Chapter 21
12 Grimauld Place
Hermione walked out of the Black family library shaking her head in disgust. She had spent all morning and most of the afternoon scouring it for any spells that would help them in their war with Voldemort and his ilk. The problem was either the spells she found were too easily countered or so dark she found herself wanting to wash her hands just touching the pages they were printed on. Deciding she finally needed a break, Hermione made her way to the large sitting room on the main floor.
Inside the sitting room, Hermione noticed that the far corner now sported a rather familiar blue call box. The twins were sitting on a couch next to the TARDIS. Amy and Rory were seated at a small card table with Arthur and Molly. It looked like her father was trying to introduce the Weasleys to the game of Bridge. Ron was laying on his stomach on the floor in front a wizard's chess set. Luna was seated on Ron's rear end, completely engrossed in a book. The Doctor was seated cross legged across from Ron. The Doctor reached forward slowly and moved his black king out from behind his rook.
Ron shook his head in amusement. "Knight to rook 7," he ordered. As the white knight galloped into position, Ron announced, "Check, Doctor." Ron chuckled and then added, "You do remember that the purpose of this game is to protect your king, right? Throughout the game, you keep exposing your king to danger."
Luna glanced over her book to look at the chessboard. "Checkmate in three moves," she said in a dreamy voice.
Ron craned his neck to look at Luna in surprise. He didn't think she had been paying attention. Of course she might just be spouting random things like she usually did (something that really annoyed him.) Ron looked back at the board and shrugged. It would actually take four moves for him to checkmate his opponent. The Doctor moved his king towards an even more exposed position. "Seriously Doctor, you just put your king in even more danger. I'll let you take that move back if you want," he offered.
The Doctor shook his head firmly. "That's very generous, Ron, but I won't learn if you give me breaks," he replied with a straight face except for a slight glimmer in his eyes.
"Suit yourself," Ron said not noticing the look in his opponent's eyes. "Bishop to knight 6," he commanded, boxing in the Doctor's exposed king so Ron's rook could take it the next move. The bishop walked over to the correct spot and flexed his hands, eager to smash the opposing king.
It was the Doctor's turn to shake his head in amusement. "Now," he muttered softly. Ron's eyes widen in shock as the Doctor's queen ran across the board pulling her little, obsidian claymore out of the scabbard on her back. Right before she reached Ron's other bishop, the queen lept into the air, spun around in a complete circle, and brought her sword down across the bishop from shoulder to hip. The top part of the bishop slid off of the rest of him to land at feet of the white king. The black queen held up her sword and pressed it at the king's throat.
"Yep, three moves," Luna said without looking up from her book.
The Doctor stood up, leaving a very shocked Ronald Weasley staring at the board. Turning to look at Hermione, the Doctor smiled and said, "The game might be about protecting your king, but the inventors wisely made sure the queen was always the most powerful piece on the board." He stood up and walked over to Hermione. Mindful of her parents being in the room, he kissed her cheek instead of on the mouth. His hand slid naturally into hers and he led Hermione over to the table where Arthur was still having a hard time grasping the game. Arthur had his face scrunched up in concentration as he looked over the cards in his hand.
"Amy, Rory, I wondering if I could have a word with you two when the game is over," the Doctor told them.
Both Amy and Rory gave him a pained look. "That may be a bit, Doctor," Rory replied gesturing towards Arthur who had still not played a card.
Hermione walked behind Arthur and looked at the cards in his hand. She let out a soft chuckle as she reached over his shoulder to rearrange the cards in his hand. It only took Hermione moving two cards before Arthur started chuckling as well. He put all of his cards on the table and fanned them out so everyone could see. "If I'm finally getting this Muggle game, I believe that's bridge," he said triumphantly.
Amy tossed her cards onto the center of the table. "Well, it looks like we can talk now, Doctor," she laughed. Even though her home had been destroyed by Death Eaters, being reunited with both her best friend and her daughter had lightened Amy's mood.
"Excellent," the Doctor said eagerly as he clapped his hands once in excitement. "I know it's been a long time since we saw each other and I was wondering if my girlfriend's parents wanted to go out to dinner with us," he offered. The Doctor smirked a little as Rory managed to only flinch a little bit at the word "girlfriend". The Doctor laid he his free hand down on Amy's shoulder. "I know that being thrust fully into the magical world can be difficult on anyone, so I was thinking of eating at a strictly non-magical place that Jack suggested. He knows the owner and said he can get the entire restaurant reserved for us," he stated.
Amy reached up and squeezed her old friend's hand. "We would love to," she said, answering for Rory as well.
Hermione was surprised by the Doctor's dinner plans as much as her parents were. "Doctor, that sounds lovely and I would love to spend time with just you and my parents, but what if we encounter Death Eaters?" she inquired, forgetting for the moment that her parents were actually UNIT operatives and not dentists like they had told her her whole life.
The Doctor looked right at Rory when he said, "I'm sure your parents can take care of themselves. Your mum was responsible for rebooting the universe when it collapsed in on itself and your dad is the... man your mum fell in love with," he countered, leaving off the bit about Rory being the Last Centurion. "I would suggest we take the TARDIS, but she's gone into one of her every 114 year maintenance cycles. How about you create one of those wonderful objects that transports us like we are in a magical thrill ride to get us there and back? That way, if we need to leave in a hurry, we can just grab a hold and woosh-wumpp-woosh, we are back at the Black mansion," he suggested.
Hermione thought about what he said and nodded in agreement. She was so used to how Harry, Ron, and her flew by the seat of their pants during their adventures that having a contingency plan was very refreshing. Hermione was so relieved, she didn't think about how it was also the Doctor's usual M.O. to fly by the seat of his pants and not have an exit strategy. "I'll go and talk with Sirius. As long as he helps create the portkey, it will bypass the mansion's shields," she told them. "You wouldn't happen to have the address to the restaurant, would you?" Hermione asked the Doctor.
The Doctor fished around inside his larger on the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a slip of parchment. "I had Jack write it down for me," he replied as he handed over the parchment. Hermione turned to go, but suddenly turned back to face the Doctor. She put a hand on either side of his face and kissed him quickly on the mouth. She saw her father try to look anywhere but at her kissing the Doctor. When she broke off the kiss, Hermione returned the wink her mother gave her. Without another word, Hermione spun around to go find Sirius and something they could fashion a portkey out of. "Well, while Hermione is taking care of that, I'm going to pop down to the basement to have a bit of a chat with Jack and our new... guest," the Doctor stated
******River of Magic******
Draco Malfoy awoke tied to a chair in the middle of a large, dark room. The only light came from a magical glow ball suspended a few feet above him. The light was weak and cast a feeble glow around him, leaving the rest of the room in inky blackness. His nose ached and he felt like he had taken a bludger to the face, much like the time during his third year when the insufferable mudblood punched him. He squirmed against the ropes binding him, but they didn't budge. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally heard a door creak open and the sounds of footsteps walking towards him.
A handsome, dark haired man stepped into the light. He was dressed in Muggle clothing all the way from his plain white shirt and suspenders to his dark blue overcoat. In one hand he carried a wooden chair and in the other a thick, Muggle style book that bent as if it didn't have a hard cover. The man put the chair in front Draco and then spun it around so the back was facing the Slytherin. The man slipped off his coat, folded it neatly, and placed it across the back of the chair. With a smile that Draco found both strangely enticing and not a small bit unnerving, the man sat down backwards on the chair so that he was facing facing Draco. The man stared at Draco for a few uncomfortable minutes and then finally spoke.
"Hello, Mr. Malfoy. I'm here to offer you a deal," Jack said.
Draco narrowed his eyes in contempt. "Why would I want to make a deal with a filthy Muggle like you," he spat. Draco's sense of foreboding exploded when instead of acting insulted, the man just laughed heartily.
"Sorry, where are my manners?" Jack asked rhetorically. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness, head of the Black Cats," he said, introducing himself. Using the interrogation skills he had developed over several lifetimes, Jack noticed Draco's pupils widen and the pulse in his neck increase, both indications of real fear.
Draco suddenly found his mouth dry. Campfire stories about the Black Cats had always been popular when groups of Death Eaters got together to let off steam. Like all stories of that type, the stories became more horrific with each telling. To the Death Eaters, the Black Cats were the boogeymen hiding in the shadows, waiting to strike.
For a short while, Draco's fear of the Black Cats had diminished when he found out both the Doctor and Ace were members of that elite team. Neither of them seemed like they would be much of a challenge for a lone Death Eater, let alone a team of them. That changed after that pair had ruined both the attacks at Farringham and Stonehenge. The Dark Lord had even made it a point to warn his followers that neither Ace nor the Doctor were to be underestimated. To press his point home, Voldemort had told them that they should consider the Doctor as almost the Dark Lord's equal in both power and cunning. Facing the head of the Black Cats in a dark cellar drove home how much trouble Draco was really in.
"What kind of deal?" Draco croaked. Jack refused to answer and remained silent. When he couldn't take the silence anymore, Draco shakely repeated, "What kind of deal?"
Jack leaned back from the back of the chair and gave Draco one of his megawatt smiles. "You tell me whatever I want to know, and I won't turn you over to the Grangers," he said simply.
Not being able to control himself, Draco scoffed loudly, "Why should I be afraid of a pair of Muggles?" His inflated ego glossed over the fact that he had witnessed first hand that Mr. Granger at least was much more than a mere Muggle.
Jack shook his head sadly. "Hermione's parents are both dentists," he said as if that should explain everything. Draco's blank look was just what Jack had been hoping for. "Oh god, you don't know what a dentist is, do you?" he asked, baiting the hook.
Trying to put on a brave face, Draco replied, "Why should I care what Muggles do for a living?"
Jack laughed again as he got up from his chair. He walked around behind Draco and untied the ropes around Draco's hands, leaving his feet and legs still bound. Stepping into the darkness, Jack pulled a table with a metal tray on top into the light but just out of arm's reach of his captive. Draco recognized his wand on the top of the shiny metal tray, but couldn't identify the various sharp and rather cruel looking tools next to it.
Jack walked back around to face Draco and grabbed his coat. He pulled out a pair of omnioculars from the outside pocket and handed them to Draco. With another chuckle, Jack tossed the dentist equipment catalog onto Draco's lap. "I'll let you think about it before I get your answer," Jack said warmly. A cold chill went up Draco's spine as Jack kept chuckling as he left the room, shutting the door with a solid sounding thud.
Draco looked at the omnioculars first. From the glowing gem on the side, he saw that this one had been used to record something recently. Not having a better idea, Draco held the device to his eyes and watched the recording. He had no idea that what he was watching had been staged two hours earlier for his benefit. Draco watched through the eyepieces as both Doctor Grangers took turns "working" on a glamoured Fred. Every time one of the Grangers would put one of the vicious looking tools into his mouth, Fred would scream like he was under the Cruciatus Curse.
Letting the omnioculars drop to the ground, Draco opened up the catalog and started flipping through it. His hands started shaking when he read about pliers, scalers, and extractors. A second glow ball came to life illuminating a dentist chair that Hermione had transfigured from a couch in the Black library. The chair was the same one Fred had been sitting in when they had "filmed" the torture scene. The dental catalog slipped from Draco's nerveless fingers as his eyes rolled back into his head in pure terror.
A conversation just outside of the door to the cellar brought Draco's mind back into focus. "I'm sorry, Jack, but with how things have been going, my memory isn't what it used to be. I need you to write down again the address for that restaurant I'm taking Hermione and her parents to this evening," the Doctor stated sheepishly.
"No problem, Doctor. I've had decades like that so I know just how you feel," Harkness replied. Draco heard the scritch-scritch sound of a quill on parchment. "Here you go," Harkness told the Doctor.
The door opened and again Draco heard only one set of footsteps enter the room. As the person got closer, the door shut loudly leaving Draco alone with whomever had come in. Draco tensed up when the Doctor stepped into the feeble circle of light surrounding his chair. The look in the Doctor's eyes made Draco more afraid than he had ever been before. The only time Draco had seen a look that cold and utterly devoid of compassion was on his Dark Lord's face. The Doctor's voice was even colder than his expression.
"You tried to kill two of my best friends," the Doctor said simply. He stepped over to the table that held the dental tools and picked up one of the small, curved hooks that ended in a wicked looking point. The Doctor refused to look at Draco as he turned the tool over in his hand. "I've seen an entire army turn at the sound of my name and you tried to kill two people I love," he stated, his voice like the winter wind over the frozen Black Lake. The Doctor turned suddenly to face Draco, but managed to catch the base of the table with his foot dragging the table closer and nearly causing the Doctor to fall over. "Whoops, there goes my cool, calculating interrogator routine. Hard to strike terror into a prisoner when you're clumsy. Oh well," the Doctor laughed, his cold, powerful persona evaporating.
The Doctor stepped in front of Draco so he could look him in the eyes. "I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with knowing that I'll be enjoying a nice dinner with my girlfriend and her parents while you're tied to a chair in a dank basement. I'd say have a pleasant evening, but we both know I was lying," the Doctor mocked before he walked past Draco into the darkness. Draco followed the sound of the Doctor's footsteps to the wall opposite the door. He was able to just barely hear the Doctor mutter, "Which brick was it that opened the secret passage? Oh yes, third from the top, fifth from the left." Draco heard a click and felt a breeze from behind him. The breeze cut off as the hidden door swung shut behind the Doctor.
After several minutes straining to hear anything, Draco looked over at the table that held not only the dental tools, but his precious wand. The Doctor's stumbling had accidently drug the table nearly a foot closer. By stretching as far as he could, Draco managed to grab his wand. A softly muttered cutting curse severed the ropes binding his legs. As he stood, Draco saw a bit of white parchment on the ground next to the table. He picked up the slip of paper and a grin spread across his face as he read the address for where his lord's enemy was having dinner. He shoved the parchment into his robe's inside pocket and hurried to the far wall. Draco whispered, "Lumos," and scanned the wall in front of him. He reached up and touched the brick the Doctor had mentioned. A soft click sounded again and a three foot portion of the wall pivoted towards him. Draco took in a deep breath of the cool night air that flowed down the tunnel. The door shut behind Draco as he fled into the tunnel. He never saw Captain Harkness step out of the shadows in the room he had just escaped from. He also never heard Jack whisper, "I was beginning to wonder if that ponce was ever going to manage to escape."
******River of Magic******
South Bank of the Thames Warehouse District
Rory rushed over to a trash can and threw up as soon as the portkey deposited him in a side alley near the restaurant Jack had suggested. Amy rubbed his back to let him know she felt bad for him. When he was done heaving, Rory turned his head to look at his wife. "That trip was 10 times worse than the Doctor's worse driving. Why aren't you sick?" he inquired.
Amy looked over at the Doctor who was smiling from ear to ear as he helped Hermione up. She looked back at Rory and replied, "Once you've been vomited up by a space whale, everything else seems tame."
The Doctor finally realized Rory had not enjoyed the trip and walked over to him. He dug around in his pocket until he found a roll of mints. "Here, these might help," he offered.
Rory looked at the mints suspiciously. He had learned from his past mistakes. "What planet are those from?" he asked.
The Doctor held the mints up to his face so he could read the label. "They're from Mars, but it was during the second wave of human colonization so they should taste fine to you," the Doctor replied.
Rory took one of the offered mints and popped it into his mouth. His face first took on a shocked expression and then a happy one as the tiny, mint flavored robots embedded in the mint went about cleaning his mouth before they dissolved. The Doctor saw Rory's smile and pressed the rest of the mints into his friend's hands. "Here, you can have the rest. Just don't ever drop these in a bucket of vinegar. Trust me, bad things happen if you do. One small slip made it necessary for a third wave of Martian colonization," he rambled. Rory looked at the mints in his hand and decided not have a vinaigrette dressing with his salad.
The Doctor took Hermione's hand and led her and her parents around the corner to the restaurant. Like Jack had promised, the dining room was empty except for one table with a service for four set up. The Doctor pulled out Hermione's seat for her while Rory did the same for Amy. After a few moments, a friendly looking woman wearing a green apron came out from behind the kitchen. She took their orders and then hustled back into the kitchen to prepare their meals.
Hermione noticed that throughout the dinner, the Doctor was quieter than usual. This gave plenty of time for Amy and Rory to catch him up on what they had been up to since the Doctor and Hermione had dropped off the infant version of herself. Hermione would have been more worried about the Doctor's mood if she hadn't been so enthralled with the real story of what her parents had done while she had been growing up.
Amy on the other hand had been watching the Doctor's reactions and had began to get uncomfortable. She stood up and beckoned the Doctor to follow her. "If you two can excuse us for a minute, I want to ask the Doctor something and I don't want to embarrass him in front of his girlfriend," she told Hermione and Rory. The Doctor dutifully got up and followed her to the other side of the dining room. "All right mister, what is going on?!" she demanded.
The Doctor sighed as he realised that out of all his Companions, Amy had been able to read him the best. "Have you ever done something and then later wondered if you had made a huge mistake?" he asked her. The Doctor watched Amy's eyes flick over to Hermione and then back to him. "No... no... not my relationship with Hermione. That's one of the few things in my long life that I'm very sure about. I haven't felt this close to someone since my first wife died," he reassured Amy.
Amy was about to ask what other decision had him questioning himself when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look out the window and saw several oily, black clouds streak down the street and then solidify to form several people with white masks and long, black robes. "We've got company!" she yelled back to the table. Amy took the Doctor by the hand and pulled him back to where Hermione and Rory were just starting to get out of their seats. "Hermione, we need that portkey now!" she told her daughter.
Hermione just nodded and pulled out a large, brass ring from her purse. She held out the ring and waited for the others to grab ahold before she incanted the activation phrase. Rory and Amy stood next to Hermione and grabbed the ring, leaving the spot directly across from Hermione for the Doctor. As soon as the Doctor grabbed the ring, Hermione called out the phrase that would send them back to the Black mansion, "Rapid Retreat!" Right as she started to say the second word, the Doctor let go of the ring and stepped back from the table. As the sharp pull from behind her navel took hold, Hermione heard the Doctor whisper a sad, "I'm sorry." The world spun around her and Hermione soon found herself back in the first floor sitting room of the Black mansion.