statues, and covered in debris from the outside, leaves, twigs and dirt spiralling around the room as though a great wind had torn through it. And there in the middle was the glaringly obvious problem.
The TARDIS was gone.
Albus sat on a park bench in the grounds of the old manor house, it was a grand place or at least, had been once before misfortune and strangeness had struck down the family who had owned it. The once uniformly red tiled roof was now broken and cracked, the tiles hanging like broken teeth in a sore, festering mouth. The windows stood still and jaggedly in the early evening light and the trees whispered the secrets the wind told them. It was a very calm place, and had Albus been anyone else, he would have been spooked by the atmosphere. A whirlwind heralded the return of the Angel and Albus stared in surprise at the blue box that appeared with it.
"What the hell is that?" Albus asked too tired to swear properly.
The Angel was very obviously satisfied. 'This is the TARDIS, it is a time machine, a remnant of a lost age. We found it and hid it, hoping one day to open it.'
Albus frowned at the big blue box; a time machine? Really? What next, a spaceship?
"Why do you want to travel in time?" Albus asked in confusion. The Angels ringing laughter echoed in his head. Albus shivered at the malevolence. "Alright, so I got that wrong. Why do you want to open it?"
'The TARDIS has a heart of time, if We opened it, we would be able to feast for eternity and never have to kill other sentient beings.'
Albus froze in shock. "What?" He whispered.
The Angel smiled with apparent sincerity. 'You do not like to kill, but perhaps, as a human, you can open the blue box and let Us feed until the end of time. Never killing, never starving.'
Albus frowned. Surely this was too good to be true. It had to be. "No tricks right? You're not lying to me? Twisting the truth?" Albus demanded.
The Angel slowly shook its head. 'I would not do so, Untouchable.'
Not normally, anyway, the Angel thought to itself. He would not normally tell falsities but he had to lie and the Untouchable, like the rest of his foul race, only heard what he wanted to hear. That the Angel spoke truth.
"Right; good, excellent even." Albus sighed, drawing his wand and renewing his warming charms once more. Really, he needed clothes, and ASAP.
Standing, Albus picked his way through the stick covered loam and pointed his wand at the TARDIS' door.
"Alohamora!" Albus stated firmly. The door didn't open.
"Alohamora!" A voice stated firmly off to the side.
The Doctor grinned, he wasn't alone, and he really should warn the person that it was a very bad idea to come into the manor house at West of Drum-lands, a very bad idea. Jogging at a steady pace, the Doctor rounded a weeping willow and froze in shock and horror. A man stood, nearly naked, in front of the TARDIS. He was clearly trying to open it and was becoming more and more frustrated as time went by. His hair was perpetually messy and very dark and his eyes a luminous green that shone even in the half light of evening. He was tall, but not every so, probably standing at five-eleven and he was also very skinny. But what truly surprised and horrified the Doctor was the Weeping Angel that stood behind the man, one hand extended, its face a mask of glee.
"Stop!" The Doctor shouted, not taking his eyes off the Angel. "Right, back away slowly to me, and don't take your eyes off the Angel!"
The man frowned. "Who the fuck are you?"
Humans, the Doctor groaned; they always wanted to know things at the most inopportune time.
"The Doctor," he said as calmly as he was able, moving towards the man at a slow pace, never taking his eyes off the Angel and not staring into the Angels eyes.
The man's eyes lit with recognition. "So you're the Doctor."
The Doctor frowned. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" It was very impolite of him if he'd forgotten someone, and the man sounded like he wasn't actually certain what the Doctor had looked like. Perhaps his future regeneration had met the man?
"No." The man shook his head. He still wasn't looking at the Angel. The Doctor would have to blink eventually, and he really didn't want to be sent backwards in time without the TARDIS again.
"And you are?" The Doctor asked, deciding to be polite. His back was to the TARDIS now, the cool wood firm beneath his shoulder blades.
"Albus Potter." Albus introduced himself.
"A very literary name," The Doctor grinned broadly, blinking quickly to stop his eyes watering. The Angel leapt forwards, hands outstretched and clawed towards the Doctor. The Doctor didn't yelp in surprise.
"Um, sorry about the First, he really, really hates you for some reason." Albus said, staring at the Angel finally, with interest.
'The Doctor trapped us for an age; left us to stand still and crumbling, vulnerable to the weather and without food!'The First's voice roared in the Doctor's and Albus' heads, causing both men to cringe.
"You would have killed if I didn't!" The Doctor justified his actions.
"It's kind of in their nature, like a shark." Albus said his voice reasonable.
The Doctor glared at the green eyed man, before he yelled in shock as a stone hand wrapped around his throat.
"Don't hurt him!" Albus shouted, sending the Angel flying with a well-placed spell.
The Doctor gasped in deep breath of air, once again, unneeded, but certainly comforting. "Thank you." He breathed, nodding his respect at Albus.
Albus shrugged. "The First said he wouldn't kill anymore, not if I helped him."
The Doctor frowned in confusion, searching for the Weeping Angel desperately. He found it standing beneath the weeping willow, it's hands covering its eyes and wings drooping behind it. "Helped it do what?" The Doctor asked, getting a very bad feeling about the situation.
"Open the blue box. Apparently it's a time machine with a heart of time itself. If I open it, the Angel is able to feast for the whole of eternity." Albus said, he sounded excited and hopeful and the Doctor thought that the man felt he was doing the world a favour. Helping loads of people. The Doctor shivered in dread.
"No, no, no!" The Doctor said quickly. "You can't, don't open the TARDIS, don't do anything like that, and don't help Angels."
Albus took a step back, injured, "why not? I'm only helping!"
"No, no you're not. You open that door and all hell will break loose. The Angel will have enough power to turn off the sun and ravage planets. That's what it wants! It wants you to open the TARDIS; it wants to feed on the planet." The Doctor spoke very quickly and very firmly, trying to keep his eyes on the Angel at the same time.
Albus looked at the Angel, his eyes showing his betrayal. "You lied to me!"
'The Doctor lies! Always he lies. I only told the truth. Open the TARDIS, let me feast, I'm so hungry!' The Angels voice was a moan on the wind, filled with dreadful longing and hunger, and Albus shivered.
"No! I won't let you!" He shouted, pointing his wand at the Angel, suddenly sure that the Doctor was very much correct in that the Angel only wanted to destroy the whole world.
The Doctor couldn't help it, he blinked. And with vengeful glee the Angel leapt forwards once more its wings extended as if in mid-flight, and Albus yelled in shock, throwing himself backwards.
"How is it doing that?!" He yelled.
"The Weeping Angels are quantum locked the ultimate defence mechanism; statues when you see them, but if you blink, when you blink, they move." The Doctor shouted, his hearts pounding in his chest.
'You will feed me, Albus Severus Potter; you are not so untouchable that I cannot snap your neck!'
The Angels voice was wrathful and Albus whimpered in fear. He was not built for high stress situations; that had been James' field of expertise. Albus loved learning; Albus preferred a good book over running for his life and Albus was stuck in the most dangerous situation of his very young life. He wasn't enjoying himself at all.
"Untouchable? What does he mean by that?" The Doctor shouted as he grabbed Albus' shoulder unable to help blinking again. The Angel was closer again, its mouth gaping open to show a row of serrated teeth and gleaming eyes.
"I don't know!" Albus shouted back, pressing backwards into the Doctor's firm and steady hands.
'Albus Potter is unable to be eaten as We normally would. He is already displaced in time and space. But he is still vulnerable to being killed!' The Angel was less than a meter away, its face a mask of true fury and frustration.
"What do we do, what do we do!" Albus babbled repeatedly.
"What do you mean what do we do?" The Doctor yelped. "We don't blink!"
Albus turned to stare at the time lord. "Don't blink? That's all you have for me?! Don't blink?!" Albus felt hysteria rising.
"Don't look at me!" The Doctor shouted. "Look at the Angel!"
The Doctor blinked as Albus turned around; the Angel was almost touching them now, its face filled with malicious glee. The Doctor was breathing hard, he felt time closing in and splitting into two finely woven paths and he couldn't see where they were going. Albus was hyperventilating, his mind blank and completely panicked.
"If only I knew what had happened to the other two Angels!" The Doctor snarled to himself, berating himself over not trying to figure out what had happened to the two very dusty, dead and resembling-piles-of-ash Angels.
"I happened." Albus shouted as an idea struck him with the intensity of a lightning bolt. He grinned at the Angel, and the First quivered, knowing what would come next.
"BOMBARDA!" Albus roared.
'Noooooo!' The Angels dying scream tore through the Doctor and Albus like a foul wind and the Doctor stared in shock as the Angel spontaneously combusted.
"What was that?!" The Doctor demanded, shocked.
Albus couldn't help it; he keeled over flat on his back and laughed long and loud. If this is what danger and excitement it was no wonder that James and his father loved it so much. As Albus laughed the Doctor stared down at the apparently insane human and soon found himself grinning madly. He could understand the man's gleeful joy over being alive and safe. The Doctor laughed as gleefully and joyfully as Albus did flopping down next to the green eyed man with the exhaustion of one who knows they've survived the impossible.
"What did you do?" The Doctor finally asked curiously staring at his latest companion.
Albus shook his head, "magic!" He grinned.
The Doctor raised his eye brow in scepticism, "magic?"
"Yeah, it runs in the family." Albus agreed, jumping up and dusting himself off, his legs and arms were bleeding slightly from where the shrapnel of the Angel had struck him.
"Magic runs in your family?" The Doctor asked again, confused. "How is that possible? Magic doesn't exist! You're human! You shouldn't be able to manipulate matter like you just did."
"Manipulate matter?" Albus hummed, his eyes sparkling joyfully. "I'm not sure about that, science never was my strong point but magic does exist. Wizards just hide from non-magical people. We're rather good at it."
Albus was now able to observe his new friend, the danger having passed. The man was tall, topping Albus by about three inches and wore a tweed jacket with leather patches at his elbows. He wore a cream shirt striped with red and a blue bow tie. His pants were a bit dirty and his feet were shod in leather shoes that seemed to be a bit of a cross between business loafers and pointed toe Italian shoes. Fashion had never been Albus' strong point, but even he was a bit bemused by the hodgepodge the Doctor was dressed in. The man's features were a bit bemused as he stared at Albus, his kind brown eyes shining with amusement beneath his floppy mop of brown hair.
The Doctor stared. "That's, to quote a friend of mine, a bit Harry Potter-ish."
"Harry Potter-ish?" Albus asked, his stomach sinking. Was his Dad known to everyone? Even madmen in bow ties?
"You know the book series by J.K Rowling?" The Doctor said, hinting that it was a book or series known by pretty much everyone.
Albus shrugged. "No, sorry; the only Harry Potter I know is my Dad."
The Doctor blinked and then grinned disbelievingly. "Your Dad is called Harry Potter? And what, your Mum I suppose is called Ginny too?"
"Yeah," Albus nodded, turning his attention to the cause of the whole mess between himself, the Doctor and the Weeping Angel: the TARDIS. "So what, you're a time traveller?" Albus asked curiously running his hands over the tall blue doors and along the outside.
"Yep, that's me," The Doctor agreed. "So how did you destroy the Angel; because no one has been able to do that before."
The Doctor was very curious about the man in front of him; Albus Potter, a very Harry Potter name, and if the man was to be believed, he was actually a wizard. But the Doctor, in all his thousand plus years, had never actually met a wizard or witch. There were the Carrionites, but they didn't count because it wasn't true witchcraft; just a different kind of science.
"I just cast the bombarda spell. Anyone over fourth year can manage it, mind you, I'm not a very good wizard, so I wasn't sure I could manage it." Albus admitted hesitantly. It was true, magically he was a very strong and gifted wizard, but technically and ably Albus was about as useful as a first year. He had always been more interested in technology and muggles; to his Grandfather Arthur's delight.
The Doctor blinked, he wondered if this was how his other companions had felt. Doing something extraordinary and then explaining after wards that it mightn't have worked. It wasn't a very flattering image to hold.
"Would you like to see inside?" The Doctor asked, wondering how a wizard would react to the TARDIS; even if he didn't actually believe Albus was a wizard, but that was what he said he was and so the Doctor would allow it until he was able to examine him further.
Albus grinned. "Could I?"
The Doctor grinned in response to the boyish expression on Albus' face and stepped up to the TARDIS' door, unlocking it with a twist of the key. No need to be super flashy and click his fingers, he doubted Albus would be impressed anyway. With another broad grin, Albus bounded inside. The Doctor followed and watched Albus freeze.
"It's bigger on the inside." The Doctor announced in a very obvious manner.
Albus shrugged. "You should see my Dad's tent." He said blandly, unimpressed. The Doctor pouted. "But this, oh, you are beautiful!"
Albus ran his hands over the console of the TARDIS and with nimble fingers, flicked switches with care and his green eyes ran over the machine with excitement. The Doctor stared at the impossible human who cared little for him but had become beyond excited by the TARDIS. What was it that Martha's sister, Tish Jones, had called him once? A science geek? Watching Albus caress the console with soft hands the Doctor wondered if Tish would call Albus a technology geek? Probably. The Doctor grinned, suddenly realising why the TARDIS had brought him to West of Drum-lands, Albus would be a brilliant companion and friend what with Amy and Rory settling down into married life and besides, he already owed the man his life. The Doctor bounced over to the grinning green eyed man and grinned back.
"So, would you like to travel with me?" The Doctor asked.
Albus gaped and then grinned so broadly the Doctor was worried his face might split. "Yes!"
The Doctor laughed and flicked a few switches, still grinning madly. "So when are you from?"
"Huh?" Albus asked, watching the Doctor race around the console madly, flicking switches and punching buttons.
"The Angel said you were out of your time, when are you from? And how did you get to West of Drum-lands?"
Albus shrugged. "I was born in two thousand and six, and I'm twenty nine now."
"So twenty thirty-five, then." The Doctor quickly figured out. He checked his console. "It's twenty sixty-six now!"
He stared at the bemused wizard, noting idly that the man was still half-naked; he really should send him to the wardrobe so he could clothe himself.
"How did that happen?" The Doctor asked. "You went forward in time, not back."
Albus shrugged. "I have no idea. The last thing I remember was getting eaten by a Worm that came out of my computer and then ending up in a room in the house."
"Eaten by a worm?" The Doctor reiterated, not having heard the clear capitalisation on 'worm'.
"Yep, it had huge serrated teeth and my computer detected it as malware." Albus snorted. "My brother James was always telling me that my obsession with computers would get me killed." Albus laughed.
"You were eaten by a computer virus that sent you through time and space?" The Doctor asked, stunned; a Computer Virus that doubled as a Worm Hole? That was so cool!
"Pretty much," Albus grinned. "Can we go to Diagon Alley? I really need some clothes."
"Diagon Alley?" The Doctor breathed, stunned. "You really are obsessed with the Harry Potter books aren't you?"
"Obsessed?" Albus asked confused.
"Albus, if that's even your real name, magic isn't real." The Doctor said, staring deeply into the other man's eyes.
Albus jerked back affronted. "Yes it is! Take me to Charing Cross and I'll show you Diagon Alley. It's a brilliant place."
The Doctor sighed, knowing that Albus was bound to be disappointed. With a shove of the hand break, the Doctor sent the TARDIS flying through the time vortex and in less than three minutes was parked on Charing Cross road. Albus made for the doors immediately.
"Hey! You can't go out wearing nothing!" The Doctor yelled at the retreating wizard. "You'll freeze!"
"Warming charms, Doctor, I'll be fine." Albus replied loftily. "Although I may garner a few strange looks," He muttered under his breath.
Charing Cross was business as usual, insanely busy and bustling with the pre-Christmas rush even though it was early November according to the Doctors scanners. Albus and the Doctor elbowed their way through the crowd, Albus' green eyes searching for the Leaky Cauldron which should be around here somewhere. After nearly an hour of walking up and down the street, Albus was beside himself. Where was it? Surely they hadn't moved it?
Biting his bottom lip nervously, a habit Albus had tried to break but failed in, Albus drew his wand and caste a discrete point me spell. The wand spun on its axis but never settled. The Leaky Cauldron didn't exist. Close to hyperventilating Albus caste a second spell, this time searching for the Ministry of Magic. The spell failed again. Wide eyed and terrified at being stranded, Albus caste another spell, this time searching for his family and the spell failed once more. Magic didn't exist, his family didn't exist. Albus was stranded and alone on a foreign world.
"This can't be right." Albus panted, terror clouding his eyes as he stared at the Doctor who had no idea what he'd just done.
"What's wrong?" The Doctor asked, concerned.
Albus gulped, fighting down a sense of increasing panic. "My families not here, the Ministry is gone, and so is the Leaky Cauldron! It's like Magic doesn't exist!"
The Doctor frowned, how could the man's family no longer be here?
"I searched for anything magical, the dragons, phoenixes, sphinxes, brownies, house elves, wizards, witches; magic doesn't exist!" Albus was hysterical. He was stranded on a world where magic was dead.
The Doctor gripped Albus' shoulders. "Albus calm down, you will find them and besides, maybe the spell malfunctioned. Look, come with me, we'll search them on the TARDIS."
Albus nodded and followed the Doctor back to the blue police box and entered feeling as though his whole world was crashing down around his ears. How was a person supposed to deal with being the last of their species? How was he supposed to deal with knowing that his parents and family would think he had mysteriously disappeared or died? And how was he supposed to get back home?
The Doctor tugged a piece of hair from Albus' head, ignoring the protesting yelp, and quickly analysed it, raising his brows at the high content of Dark Matter in the man's body, which was probably what allowed him to manipulate the world around him. A quick search of the world had the Doctor acknowledging that, yes; Albus was the only wizard, if that was truly what he was. He certainly wasn't human anymore; there was too much biological change, as though he had been completely warped and changed beyond what he had originally been. Which made sense if he had been shoved through a Worm Hole otherwise known as the Vortex, but Albus was also soaked in Void stuff; the Doctor stared at Albus in floored amazement.
"You've jumped parallels!" He exclaimed.