Chapter 20

12 Grimauld Place

Hermione popped into the Black Mansion inside the large drawing room on the main floor that had been designated as the apparation point. When she regained her senses after the magical teleportation, she saw an unusual sight. Sirius and Remus were laying on the floor in opposite corners of the room. Sirius was sporting a black eye and Remus had a bloody nose. Ace was tending to Sirius' injuries while Tonks was tending to Remus. A flash of gold caught Hermione's eye and she saw Slytherin's locket untouched in a blackened and burnt circle on the floor.

Harry and Ginny walked into the drawing room carrying bags of ice from the kitchen. Ginny rolled her eyes as she passed Hermione and gave hers to Remus. Hermione grabbed Harry's arm as he walked past on his way to Sirius. "What's going on here?" she demanded.

Harry nodded towards the burnt area on the floor. "We learned the hard way not to touch the locket with our bare hands or try to destroy it with blasting spells," he replied. "How are your parents?" he asked, changing the subject but obviously concerned for her sake.

Hermione's fists clenched in anger as she thought about the Death Eaters led by Draco Malfoy who had attacked her home.
"They're safe. Draco led a small group of Death Eaters to destroy my home, capture and torture my parents, and generally be the stupid gits they always are," she told him. "Mother and Dad took out Draco's team and the Doctor arrived right before they could finish off the Ferret-that-bounces," she complained. After a moment, Hermione forced down her anger. "Good news is that my parents will be staying here for the foreseeable future," she stated happily. She always missed her parents while she was away at school.

Ron walked into the room munching on a sandwich. He said something through his mouthful of food that no one was able to understand. Hermione glared at him and exclaimed, "Honestly Ronald!" She held up her hand to indicate he should stop and ordered, "Chew... swallow... and then try that again."

Ron chewed for a few moments and then swallowed the large mouthful. "What I said was Dad is going to drive your parents barmy with all of his Muggle questions," he repeated.

Hermione looked around the room and noticed who wasn't present. "Speaking of which, where are your parents, Vastra, and Jenny?" she inquired.

At that question, Ron put down his sandwich, suddenly no longer hungry and his face took on a slight greenish tint. "Vastra set up a room in the basement with a bunch of fake rocks and heat lamps she brought back from the Silurian base we dropped the Carrows off at," he said. "She mentioned it had been a long time since she had a full relaxation room set up and invited my parents to join her and Jenny in stretching out on the warm rocks," he explained.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Hermione stated.

Ron closed his eyes and forced away the mental image that was tormenting him. "Vastra mentioned something about the room being 'clothing optional'," he managed to say.

"The Doctor told me a bit about Jenny's history, so you should consider it a compliment to your father that she and Vastra feel comfortable enough with him to be naked in the same room," Hermione informed him.

Ron looked immensely relieved when the sounds of the TARDIS' return filtered up through the floorboards. "Sounds like your boyfriend and your parents are home," he yelled out, grateful for the change in topic.

The room was quiet for a few minutes while the group waited for the others to come up the stairs from the basement / dungeon. Fred, George, and Prof. McGonagall were the first ones up. When Harry, Ginny, and Hermione saw her, the younger Gryffindors rushed her and folded the usually stern teacher in a tight, three way hug. Once they realized what they had done, they stepped back from the Head of their House. "Sorry, Professor," Hermione mumbled.

McGonagall reached out her hand and stroked first Hermione's and then Ginny's hair. With her other hand, she ruffled up Harry's eternally messy hair even more. "I love you too, my brave Lions," she whispered. This earned her a second hug which she gladly returned. When they stepped back a second time, McGonagall saw Sirius sitting on the floor next to Ace. True to form, she merely raised an eyebrow as she said, "Sirius, I'm glad you seem to have recovered from a bad case of death." This caused everyone in the room to chuckle.

The Grangers were the next ones up the stairs and into the drawing room. Hermione stepped away from McGonagall and led her parents further into the drawing room, taking care to avoid the locket on the floor. "Everyone, these are my Mother and Father, Amy and Rory Granger. Mother... Dad, I would like to introduce you to some of my friends," she stated. "The man over there with the bloody nose is Prof. Remus Lupin and the woman holding his head is Auror Nym... uh... Auror Tonks-Lupin. We just call her Tonks," she said, remembering at the last moment how much Tonks hated her first name.

Remus chuckled through his pain. "For pity sake, Hermione, I haven't been a Professor for a long time. It's just Remus now, remember," he teased. He glanced up at Tonks and smiled. "Careful, Hermione, my lovely wife might have been forced to drop my head onto this hard floor and hex you had you said 'Nymphadora," he laughed. To prove his point, Tonks slid her legs out from under Remus's head, letting his head hit the floor with a loud thud.

Tonks stood up and walked over to the Grangers. She extended her hand in greeting. "Pleasure to meet you two," she said and shook both of their hands.

Amy smiled warmly at Tonks. "Likewise, Hermione has told us a lot about you," she said. "This may be a bit premature, but whenever you might feel like a break, Rory and I would absolutely love to babysit for you," she offered. The procedures done to Amy at Demon's Run had left her unable to have anymore children. She knew her special Roman loved children and they would both jump at the chance to sit for Hermione's friends.

Tonks smiled back at Amy and took her hand and placed it on her belly. "Thank you, Amy. That means a lot to me," she said. Tonks smirked as she added, "However, you might have to set up a schedule with Vastra and Jenny. Vastra said something about the child being under the protection of the Silurian warrior caste even if it has the poor taste to be born a male."

Tonks stepped back as Hermione continued with the introductions. Hermione pointed at Harry and said. "You already know Harry."

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," Harry called out as he waved with his free hand. He was holding the ice pack to Sirius' cheek while Ace kept him propped up.

"Hello, Harry. Nice to see you again," Rory replied with a wave of his own. Ginny stepped up and walked over to the Grangers. "And I remember you, you're Ginny the youngest Weasley," he stated, offering his hand to shake.

Ginny shook his hand and had a playful grin when she replied, "Not really. My name is Ginny Weasley, but I'm actually older than the twins and Percy." She paused and then added, "I was adopted by the Weasley's."

Amy frowned as she looked at the young woman. "Why do you look to be about Hermione's age then?" she asked.

Ginny's face broke out in a broad smile that was eerily familiar to Amy. "I'm a Time Lady. The Doctor is my biological father," she replied. Ginny let out a snort of laughter as both Amy and Rory's heads snapped around to look at Hermione as they drew the wrong conclusion. "No... River isn't my mother, but I would be very proud and happy to have her as a stepmother," she said, testing to see how much they already knew.

Rory let out a breath out in a loud whoosh of relief. Amy swatted him on the shoulder. "Ouch!" he exclaimed and rubbed the sore spot. "What... you're obviously way too young and pretty to be a grandmother yet," he said.

Amy nodded her head in agreement and stage whispered to Rory, "Nice recovery. Somebody's getting lucky tonight."

"Mother!" Hermione screamed as her face turned bright red.

Sirius used Ace's help to stand up and he bowed to the Grangers. "I'm Sirius Black and you two are very welcome in my home," he said formally. "If you would like, I can cast some heavy silencing charms on your bedroom so your innocent daughter is not disturbed if she walks past while you two are engaged in ...umph," he stated with the last bit being cut off by a well aimed throw pillow to the mouth from Hermione.

Rory squinted his eyes as he looked at Sirius. "Hermione said you were dead," he pointed out.

Sirius gently put the throw pillow down next to him. "I got better," he replied as if it was an everyday occurrence. He wasn't expecting the look on Rory's face that seemed to imply that to him, it was a fairly common experience.

Ace was about to introduce herself, but Rory stepped up to her and held out his hand. "You're Ace, aren't you?" he asked rhetorically. "We've seen your pictures in the TARDIS," he explained, gesturing back towards his wife. Rory pulled out his wallet, took a card out, and handed it to Ace. "I'm trying to start up a support group for other prior Companions. Sarah Jane and Jo Grant have already said they would like to join. We've got tee-shirts and everything," he said excitedly, giving his little spiel while Amy rolled her eyes.

Ace stuck the card in her pocket. "Thanks, Rory. I'd like that," she stated.

The stairs to the basement creaked again as the Doctor and Jack finally made their way to join the rest of them. The two old friends were chatting happily back and forth. "I really was surprised at how little coercion it took to get the Malfoy boy to come out of that closet," the Doctor remarked.

Jack smiled over at the twins who were trying very hard not to laugh. "It's just my natural charm," he stated with a wink.

The Doctor stopped suddenly as he saw the locket on the floor. "What's that doing there?" he asked.

Ginny decided it was her turn to explain. "Remus and Sirius were examining it because everyone but me could still feel a really strong dark essence in it," she replied. "Remus made the mistake of touching it with his bare hand and started spouting a bunch of nonsense about how as a werewolf he wasn't fit to be a father," she stated. "Sirius recognized something was wrong and grabbed the locket away from Remus," she said.

Sirius rubbed the back of his head and shuddered. "When I touched it, it felt like I was being buggered by a dementor, the self loathing thoughts were so great," he said. "Before anyone asks, no I haven't actually been buggered by a dementor. They don't have the proper plumbing for the task. I think it is one of the reasons why they're so miserable and cranky," he added.

The Doctor gestured towards Remus' nose and Sirius' shiner. "How did you two get hurt?" he inquired.

Remus and Sirius looked anywhere but at the Doctor or Hermione. Ace swatted her lover playfully on the back of his head. "Snuffles over here thought he would just get rid of the damn thing by tossing a blasting hex at it," she said. "Tonks and I heard the explosion and found our not so bright men laying on the floor," she stated.

Hermione took in a deep breath and slowly let it out while she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I told you guys that the books I came across in the Black library said a horcrux can only be destroyed by basilisk venom or something with the destructive potential equal to or greater than that of fiendfyre," she lectured.

Sirius looked at the young witch sheepishly. "As I was laying on the floor deciding if I was dead or not, that bit of information might have popped into my head," he admitted.

The Doctor looked down at the locket, frowning. "This doesn't make any sense. I neutralized it back in the Ministry of Magic building," he muttered. He stared at it for a moment longer before his eyes became very wide and he slapped himself on the forehead. "Oh... how stupid can I be?" he asked rhetorically. "No one answer that, please!" he shouted out, still looking at the locket. "I forgot that Voldemort is a binary creature. I was able to render the Time Lord half safe, but the Tom Riddle half is still active," he postulated.

The Doctor stepped over to an end table and grabbed a quill and some parchment. Handing them to Hermione he asked, "Can you do an equation that relates how much energy is released during a fiendfyre spell in a form those of us without a magical education could understand?"

"Of course, Doctor," Hermione replied. "Arithmancy is one of my favorite subjects after all," she added. The room was quiet except for the scratching of the quill on the parchment as she solved the necessary equations. When she was done, she was frowning at the surprising result. "If my numbers are correct, and I'm sure they are, fiendfyre spells release the controlled equivalent of a one megaton nuclear explosion over the duration of the spell," she informed them.

"Oh... is that all?" the Doctor asked cheerfully.

Jack shook his head. "Doc, I'm pretty sure just about every country on this planet will notice if you set off a nuke somewhere," he pointed out.

"Hum... what?" the Doctor replied, deep in thought. "Oh yes, of course they would notice that. I was thinking more along the lines of a matter / antimatter reaction," he stated.

Even though Ace had once been quite the pyromaniac, she looked horrified at the thought. "Professor, containment vessels capable of containing a reaction that big won't be built for another 50 to 60 years. If you use an equal amount of antimatter as there is matter in the locket, you'll vaporize most of Great Britain without a containment vessel," she said shakily.

The Doctor just smiled at Ace. "Lucky for us, I happen to have one inside the TARDIS," he said smugly.

It was Hermione's turn again to frown in thought. "Doctor, I thought the TARDIS was powered by a combination of Atron energy and Huon particles," she stated.

"It is," the Doctor replied.

"Then what does the matter / antimatter reactions power?" Hermione inquired.

The Doctor turned to face his girlfriend, confusion evident on his face. "It doesn't power anything," he said as if that should have been obvious.

Jack smirked as he asked, "So what... you built a matter / antimatter containment vessel just for shits and giggles?" he asked.

Prof. McGonagall looked over the top of her spectacles and glared at Jack. "Language, Captain Harkness!" she chided him. Jack tried to look contrite, but the wink he gave McGonagall totally ruined it.

The Doctor ran his hand through the back of his shaggy hair for a moment before speaking. "Perhaps it would be best if I just show you what I built," he said. The Doctor pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and gingerly picked up the locket. He wrapped the cloth around the locket and stashed it safely in the outside pocket of his jacket.

******DrW******

TARDIS

The doorway leading into the room the Doctor wanted to show everybody was crowded as they all wanted to get a look at what the odd, ancient alien had designed. Silence ruled for quite awhile as they all tried to come to grips with what they saw. Fred and George were the first to speak. "George, I know you are the smarter of the two of us, so could you just confirm what I think I'm seeing," Fred requested.

"Dear brother, we all know you are truly the brains behind our brilliant and devious partnership, but I'm pretty sure I see the same thing as you do," George replied.

Jack cocked his head to the side and said, "Huh... you really did build it for shits and..."

Jack was cut off by Harry waving his hand for him to stop. "Jack, please don't finish that sentence," he pleaded. "I really don't want to think about why there would any giggling going on in that room," he stated. This caused Sirius and Remus to chuckle which earned them both a smack on the back of their heads from their women.

Hermione put her hand on the Doctor's arm in an almost patronizing way. "All right... I'll be the one the ask," she said. "Doctor, why did you build a matter / antimatter reaction chamber to look like a toilet?" she asked.

The Doctor looked down at Hermione, slightly offended. "I did not build a matter / antimatter reaction chamber in the shape of a toilet. That would be silly," he protested. Pointing to the toilet he said, "That is a real toilet. The mixing chamber is below it."

Amy watched as Rory stepped away from the room shakily. "Rory, are you alright?"she asked softly, putting her hand on Rory's forehead.

Rory paled a bit as he pointed to the bathroom. "I've used that loo loads of time," he muttered. His choice of words set the other men off snickering. "The thought that I was sitting on top of what is pretty much a huge bomb while I did my business scares the... well... crap out of me," he stated to even more snickers.

The Doctor looked over at Rory and shrugged. "I had the TARDIS provide this loo any time you ate Mexican food. It was the only way to ensure Amy's and my survival," he said with a straight face.

Hermione decided to ask the next obvious question. "Are all the toilets on the TARDIS set up like this?" she inquired.

The Doctor smiled at her, happy to indulge her quest for any sort of knowledge. "Oh no... this is the only one," he replied. "After I was forced to jettison a part of the TARDIS during my fourth life, the plumbing in this section was cut off from the main lines," he explained. "I finally got around to fixing this area during my ninth life. I'm absolutely pants when it comes to plumbing so it was much easier to just build a matter / antimatter reaction chamber than repipe the area," he said.

Jack laughed as he slapped the Doctor on the back. "Doc, you're the only person I know who could say that and not be carted off to the nut house," he teased.

The Doctor glared at Jack and then stepped into the bathroom, motioning Harry to come with him. Showing that he truly was the son of a marauder, Harry joked, "You know, I always thought it would be Jack who would try to get me alone in a bathroom with him."

The Doctor tried to glare at Harry, but the ends of his mouth quirked up slightly. "For your information, I was thinking that you would like the honor of flushing this bit of Tom Riddle's soul down the loo," he stated. "However, I'm sure I could find someone else who would like to," he added.

Harry was beaming a huge grin as he held out his hand to take the locket. The Doctor nodded to him, dropped the cloth wrapped locket into Harry's hand, and stepped back to join the others. Harry held his hand over the toilet bowl, savoring the moment. "I can't think of a more appropriate end than this, Tom," he stated as he dropped the locket. Still grinning, he pressed the lever on the side and watched as a valve in the bottom of the bowl slid open to drop the refuse into the chamber below. Harry frowned when the locket managed to get itself wedged in the opening. Without thinking about it, Harry grabbed a tool next to the toilet and started trying to dislodge the locket.

Ace chuckled at what Harry was using. "Professor, only you would have a plunger shaped like a Dalek manipulator arm," she laughed.

Jack looked closer at the tool Harry was using. "You know, I never noticed that before, but the arms really do look like a plunger," he stated.

The Doctor shook his head, a smile plastered on his face. "Dalek arms don't look like plungers; plungers look like Dalek arms," he stated. "If you reverse the polarity in the attraction field on the cup at the end, the arms work wonders on clogs," he informed them. "I was having dinner with Sir Thomas Crapper in 1858 and his brother-in-law managed to block up their loo. I dashed into the TARDIS and brought out a salvaged arm and took care of the problem. Sir Thomas was very intrigued and patented a lookalike the next week," he told the group.

"Ah... there it goes," Harry announced as he put the Dalek arm back down. He stepped away from the toilet, not knowing what to expect. Everyone heard a muffled boom as the antimatter impacted the locket and a thin bit of black, magical smoke rose out of the toilet.

The Doctor clapped his hands once. "Well, that's done," he stated. "Who's up for tea?" he asked, looking around the group cheerfully.

******DrW******

Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire

The Dark Lord Voldemort stalked down the hallway of his adopted headquarters. He was no closer to killing the boy or capturing the Doctor than he had been weeks ago. Voldemort was walking past the loo on that floor when he was suddenly possessed with an irrational hatred of the water closet. Without a second thought, he cast a silent bombarda spell and shattered the toilet before going on his way.

A few minutes later, Lucius Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew walked down the same hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible so as to not draw the attention of their Lord and Master. They both stopped at the ruined water closet and peaked in. "Looks like Bellatrix has been eating curry again," Wormtail moaned. Both men cast precautionary bubblehead charms on themselves before hurrying past the loo.