Chapter 5: Sink Plungers

"Mad-Eye?" The Master entered the room tentatively, the Doctor close behind him. The man at the window turned to face them, revealing his 'identity'. The man's electric blue eyeball spun round to see them, but it wasn't Davros' eye. Neither was it positioned in the middle of his forehead, but in place of where his actual eye should have been. The other eye seemed to be functioning perfectly. Even without the magical eye, though, his face would still have been captivating in a horrible sort of way. It was pitted and scarred in grotesque ways, and a chunk of his nose seemed to be missing. He didn't seem surprised to see them, and the Doctor wondered whether he had a copy of the 'Marauder's Map' as well.

"Saw you coming," the man, Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, said in a gruff voice, gesturing at a large mirror showing hundreds of shadowy figures. He laughed. "I only need to be afraid when see the whites of their eyes." The Doctor looked closer, and saw an image of both him and the Master, both showing whites. Now, that proved something, he just wasn't sure what yet.

They stood there a bit longer, watching the man potter about the study moving things from desk to shelf to chair and back to desk again.

/He's a bad actor/

/Yeah well so would you be if you weren't used to being human./

/Sticking up for Davros?/

/No/

/Or just annoyed that I'm more observant than you thought I was?/

"You're still here," pointed out Moody. "Did you have something to say?" The Doctor glanced at the Master who glared back at him and shook his head.

"Not really," said the Doctor, and the pair took their leave.

They stood outside the Gryffindor common room, unable to enter without a password, but with nowhere else to go.

/But it's not really Davros' thing, is it?/

/I wouldn't know what you mean. I don't have quite the same history as you/

/So, aside from the Time War, you've never ran into the... oh crap/

/What?/ Now the Master was curious.

/Daleks. If Davros is here, where are the Daleks?/ There was a stunned silence, both in the corridor outside the portrait and within the two men's heads.

/You think there could be daleks here?/ For once, the Master sounded uncertain.

/That, Master, is one thing I'm certain of. I just don't know where they're hiding/

/Yet/

When Harry and Ron arrived back at Gryffindor tower after breakfast, they found both Time Lords sitting cross legged outside the common room, poring over what looked remarkably like...

"The Marauder's Map!" exclaimed Harry.

"Um, yeah, about that..." said the Doctor.

"Does this map ever lie?" asked the Master.

"How did you get it working?" Harry sounded curious.

"Never mind that, how did they get it?" blustered Ron.

"He," the Doctor said, jerking his head at the Master, who smiled smugly, "stole it. And he got it working using the sonic screwdriver he stole off me. Which, by the way, I want back." The last comment was directed at the Master.

"Does the map ever lie?" the Master repeated, always the stubborn one.

"No," said Harry.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course he's sure!" Ron was getting angry. "It's his map!" Harry laid a hand on his shoulder, and Ron stopped.

"My father was one of the people who made it," Harry said evenly.

"Well, you can congratulate him when you next see him," said the Master. "It's very useful."

"He's dead."

"I'm sorry," said the Master, not sounding sorry at all. Ron glared at him. The Master ignored the evil look and turned to the Doctor. "So that means they're not at Hogwarts yet?"

"I'm guessing so. We've pretty much combed the map and I think we would have spotted an army of daleks."

"Could they be disguised as something else? Like Davros was?"

"We saw Davros on the map."

"Daleks might not show up."

"Maybe not, but that's a risk we'll have to take."

"So they're hiding outside Hogwarts?"

"Sorry to interrupt, but what on earth are you talking about?" asked Ron. Both time lords jumped, surprised. They'd been so immersed in the problem of the daleks that they had completely forgotten about the boy wizards.

"Nothing of great importance," the Master lied.

"But if you see any large metal robots pointing a sink plunger or a whisk at you, please let us know," added the Doctor.

"Are you crazy?" Ron asked.

"Yes, but where's the fun in being normal?"

Harry and Ron let the time lords into the Gryffindor common room. There were only a few other people in it.

"Hey Neville, hey Hermione," said Harry. "These are the people I told you about." Neville and Hermione came over to say hello, both slightly wary of the aliens.

"Are you sure it's safe to have them in Gryffindor?" she hissed. "And shouldn't you tell Dumbledore that they're here?"

"They don't know the password," said Ron. "We made sure of that."

"And knowing Dumbledore, he'll already know they're here," added Harry. "Relax, Hermione!" Hermione frowned at him, flicked her bushy brown hair over her shoulder and then decided she would, in fact, welcome the aliens.

"Are you here for the Triwizard Tournament?" she asked, suddenly all friendly. If Harry trusted them they must be ok, right?

"No," said the Master curtly. He wasn't in the mood to make new 'friends'.

"We just happened to be here at the same time," added the Doctor quickly.

"Oh." Hermione seemed stumped for something to say. The Master had that effect on people.

"Are you going to the Yule ball?" Neville asked. He seemed quite shy and quiet, but the Doctor could tell that there was someone amazing hidden under that shy persona, and he had only known the boy for less than five minutes. He liked to think of it as one of his talents; being able to see the hidden side of everybody, the good things about them that no one else acknowledged. It was what the Master called 'seeing the good in everyone' with a sneer on his face and blatant disapproval in his voice. He just didn't understand.

/Oh, I understand alright, I just choose to disapprove/ The Doctor jumped at the Master's voice, but ignored his comment. The Master understood nothing of anything important, nothing of love, or compassion, or of... of anything. /They're hardly the most important of things, Doctor/ He was such a hard, cold hearted man. He was a Time Lord through and through. /Just remember, Doctor. You're a time lord too/

/Get out of my head, Master/ he thought quietly, although he had to fight to control his temper. He didn't want Harry or Ron to hear.

/Ooh, someone's touchy/ But the Master withdrew his presence anyway.

"So are you?" asked Ron, and the Doctor awoke from his thoughts.

I don't know. I don't know what it is," he admitted.

"It's only the event of the year!" said Hermione. "And the Weird Sisters are doing the music. It's going to be great!" The Master wondered why the girl kept speaking in italics, but he didn't comment. He wasn't in the mood. He stood silently behind the Doctor, letting him do the talking.

"So it's a ball?" he heard the Doctor say. "And there's a band playing who you really like? And it's part of the celebrations for this tournament thing?"

"Yeah, and you have to take someone to dance with," added Hermione.

"Oh..."

"Don't worry," said Neville, at this point looking slightly dejected. "I haven't got anyone either."
"Only because she's going with my sister!" Ron glared at Hermione who blushed but then glared back just as, if not more, fiercely. Harry sighed.

"I'm sorry about this," he said softly to the Doctor. "They keep arguing about this."
"I can date whoever I want to date, Ronald."

"But my sister...!"

"Anyone I want to," Hermione repeated. "And that includes your sister."

"But she's a girl."

"You're with Harry! For goodness sake, Ron, you're such a hypocrite!" It was at that moment that the petite red haired girl, who had slipped into the room during the heated argument between her brother and her girlfriend, announced her arrival. She coughed, and her brother spun round.

"Ginny!"

"Keep your grubby nose out of my love life, Ronald," she said, slipping an arm around Hermione's waist.

"I wonder what the food will be like at the ball," said Harry, attempting to change the subject and end the argument. Hermione flared up again.

"Is food all you ever think about?" she exclaimed, pulling away from Ginny so that she could face Harry properly. "What about all of the poor house elves who have to slave down in the kitchens so that you can stuff your face?"

"Not this again," muttered Ron, and Hermione rounded on him again.

"It's slave labour! How would you like it if-"
"But they do like it, Hermione. They want to serve us." Harry ignored this new argument, deciding to keep out of it, even though Neville and Ginny had been sucked in, all of them against Hermione.

"You'll need dress robes for the ball," he said quietly. "You can go to Hogsmeade, the wizarding village, to get some. I know that you still have my map, so if you go to the statue of the one eyed witch on the third floor, go past that and then follow the passage, you'll get there." He smiled. "Don't mind them, they're not normally this bad. I think they're just stressed about the ball and the tournament. I'll see you around, then?"

"Yeah. Thanks for lending me the map," said the Doctor. "I'll make sure we get it back to you." Harry gave a little wave, and the Doctor, followed by the Master, left the common room.