Chapter 7 TARDIS Chat

The trio followed Jack, Taal and the Doctor through the dungeons and out into the main part of the school. They had several close calls, one with Mrs. Norris and one with Filch, but they managed to escape both time. Taal extinguished her wand after being told the proper spell by Hermione, and they crept out onto the side lawn of the castle. They snuck past the Weeping Willow, and nearly got caught by Hagrid and Fang as they returned from the Forbidden Forest.

Taal, Jack, and the Doctor managed to duck behind a tree at the edge of the forest, but Harry, Ron and Hermione weren't so lucky. Fang had caught their sent, and now he was sniffing around their feet.

"What're you doing, Fang?" said Hagrid. "There's nuthin' there, y' silly mutt." He grabbed Fang by the scruff of the neck and swept a meaty hand though the air. Harry, Ron and Hermione managed to duck at the last second, Hagrid's hand missing them by less than an inch. "See? Nuthin' here." He hauled Fang away toward his cottage, the dog whining and trying to scrabble back towards them. Hagrid muttered to himself as he walked away. "Silly dog. Barking at thin air, you're going soft, Fang. Nuthin' there at all."

Taal breathed a sigh of relief. While she doubted that Hagrid would have gotten Harry in trouble for being out of bounds, not if he told him that he was going to see him, but he wouldn't have put it past Ron to rat Taal, Jack and the Doctor out and get them in trouble. Once they were out of earshot of Hagrid and Fang, Taal softly called out to them. "Are you alright?"

Harry pulled the cloak off of his head, exposing Ron and Hermione's heads as well. "We're fine. Lucky that Fang didn't notice you guys."

"Lucky that Fang didn't notice me!" chuckled Taal. "I think that he would have had a field day chasing me, but it would have put something of a damper on our plans."

The others chuckled as well, and Harry pulled the hood of the cloak back on. They forged on though the forest, Taal wincing every few steps. While Harry, Ron and Hermione seemed to make a decent effort not to step on every other twig in the entire forest, the Doctor and Jack seemed rather bad at it. "Can't you two be a little quieter?" hissed Taal.

The Doctor shrugged and whispered a hurried apology, but Jack ignored her and seemed to step on even more twigs. Soon, Taal simply lost her temper.

"JACK!" she said as loud as she dared in the forest. "Just stop. Look down, and try not to break so may twigs. Do you want EVERYTHING that's hungry in the forest to come after us?"

"Calm down." Whispered Jack. "Sorry, I'll try. No need to yell."

Taal shot him an annoyed glance, but continued on. Soon, the TARDIS loomed in the gloom.

The Doctor sighed, and opened the door. It was still pitch black inside, but as he stepped further inside, the gloom lightened somewhat. Once he pulled the glowing crystal from his suit pocket, however, the interior brightened to its normal illumination. He walked over to the grill that he has helped Taal pull up, and replaced the crystal in its slot. The TARDIS began humming softly, and the Doctor knew all was back to normal.

Taal was already sitting on the pilot's chair, her long legs straight out in front of her, her feet on the console. Jack leaned on the railing near the door, and shut it behind harry, Ron, and Hermione as they entered the room. Ron and Harry seemed almost nonplussed at the fact that it really was bigger on the inside, but Hermione's mouth gaped open. "It really is bigger on the inside- that's amazing!"

The Doctor chuckled slightly, but still seemed slightly worried that this young witch seemed to know almost as much about him as he knew about her universe. She seemed to know exactly who he was, and where he came from. She even knew what the TARDIS was, even though he'd never been in this universe before.

"So, Miss Granger, how do you come to know how much about us?" he said, leaning up against the console and folding his arms across his chest.

"I told you!" she said, still looking around in amazement. "I watch Doctor Who on TV. Though you don't look anything like the last Doctor. What regeneration are you on? Nine?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Ten. Funnily enough, I know all about you because you're in books… and in movies."

"We're in books?" exclaimed Harry. "Then… do you know how… our story ends?"

The Doctor regarded him sadly, his face serious. "Yes, Harry, I do know how it will end."

Harry regarded him hungrily. "Tell me! Do we win?"

The Doctor slowly shook his head. "I would have thought that from your dislike of Divination you would not want to know the future. Or at the very least, understand the danger of knowing the future. I can't tell you what will happen, Harry. You have a long road ahead of you. You'll lose a lot, but… it'll all turn out for the best."

"For you and the Death Eaters? Or for us?" accused Ron.

"I thought that we already established that I wasn't Barty Crouch!" exclaimed the Doctor, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "I'm not even human!"

Harry's head whipped around. "What do you mean, you're not human? Of course you're human, you look human!"

"Harry," said the Doctor. "Does this look like human technology? Does Taal look human? I may look human, but that's not true. You look Time Lord. We came first."

"Time Lord?" scoffed Ron. "That's a pit pretentious, don't you think?"

"It's what my race is called- Time Lords. Because we can travel in time, and change things. That's why we're not leaving right now. Because the TARDIS is part of events now, and we're involved. We need to stay here and make sure that events happen as they should." The Doctor regarded Harry. "Which is why we're going to stay here in the TARDIS until the end of the school year and you are going to go back to the castle, get a good night's sleep, and start working towards the third task."

Harry nodded, still not completely convinced. "Oh, and Harry?" he turned. "Trust Moody. Don't tell him about us, because Dark Mark or not, he'll come after me."

Ok, that's a bald faced lie, but I can't let him know who Moody really is, or Voldemort won't come back like he has too. The Doctor thought, then continued.

"But trust him. He'll help you. He already has."

Harry put his cloak on, and soon Hermione and Ron vanished along with him. The TARDIS door opened, then shut again, apparently under its own power. Taal hopped down from the seat, and walked up to the Doctor.

"Will he be ok?" she asked, her voice soft.

"I hope so." Said the Doctor. "This little trip has become a lot more dangerous. We're in even more danger now, especially since Snape is bound to tell Mood about us, and we're interfering in very set events. This is risky, Taal."

"Riskier than normal."

You're welcome for the new update. I'm still working on other stories (A Doctor Who/Artemis Fowl crossover, and I will be working on a Doctor Who/Hunger Games crossover) but updates will be coming regularly. I'll have at least on update per story per week, so don't worry too much.

As always, READ AND REVIEW, PLEASE!