Camelot, 957 AD
After the short trip to the Crystal Cave, the TARDIS rematerialized inside of Camelot's throne room. As soon as the Doctor and Hermione exited the old, blue box, Ginny came rushing into the room, dragging a sleepy Harry behind her. "I thought I heard the sounds of TARDIS flight," Ginny told her father.
"I was just giving Hermione her first lesson on how to fly the old girl," the Doctor said, telling his daughter a half truth. He looked around the room and then walked over to a cord attached to a bell. Pulling on the cord summoned a pair of servants. "I'm sure the King has given you orders to keep an eye on me, so go wake him and the others. Tell them it's time for me and my friends to be going," he instructed. The servants bowed deeply and ran off to the King and Queen's quarters.
After a few minutes, the throne room was packed with members of the royal court, the young Founders, and the knights who were currently in residence. Once they were all assembled, Sirius walked slowly to stand before the thrones where Arthur and Guinevere were seated. Sirius wore his black leather armor and held his staff in his right hand. He bent down on one knee and addressed his king. "My lord, I beg your leave to travel with Merlin," he requested formally.
Arthur reached out and gripped his knight's shoulder. "Not just with my permission, but with my blessings do I grant you leave, my Black Knight," he replied. Before letting go of Sirius' shoulder he added, "But remember, you shall always have a home at Camelot should you and the lady you hope to find in the future wish to return."
When Arthur let go of his shoulder, Sirius stood up and whispered a heartfelt, "Thank you, my king."
Arthur turned in his throne to face Harry and Ginny. He motioned for them to approach. Once they were in front of King Arthur, Harry knelt on one knee while Ginny remained standing. "Sir Harry, your godfather has told me of the world you are returning to. A world I must say sounds quite disturbing," he informed Harry. "With that said, I still feel as though the people of this island will always be my responsibility. Even though by that time I will be long dead, I expect you to represent my justice and mercy to a land in dire need of both," Arthur commanded.
Harry bowed his head deeply to Arthur. "I will do so, my king," he promised.
Guinevere looked coyly at Ginny. "Take care of our young knight, Lady Ginny. I expect to hear reports that Merlin has been graced by grandchildren eventually," she said sweetly. She watched as the Doctor fought to control his facial expressions at the mere thought.
Arthur chuckled and waved Harry and Ginny to the side. He took his queen's hand and they stood together as the Doctor and Hermione approached the throne, indicating a meeting of equals. Arthur reached out to grasp the Doctor's forearm. "As always, I will miss your council while you are gone, Lord Merlin," he told his friend. "Now more than ever seeing as you are taking with you the wizard I had filling in during your absence," he added.
The Doctor looked over to the where the young founders stood along the wall. "I think you will find I have left you four equally capable replacements," he replied. "I have it on very good authority that they will be almost as famous as I am in the Wizarding world," he confided.
At an unspoken signal from the Queen, Arthur took Hermione's hand and led her to say her goodbyes to Lancelot and the Founders. Guinevere looked sadly into the Doctor's eyes. "I was able to figure out when you are in your personal Timeline from things the 'older' Lady of the Lake has told me," she whispered. Without warning, Guinevere stepped forward and gave a comforting hug to the Doctor. "Be brave, old friend," she whispered in his ear.
After the queen let go, the Doctor tried to read what she knew by her facial expressions. In the end, he gave up and just asked, "What are we talking about here?"
Guinevere forced a smile on her face. "River confided in me why she insisted on being called 'the Lady of the Lake'," she told him. "She said it was a form of penance," she added.
The Doctor nodded his head once and walked towards the TARDIS, not wanting to discuss his death further. "All right, time to go everybody," he called out. While Ginny and Harry led Sirius to the TARDIS, the Doctor watched Jack pull Lancelot behind a tapestry for a final snog. "Jaaaack," the Doctor sighed loudly.
Jack walked out from behind the tapestry with a smile on his face. Once he stood next to the Doctor, Jack turned around and saluted Lancelot who had just come out from behind the tapestry, adjusting his casual court attire. Lancelot returned the salute with a smile.
Hermione was the last one in the TARDIS and she closed the doors behind her. She walked up to the control panel to watch how Ginny and the Doctor went about inputting the coordinates for their next hop. "Back to the Burrow?" she inquired.
The Doctor stopped suddenly and faced Hermione. "Not quite," he replied. "I have to make a really short stop on the way there and pick up an old friend before we head back to the Burrow," he explained.
********DrW********
London, April 2011
The Companion the Doctor had referred to paced back and forth in the dark attic. He had reached a strange point in his life. For once, he had no idea what he was going to do. As long as he could remember, he had always had a mission, a purpose. Recently, the woman he had been tasked with protecting for so many years had finally succumbed to an enemy he couldn't fight – cancer. With her gone, he had to make a decision about what he should do next. Her son had moved off to University and the Companion didn't much fancy hiding out in a closest for most of the time while Luke got an education. Maria had moved to America. Rani had accepted an internship with UNIT, and the Companion didn't want them taking him apart to see what made him tick. Clyde annoyed him almost as much Mickey Smith did, so moving in with him was definitely out of the question.
His ears began to move back and forth as the Companion sensed a disturbance in the temporal fields near him. Though he would never admit it, equal parts of electricity and relief flowed through his circuits when the familiar form of the TARDIS materialized in front of him. The door opened and in the dim attic, the Doctor seemed to be surrounded by a glowing light as he stood in the doorway. "I need your help. I need you to protect the woman I love," the Doctor pleaded.
"Affirmative, master," the old Companion replied. He hovered a few inches above the ground and flew back into the TARDIS. His antennae like tail wagged in joy over having a purpose again.
The Doctor looked over to the faux fireplace on the far wall. "Mr. Smith, tell the others where K-9 has gone, won't you?" he requested.
A second computerized voice replied from the fireplace, "I will do that, Doctor."
The Doctor smiled fondly as he watched his old friend hover into the TARDIS to be greeted by the shocked stares of the wizards and witches. He sighed in relief as he shut the doors, thankful that he would have someone who could look after Hermione in regards to the Silence so he could focus on defeating the Valeyard. With a clap of his hands, the Doctor spun around and announced their newest passenger. "Everybody, I would like you to meet my dog… K-9," he said proudly.
Harry, Sirius, and Hermione continued to stare at K-9. "You have a robot dog?" Harry managed to ask.
"Of course I do," the Doctor replied. "Real ones leave messes," he added.
********DrW********
Malfoy Estate, Wiltshire 1997
Lucius Malfoy crept nervously through the halls of his family manor. His nerves were beyond frayed after what he had just witnessed and being called into report to the Dark Lord had almost pushed him over the edge. He stopped in front of the dark oak door leading to what had used to be his study before Voldemort had taken up court there. As his hand started to descend onto the door to knock, he heard his master's voice from inside. "Come in, Lucius," Voldemort called out.
Lucius swallowed hard and turned the knob. He slowly opened the door to see his lord's giant snake, Nagini, holding her triangle shaped head a meter above the ground. She stared into his eyes with intelligence far beyond what one would expect in a normal snake. Lucius was the first to look away, his skin growing cold. Satisfied with her show of dominance, Nagini lowered her head and slithered to wrap herself around the feet of the high backed chair Voldemort had placed in the center of the room. Once his gaze was free, Lucius looked around the room and saw a miserable looking Bellatrix Lestrange standing off to one side. She was forced to stand since Voldemort had removed anything else to sit on save his own chair.
"I'm beginning to wonder what has happened to my fearsome Death Eaters since my little accident with the boy," Voldemort said thoughtfully.
"My... my lord, I'm not certain what you mean," Lucius stammered.
Voldemort gently stroked Nagini's head before speaking, letting Lucius squirm in the awkward silence. "First Bellatrix fails to stop the boy and the Doctor inside the very Ministry of Magic which now belongs to us and you return empty handed after I sent you on a very simple errand," he scolded, his voice never rising above a conversational tone. "Why have you returned alone, Lucius?" he inquired. "I told you to bring back Dolores Umbridge and have her explain why she has hasn't answered any of the Floo summons from our puppet, Minister Thicknesse," he reminded the pale wizard. Voldemort shifted in his seat to get a better look at Lucius as the man grew even paler, something the Dark Lord didn't think was possible.
"Umbridge is dead, my lord," Lucius managed to choke out. Bile threatened to force its way into his mouth as he remembered what he had found at her home.
"I did not give you permission to kill that toad of a woman," Voldemort hissed angrily. "Explain yourself, Malfoy," he demanded, his grip tightening on his wand.
Lucius walked across the room to a black marble pensieve on a pedestal. "I do not have the words to explain what I saw, my lord," he said, his voice shaky and uneven. He tapped his temple with his wand and drew out the silvery memory tendril of his visit to the Umbridge house. Flicking his wand, he cast the memory into the pensieve. With a hiss of annoyance, Voldemort sprang from his chair. He roughly shoved Lucius out of the way as he submerged his face into the pensieve.
Voldemort traveled just to the right of and slightly above his servant Lucius in the now shared memory. Lucius had just apparated into the street in front of a garishly painted pink house with white gingerbread molding. Malfoy stormed towards the house with a swish of his robe, only to skid to a stop as his magical senses failed to register some of the wards he had erected for the house. Lucius drew his wand and muttered, "INCANTO REVEALIUS." He stared intently at the glowing glyphs that appeared and hovered in the air in front of him. Roughly half of the wards looked like they had not been triggered yet the other half had been shattered completely. Lucius found himself at a loss to come up with any way something like that could happen.
Voldemort watched as Lucius disarmed many of the wards still left, allowing only the ones keyed to those bearing the Dark Mark to stay in place. He cautiously approached the house, his wand at the ready. When he reached the front door, he found that it had been forced in rather than magically unlocked. Voldemort noticed that there were four deep gouge marks on the doorframe as they entered Umbridge's home.
The first thing Voldemort saw once inside the home was the pink paisley wallpaper that ran from floor to ceiling. Long shelves holding painted plates graced every wall. Each plate had a different picture of either a cat or kitten on it. As he looked around the room slowly, Voldemort saw several full water and food dishes, but no signs of any of the numerous cats Umbridge was known to own. His attention was drawn to the sitting room when he heard Lucius vomit forcefully. Voldemort stepped into the room and paused the memory to give him time to examine everything.
Like the rest of the house, this room was decorated with the plates and pink wallpaper. Much of that wallpaper was stained red with the blood that appeared to be splattered everywhere. Glancing upwards, he saw the spray patterns that could only come from arterial spurts. Voldemort stepped around a large, pink pillow covered in blood and gore that had been left in the middle of the room. He paused for a moment and then knelt next to the "pillow" when he realized it was Umbridge's torso in the tacky pink business suit she always wore. Her arms, legs, and head were missing.
Voldemort stood again and followed Lucius' gaze to a spot behind a couch under the large bay window. Umbridge's skull rested on the floor just behind the couch. The left half of her face was completely removed and Voldemort could see the clear signs that something large had been gnawing on it. Stepping closer, he was able to recognize the unique, narrow bite marks of a weevil. Stepping back in surprise, Voldemort looked at the room even closer. He walked around the room twice more, but found no other parts of the late Dolores Umbridge. "At least I know what happened to her cats," he muttered.
With a gasp, Voldemort withdrew his face out of the pensieve. "That was truly hideous," he muttered.
Lucius nodded in agreement. "I can't believe the opposition would stoop to killing Umbridge like that or had the magical talent to crush some of the wards and sneak past the others," he stated.
Voldemort gave Lucius a withering glance. "I was referring to the wallpaper," he told him. "And you're wrong, that wasn't the work of the boy or his supporters," he stated, not realizing it had been Jack who had sicced Janet on the unpleasant woman. Voldemort went back to petting Nagini before speaking again. "It would seem as that horrible toad of a woman somehow drew the attention of a weevil," he said as if that explained everything.
Lucius was very confused. "A weevil…" he repeated, never having heard of such a creature. "What type of monster is that?" he inquired.
Voldemort turned his snake like face towards Lucius. "A weevil is a visitor to this dimension from somewhere quite a bit less hospitable I would presume," he replied. "It is that otherworldly nature that I believe let it walk through Umbridge's defenses as if they weren't there," he lectured. "The last I knew, there were only a handful of them on Earth, so Umbridge must have been an extremely unlucky woman to run into one," he said. The corner of Voldemort's mouth quirked upwards in a half grin. "Or perhaps the beast was just passing by, saw the wallpaper, and simply wanted to do its host planet a favor," he joked. Lucius looked like he was about to be sick again at the memory of what had been done to Umbridge.
Voldemort shifted in his chair to stare at Bellatrix. "Now that we know Umbridge had the only excuse I will accept for ignoring a Floo message from my liaison, perhaps you would like to explain your failure at the Ministry," he suggested.
Bellatrix took a hesitant step forward. "Master, there was no way I could have known that the boy and his friends would rather commit suicide than face us," she stated, defending herself. "At least now you don't have to worry about any of them," she added hopefully.
Voldemort rubbed his face where the bridge of his nose would have been. "They are not dead. They are simply some other place in Time," he sighed as if trying to explain something to a very dense child. Bellatrix blinked a few times while she cocked her head to the side in confusion. Voldemort shook his head in disgust. He doubted that they would be able to grasp the concept that the Veil the Wizarding world had used to execute wizards and witches was actually an ancient Time Travel device developed by the Time Lords. "I'm sure the Doctor is working on a way to return the present as we speak," he sighed wearily.
A true smile spread across Voldemort's face as he realized the most powerful pieces the other side had were temporarily off of the playing board. "I will give you a chance to redeem yourselves," he told his servants. "Take all of the Death Eaters you can summon in half of an hour and attack the hovel of that irritating Weasley family," he ordered. He felt even more pleased with himself when he realized his daughter, Ginny, wouldn't be any when or where near there and safely out of harm's way. Just to be sure, he added, "Oh, and remember my orders concerning the Weasley girl. If any of you so much as harm a single hair on her, I will peel your skin off and keep you alive, suspended in a bath of lemon juice for many… painful years."
********DrW********
The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole
Lady Vastra prowled the cornfields that surrounded the Weasley family home. She had volunteered to keep watch on the perimeter of the Burrow due to her training and skills as one of the Silurian warrior caste. Though she was too far away to properly see, the pit organs on either side of her nose picked up the heat signatures of at least 30 humanoids suddenly appearing. Vastra looked over to the tall, leaning house and shouted out in her native language.
Jenny was standing in the open doorway at the front of the Burrow. Her lover was out in the cornfields keeping this interesting group of people safe. The time she spent here with them had made her change some of her thoughts about men, specifically that they were all crude animals deserving of nothing more than hate. She now believed that there were a few diamonds in the rough of manhood. Arthur Weasley had been more than generous in opening up his home to her and Vastra. The tall, skinny man known as Remus Lupin treated her and her reptilian, lesbian lover with even more kindness. Jenny had been so shocked by his behavior; she had actually asked him about it. Remus had given her a somewhat sad smile and told her he knew all too well what it felt like to be treated differently and shunned because you were different.
Jenny was musing over these thoughts when she heard the sibilant hisses of Lady Vastra. Though she couldn't reproduce many of the sounds, Jenny understood spoken Silurian perfectly. After hearing Vastra's warning, Jenny ran to the stairs and yelled, "Everyone up, we're under attack!"
Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange stood side by side as the rest of the Death Eaters fanned out to either side of them. Lucius waited to attack until he was able to make out the red hair of the Weasleys as they piled out into the front yard, their wands at the ready. "The Dark Lord has decreed that the Weasley family shall be an example to the rest of the Wizarding world to show what happens when someone harbors the boy or his friends!" he called out. Bellatrix hopped up and down excitedly and clapped her hands.
Arthur glared into the dark cornfields and tried to guess where Malfoy was. He thrust his hand forward, giving Malfoy a vulgar hand gesture. Molly placed her hand on her husband's arm and lowered it. Arthur looked sheepishly at his wife. "Sorry," he muttered.
Molly smiled at Arthur. "That's quite all right, dear," she replied. With her next breath, Molly stepped forward and gave an equally rude hand gesture. "Get bent, you ogre buggering bastards!" she screamed.
Lucius smiled and gave the order to destroy the Burrow. The combined force of that many blasting curses at once broke through the Burrow's wards and slammed into the top level, shattering it. Debris rained down, causing the New Order of the Phoenix to scatter. The Death Eaters sent forth another volley and managed to ignite the top levels of the ancient home.
The Death Eaters were so focused on first blasting away the wards and then picking their individual targets, they didn't notice their numbers were ever so slowly starting to dwindle. The last Death Eater on Lucius' side was yanked off of his feet from behind and drug into the corn rows without a sound. The next dark wizard in row slumped forward when Vastra's tongue slammed into his neck, the neurotoxin in her venom paralyzing him.
As the Order members scrambled for cover, the Death Eaters broke apart to follow and kill their quarry. Curses and hexes flew everywhere as the Order did their best to fight back. The din of the battle was so loud that none of the participants heard the TARDIS landing square on top of Molly's vegetable garden.
The TARDIS opened and the twins stuck out their heads to see where they had landed. They gave each other a high five when they saw the Doctor managed to squish the vegetables on this landing. Their merriment ended when the orange and yellow light of the Burrow on fire drew their attention. "Noooo!" they screamed in unison. The occupants of the TARDIS raced out to join in the battle.
Molly Weasley squared her shoulders in defiance when she ended up being cornered by three Death Eaters. One of their hexes had gotten through her shields and knocked her wand out of her hand. The Death Eaters laughed as they closed in on her. "No one here to save you, filthy blood-traitor," one of them said as he leveled his wand at her chest.
A metallic sounding voice coming from behind him interrupted the Death Eater. "That is an incorrect statement based upon faulty information gathering skills," it chided him. The Death Eater spun around and froze when he saw a metal dog floating a few feet above the ground. A red beam shot from K-9's nose and stunned the Death Eater before he could say another word.
The second Death Eater facing Molly experienced a sudden excruciating pain in his leg as Ginny kicked through his knee, snapping his leg in several places. She grabbed his wand arm and wrenched it upwards. Ginny followed through with a punch into his armpit that shoved his shoulder out of socket. She finished venting her anger at seeing someone threaten her mother by grabbing the dark wizard's head and pulling it down into her knee as she drove it skywards. Letting the unconscious enemy slip to the ground, she watched the remaining threat against her mother be thrown into the cornfield as Hermione shouted, "STUPEFY!"
Hermione continued to run towards Molly, but changed course when K-9 suddenly dropped to the ground. "K-9, did you get hit?" she asked as soon as she knelt down next to the robotic dog.
"Negative, mistress," K-9 replied. "Massive distortions in the quantum fields in this area is causing fluctuations in my phasic processors," he explained. The Doctor's dog knew he would be no use to anyone if he allowed his processors to fry, killing him. "Shutting down to prevent catastrophic failure of my neural network," he announced and then went silent. The red lights of his eyes faded as he shut down.
Hermione knew that technology rarely worked within the presence of magic. It was only the fact that Time Lord technology was so far advanced and as Clarke put it, "Indistinguishable from magic," that allowed the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to work. She guessed that K-9 must have been put together using less advanced technology. Standing, Hermione frowned as she saw how many Death Eaters there were. She pocketed her wand and drew out the sonic pistol that Jack had given to her. Hermione was able to pull the trigger and move onto another target far quicker than the wand flicks and verbal incantations necessary for spells took. She vowed to take up Jack on his offer to teach her how to shoot as it often took two or three shots to strike her targets. Jack joined her in shooting, his pistol having recharged during their trip to Camelot. Eventually they ran out of targets on their side of the home.
Lucius hung back from the fight, disturbed at how things had changed. From out of nowhere, help had arrived for the Order and had managed to turn the tide. Deciding he could blame this failure on Bellatrix somehow, he turned to flee. Malfoy froze as he looked at the reptilian woman standing behind him, her sword drawn, the tip hovering a hair's breadth from his throat.
"The only thing keeping you alive right now is the Doctor's request that I not kill anyone," Vastra hissed at Lucius. She glanced down at the wand Lucius was still holding. "However, he did say that if it came down to it, I could use deadly force to defend myself or someone else," she said slowly. Lucius wisely kept his wand pointed at the ground.
Vastra stepped closer to Malfoy, always keeping her sword ready to separate his head from his shoulders. Eventually, her mouth was next to his ear. "Before you leave, I want you to understand one thing," she told him. "If you ever attack my friends again, I will have you for dinner… and I do so love white meat," she promised and let her forked tongue slide across his pale cheek, tasting him. Satisfied Lucius had gotten her message, Vastra stepped back and moved her sword away slightly. He took the opportunity she granted and apparated away.
On the other side of the Burrow, Tonks knelt next to a wounded Remus as she examined the large tear in his leg. A piece of wood from the exploding Burrow had embedded itself in his thigh. She had managed to stop most of the bleeding, but Remus was unable to walk. Ace stood next to them, doing her best to blast anything that popped its head out of the cornfields surrounding them. Ace's "wand" spun out of her hand as a crazy sounding voice yelled, " EXPELLIARMUS!"
Bellatrix skipped happily towards Tonks, Remus, and Ace. As Tonks reached for the wand she had put down to tend to her husband's wounds, Bellatrix flicked her own wand and sent Tonk's skidding out of her reach. "How sweet," Bellatrix taunted as she pointed her wand at her enemies. "My master will be so pleased with me when I tell him who I got to kill tonight," she told them. "It's too bad my dear Muggle loving cousin couldn't be here to see me kill his remaining Marauder friend and the woman he loved," she pouted.
Tonks bent down to cover her husband's body with her own when a dark shape leapt out of the cornrow nearest them and sailed over her head. A huge black dog with blood dripping from its jowls landed in between Bellatrix and the Order members. The dog let out a warning growl that left no room for interpretation.
Bellatrix stared at the dog I horror. "No… it can't be. You're dead. I killed you!" she complained loudly and stomped her foot in frustration. The dog replied by growling even louder. Bellatrix's eyes widen in fear and like Lucius she turned around to flee. Her path was blocked by the strange man she had witnessed dancing with the mudblood at Hogwarts' Halloween ball. A man her master referred to as "the Doctor."
Despite herself, Bellatrix took a frightened step backwards. The cold, powerful look in this man's eyes was identical to the man she loved with all of her heart and soul. She understood now why Voldemort had told them not to underestimate this so called, "Doctor". Bellatrix gain controlled of her fear and smiled at the Doctor. "Perhaps you are a worthy adversary for my master," she said sweetly.
"Wrong Time Lord," the Doctor scolded her. "I suggest you leave before you find out why I am called the 'Oncoming Storm'," he suggested, fighting to keep his anger in check. Bellatrix took another step back in fear, unable to look away from the cold eyes that were the same as her lord's. This Doctor was even able to put the same hint of devastating power into his voice that Voldemort did on a regular basis. Without a word, Bellatrix apparated back to Malfoy Manor, grateful to have survived the encounter.
The large, black dog snorted dismissively once towards where Bellatrix had been standing and turned around to face Tonks, Remus, and Ace who had dropped to her knees in shock. Remus was the first one able to find his voice. "Sirius… is it really you?" he begged. In answer, the black dog walked towards him, lifted his leg, and peed on the shoe of Remus' good leg. Remus burst out laughing in joy. "It is you!" he exclaimed through his pain.
Sirius walked over to Ace. She grabbed a hold of Sirius and buried her head in his fur, sobbing in relief. Sirius shifted form and knelt next to Ace in his black leather armor. He lifted Ace's chin up gently to look at him. When their eyes met, Ace threw her arms around his neck and kissed him with all of the love they shared. Once they finally had to stop for air, Ace looked over Sirius' shoulder at the Doctor. "Thank you, Doctor," she said softly, every word full of love and gratitude. She had decided on using the name he preferred to go by as a show of respect.
Sirius suddenly leaned away from his fiancé and spun to look at the Doctor. He pointed a finger at the man he knew as Merlin. "That's your Doctor?" he asked in disbelief.
Ace smiled broadly at the Doctor. "Yep, that's my Professor, all right," she assured Sirius before kissing his stunned face again.