A/N: I am sorry for the long wait; I've had a lot of life issues come up at the same time, plus additional things. I've been working on this slowly, but surely, and will possibly be delayed with the next chapter as well. Thank you so much for your patience as I'm working on this. Hello to all the new readers! Good to see you here. I hope you enjoy my story. Now, allons-y!

The Headmistress had gone to the fire and threw some sort of greenish powder in it, shouted something, and stuck her head in. "What in all of Gallifrey is she doing?"

"It's called 'Floo powder'; it allows witches and wizards to travel through the Floo network, or communicate through the Floo network." I saw her talking, obviously to someone, and then she pulled her head out, stepping back. Why was she—? Then the man appeared. It took a second for me to process. Neville had called it a network; his place must be connected to the school's.

"But why this man's place? Who is he?" I asked.

The man's untidy hair and glasses caught my eye. He reminded me of someone I couldn't place. And his eyes were a bright green. Definitely strange. "You said I needed to get here as soon as possible, right? I didn't catch all of it; does it have to do with James again?" he queried. The hair—James—was this that boy's father? That boy who was so brash and brazen in the Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures class?

"No, Mr. Potter; I'm afraid not. We did have a discussion earlier today, but that is quite taken care of. This is a more urgent matter, I'm afraid," the Headmistress said, gesturing him to sit on the couch. He politely refused.

"Professor McGonagall—"

"Mr. Potter, you can call me Minerva, please." The man sighed, looking at her.

"Minerva, what could possibly be so important as to take me away from my job? We're in the middle of researching the activities of one Beluga Whittle, one of Voldemort's most notorious Death Eaters. What on earth could possibly be more important than that?"

I stepped forward, and his eyes met mine. "What about a take-over?"

Harry blinked. "What do you mean, a 'take-over'?"

"Exactly what I said. There's a group of aliens that have infiltrated your world and are planning on taking over by putting all the witches and wizards asleep to their darkest days."

"But who would want to take over? There have been no instances of aliens on this planet. Ever," Harry said, his arms crossing his chest. He looked at Minerva and Neville, and saw their faces. "What is wrong with you two? Do you seriously believe this?" He looked at them with incredulity. "You do believe them. Do you even know who they are?"

I cut in. "I know you don't believe me; there's no reason to believe me, but I promise that this is happening. Right here, right now. Neville and the three of us were caught in it earlier, and all of us were forced to live through my nightmares. So unless you feel the need to challenge what I and three others in this room have already gone through, I suggest you take me seriously."

He redirected his next question. "And how did this happen? How did you all become 'stuck' in this nightmare?"

"By someone hitting us with this," I replied, pulling out the bag with the psychic pollen in it. I carefully placed a few of them on my hand so that the Headmistress and Harry could see it. "It's psychic pollen; it attacks and leeches off of dark memories, continually challenging the dreamer and trying to force them to choose which world is real."

Harry recoiled slightly, then glared at me. "This is some kind of trick, isn't it? You brought me here to try and trap me."

"Why on earth would I do that?" I said, giving him a look of disbelief. "I have no reason to. I don't know who you are, other than James' father."

He quieted. "How do you know about James?"

"Me and my friends; we were trying to pass as educational inspectors and I saw your son as he left this office earlier. When we left to start our 'inspections', we ran into him during his classes." I saw Aryn and Kaal give each other a quick smile. That was strange. No matter. "That's all I know of you, besides what the Headmistress and Neville have told me. All they said was that this pollen would affect you the most because of whatever happened."

"And what did happen, Miss—?"

"Smith; call me Smith. I have no idea what on earth you're talking about. All I can tell is that between the three of you, something big happened that clearly affected the lot of you for the worst. What that is, is beyond me. I don't know anything about this place. All I know is that your name is Harry Potter, and that is Neville Longbottom, and the Headmistress' name is Minerva McGonagall."

"Who are the Weasleys?" he challenged.

"How the hell should I know?" I said, my anger starting to rise. Aryn quickly came next to me.

"Chancellor, I think you need to let me take this." She turned to Harry, shouldering herself accordingly. "Sir, the three of us only happened to come here just this morning. I'm sure if you ask the Headmistress, and perhaps the groundskeeper, that they will verify that the only time they have ever seen us is today. We came here by way of a TARDIS; I hail from the planet Coruscant, in the Galactic Core. Kaal Haress is from Nar Shadaa. I don't know if you've really looked at us, sir. Kaal, come here so Mr. Potter can see you better." She motioned for Kaal, and he willingly stepped forward. The marks on his face caught Harry's attention, and he stood there, riveted by them. Kaal brushed his hair aside, exposing his horns to all three of them. The Headmistress gasped, nearly fainting.

"I told you the truth!" I growled.

"I—believe you." He looked surprised that those words came out. He took a step towards me, then quickly took them back. "What are you?" he inquired, an unreadable look on his face.

I blinked. That had been quicker than I thought it would take. "As Aryn and Kaal told you, they are from the Galactic Core. I never studied about their system much on Gallifrey. I stuck to studying my own, the constellation Kasterborous, and those surrounding us. I guess you can call us aliens." Neville caught my eye, a slight smile playing on his lips. Harry sat down on the couch, head in hands. The Headmistress started pacing and mumbling to herself. "Look, I know it's a lot to process; I know that it's not exactly what you expected to happen, but it is, and we have to start getting rid of the Sontarans. Which, from what Neville has said, might be harder than we thought. We need to act."

"And do what?" the Headmistress questioned. "Where are they, even? How do you know that they're working on this 'plan'? I've never seen them."

"But you have; you've allowed them to come in and take up residence even here at Hogwarts without so much as a cursory check."

"That's preposterous! We check everything that comes onto these grounds."

"So you check the gardens and greenhouses?"

"Yes; there are some gnomes about, but they're not much of a proble—" The Headmistress stopped her pacing and faced me. That stern look was on her face again as she realized what I was referring to. "Garden gnomes? You think garden gnomes are aliens from another planet?" Harry let out a short laugh.

"Are you serious? You called me here because of garden gnomes? Minerva, I'm sorry, but I can't be bothered by garden gnomes." I impulsively gritted my teeth.

"Why would I kid around about something like this? Why was this psychic pollen here if they aren't planning a take-over? It makes no sense!"

Harry stood and walked toward me, eventually stopping when he could look down on me. "Perhaps you did to convince us they're taking over while you go around and start putting everyone into a dream-state. Then everything is yours for the taking." His blazing green eyes made me wonder who or what had done this to Harry, but now was not the time to be thinking about it.

"I would never do that to someone; having to live through my own memories was enough, let alone having someone else replay their own darkest days over. Like you. Or Neville. Or the headmistress. Something has made all of you feel betrayed and broken, and to have someone like me come here and declare something else is happening feels like it's coming back. I understand that. But that doesn't mean we can't catch them and force them to talk, or take them out, if that be the case. I need you all to come by me so that I can show you—all of you—what I'm talking about."

"And how are you going to do that?" Neville asked, standing from his lean on the couch arm. The Headmistress also made her way over, a little wary of me. Neville seemed much more put together about this than the other two. The dreams he'd been in with us must have finally sunk in.

I took a deep breath. "I have a unique ability among my people; if you will all hold hands, I'm going to show you my memories so that you can see who we've encountered." Neville grasped Harry's hand, who took the Headmistress' in his other hand. Neville smirked at me. The other two had closed their eyes. "Close your eyes, please." Neville's eyes fluttered close, that smile still on his face. I touched his face, and the smile widened. What was wrong with him? I closed my eyes, and tried to concentrate on the memories of Sontarans I had. Scenes from the last Time War played, the Sontarans fighting and beating my fellow Time Lords back. Next, earlier scenes from other encounters we'd had came up, dredging up bile to my throat. Some of it was sickening. I had to push it back down, and suddenly a scene between me and Hazander floated in. His face lingered for a second before I cut off the connection and released them from the barrage of my memories. The Sontarans from my memories were nearly identical to the garden gnomes, the height being the only major difference.

When I told them they could open their eyes again, Harry and the Headmistress had stunned expressions. Neville gave me a strange look. "Who was that fellow at the end?" He'd seen him. They'd seen him. I set my jaw.

"No one. He's no one."

"He's got to be someone to you, or he wouldn't have come up. Who was he?" Neville asked, all the more curious.

"Leave it alone, Neville; I'm not comfortable talking about it." Aryn and Kaal looked concerned, but said nothing. Neville wisely left the subject alone. Harry and the Headmistress were still trying to come to grips with what I'd shown them.

"So the garden gnomes are aliens from another planet," Harry said slowly, trying to comprehend the statement. The Headmistress' hands shook, and she tried to still them without anyone noticing. I walked over to her and took her hands. She looked up at me with a tired, weary look.

"I don't have the strength to go through something like this again, my dear Miss Smith. I really don't. Our last battle with—Voldemort—was enough for me." She forced a smile on her face, patted my hands, got up and went back to her desk. Harry stood up.

"Well, we can do something about it; Minerva, I'm going to need Neville back, as well as some of your better students. Can you spare them?" She nodded her head, turning to the portraits on her wall. I never noticed until now, but they were moving. I was slightly confused as I knew about holograms, but this was something different. Then I remembered that I was in a school of magic, and things made sense. Kind of. While Harry and Neville were discussing strategies and tactics, I went over to Aryn and Kaal.

"Aryn, thank you for helping me out. I let him get the better of me and my emotions, and you really came through for me. I appreciate it." I had said it; I actually thanked someone instead of shooting back a retort. Aryn and Kaal looked surprised. I guess they never thought I'd do it either.

"You're welcome, Chancellor. Like I told you, I have had some training in regards to this sort of thing before. I also wanted to thank you for telling them that we're your friends. I know you don't really see us that way, but it was nice to hear you say it." So that's why they had smiled when I glanced over. Friends. I never really had many; it usually never went well, but I suppose they were.

"It might come out more often, but we'll see how that goes." My mind was now fully working on the Sontaran solution, trying to figure out a way to target the lot of them and safely get them off earth and back to Sontar. The TARDIS might be able to help us in that regard. "We've got to get back to the TARDIS. We should be able to locate all the Sontarans using the scanner, and might be able to figure out the best way of dealing with them. "

"But what about the wizards? Don't they need our help?" Kaal asked, pointing at Harry and Neville. Some students had come in, and Harry and Neville were in deep discussion with the group, informing them about the situation at hand, and how they were going to need them in order to secure the school.

"I'm planning on guiding the TARDIS back here; it's a pretty sturdy one, and definitely better than nothing at all. Now if I had a battle TARDIS, we'd be set, but that's a wholly different matter." I turned on my heel and we headed for the door.

"Where are you all going?" Neville boomed, his voice louder than normal.

"I'm getting my ship!" I snapped. He was still irritating me. "We'll be back in a bit." Neville frowned slightly, but went back to his discussion. I rolled my eyes. Man, he got on my nerves. First that dumb smile, then asking me about Hazander, then this. When was it going to end? Why was he acting so strange? I brushed it off, but it still sat at the back of my mind. I could hear a snigger behind me as we left the Headmistress' office. "What is it?" I posed, still making my way to the entrance of the school.

"I think he likes you." My face must have shown my disbelief. "Haven't you noticed his smile and the way he flirts with you?" I snorted.

"Yeah, he flirts with me all right. He's interested in me because I'm an alien, not in me personally."

"Oh, I think he's pretty interested in you, Chancellor. Especially after what we all went through with those Daleks and the Master. Jay'la mentioned how you took on the leader of the pirates. I have to say, quite impressive from what she described. You didn't have to, yet you chose to put yourself in her path. That's some courage you got there, Chancellor." I shrugged. I didn't want to think about it; I could still see that crazy woman's mad gaze and hear her growl. I rubbed my right ear, part of where my hair got ripped out.

"I'd rather not talk about it; I'm the one who let them in. They would have never gotten a hold of what they did, or passed on that disease, if I hadn't decided to try and save Maz. My feelings got in the way of the mission."

"We caught them; after everything that happened, we caught them and they're serving their time for everything they've done. You can at least be happy about that, right?"

"I guess." We walked in silence until the doors loomed above us. I pushed it open and we headed to the woods. I took out my sonic and activated it. The TARDIS was synced with my sonic so I could find it once it was camouflaged. Once I could hear a rapid beeping, we went in pursuit of the TARDIS, eventually coming upon it. It still looked like a broken tree trunk. I grinned. I was so glad to see him again. I pressed my sonic to the plate in the back, and the door opened. "Oh yes!" I let out, my happiness shining through.

"You are really attached to this thing, aren't you?" I beamed at Kaal.

"Yep. Now we can really get to work on ridding ourselves of the Sontarans."