Chapter 17 – The End of the War
Harry's eyes nearly fell out of his head.
"You're – you're alive!" he choked.
"I was the last time I looked," Professor Smith said, stepping out of the blue box. "Mouldy-wart," he said, acknowledging Voldemort with a nod. He looked round the Hall, taking in the details of the situation, before he turned back to the Dark Lord, clearly impressed.
"Quite a feat," he said, "taking over Hogwarts. Not many people can manage to do that when one of the most powerful wizards in history is headmaster of the school. But then again," he added, "in all fairness, you only managed it because all the protective enchantments are down. So thank the zygons for that!" He grinned. "But where is your zygon buddy, eh? I'd have thought he'd be here, sharing in the glory. 'Cos zygons like doing that, the glory of a victory. Not as much as the Sontarans though, they're way over the top, but the zygons like a bit of a celebration too." He strolled up to Voldemort, hands in pockets. "So come on, bring him out. I'm curious to know how you managed to get all these guys here," he indicated the Death Eaters, "especially after they all died a few days ago."
Silence. Then;
"The zygon is dead," Voldemort said calmly, without a hint of remorse. "I killed him after he had served his purpose."
Professor Smith sighed. "Yes, of course you did," he muttered. "Killing, it's all you do, isn't it, Mouldy? 'Cos I've heard a lot about you, how you're the darkest Dark Lord in ages, murder innocents, want immortality, blah blah, bing bang bosh. But you know what I reckon? I reckon you're just the stereotypical megalomaniac. You want unlimited power, worldwide domination, to enforce your beliefs, eternal life. There's nothing special there, just the same recycled rubbish I've been dealing with for the last thousand odd years. But enough of me, you must be sick of me going on and on and on and on and on. So questions, fire away!"
"Words, so many words, Crouch," Voldemort hissed. "Before I kill you, however, there is one thing I would like to know: how did you escape that craft before it exploded?"
"Well," Professor Smith said, unwrapping something from his wrist. "I must admit, I kinda cheated. I remembered I had this thing in my pocket, so I used it to get away." He waved a device in front of Voldemort's face. It was the vortex manipulator that his future self had given him in Azkaban.
"A muggle device?" Voldemort said in surprise.
"Ah, but not just any muggle device," Professor Smith said knowingly. "This, Mouldy, is a vortex manipulator, a time travel device from the fifty-first century that works by -" He stopped and frowned. "As a matter of fact, I'm not sure how it works," he said. "I'll have to look into it soon. But anyway," he continued, "vortex manipulators allow cheap and nasty time travel, but they also allow short range teleportation, like this," he said, and pressed the button. He disappeared in a flash of light, and reappeared next to the Slytherin table. "And this." He appeared back at the front of the Hall.
Whispers broke out among the students. As far as they were concerned, they had just seen someone apparate within Hogwarts, a feat they thought impossible. The whispers were soon stopped by several bangs from a Death Eater's wand.
"Right, you've had your question, now I've got mine," Professor Smith said. "How did you take over Hogwarts?"
Voldemort laughed. "My Death Eaters casted disillusionment charms on themselves, and we moved into the Hall when the school was having lunch. We surrounded them, then revealed ourselves. No one could resist."
"Fair enough," said Professor Smith, "but then again, it only worked because the protective enchantments were down." He put the vortex manipulator back in his pocket. "Right," he said, suddenly serious. "To business."
The next moment, there was a whirring sound, and a loud bang; smoke wafted from Voldemort's robes.
Professor Smith lowered the sonic screwdriver, looking determinedly at Voldemort.
"What have you done!" Voldemort cried, taking a device out of his robes, before hurriedly dropping it; it was very hot.
"Reversed the paradox," Professor Smith said, his voice hard and grim, not like the light and playful tone it had been a few seconds earlier. "Look around the Hall."
Voldemort did so, and his eyes burned with fury.
Wincing as Voldemort's intense emotion was relayed through his scar, Harry followed his gaze, and, to his astonishment, saw that each and every one of the Death Eaters were vanishing as what seemed like the very fabric of the world around them rippled.
Professor Smith bent over and picked up the device Voldemort had dropped. "Do you know what this is?" he demanded, throwing it rapidly from hand to hand so it wouldn't burn him. "It's a miniature paradox machine. Your zygon friend constructed it out of a time turner, a time-space visualiser, a time reverser, and by the looks of it, the De-mat gun that he stole from me. It allowed you to go back in time and rescue your army and bring them here without disrupting the causal nexus." He threw the object aside. "I short circuited it, paradox reversed, your men are flung back to when you collected them. Now, you stay there, I'm going to talk to Harry!"
Professor Smith turned to walk the short distance to the young Gryffindor.
BANG!
Voldemort's spell hit Professor Smith in the back, and Professor Smith went flying, landing painfully on the Gryffindor table. Several students screamed, and moved backwards, while some older students, emboldened by the disappearance of the Death Eaters, moved forward, their wands raised, only to be similarly blasted back by Voldemort. The teachers' eyes widened at this display of violence towards their students, and they began struggling in earnest to free themselves of their bonds.
Snape watched the situation unfold. He wanted to protect the students, but that would mean his days as spy for the Order of the Phoenix were over. And if he helped Voldemort, the students would never trust him again. In a flash, he made up his mind, and quietly slipped behind the staff table, and began to loosen Professor Vector's bonds.
BANG!
Professor Smith landed on the Hufflepuff table, and the sonic screwdriver clattered to the ground, only to be destroyed a second later by a well aimed reductor curse.
BANG!
The science teacher was sent flying into the doors at the end of the Hall.
"I have grown tired of your incessant interfering, Crouch," Voldemort sneered. "Not so long ago, you were my most devoted servant, but now, you seek to thwart my every plan."
BANG!
Several Ravenclaws shrieked as he landed on top of them.
BANG!
Snape finished cutting through Professor Vector's bonds and began working on the rope binding Professor Sinistra...
BANG!
Professor Smith landed right next to Voldemort with a painful thud. He tried to push himself up, but his arms gave out, and he collapsed, breathing heavily.
"People of Hogwarts!" Voldemort declared. "See what happens to those who defy Lord Voldemort."
Harry struggled valiantly to free himself from the ropes binding him, but it was no use, they were too strong. This did not deter him, though, and he continued to wriggle as he watched Voldemort point his wand threateningly at his science teacher. Professor Smith was going to be murdered, right in front of him, in front of the entire school, and there was nothing he could do about it. Then, inexplicably, Professor Smith looked up and caught Harry's eye. He winked.
"Avada Kedavra!" screamed Voldemort. Green light burst from his wand and covered the distance from him to Professor Smith in less than a second. The green energy furled around Professor Smith, the momentum sending him flying a short distance.
Voldemort smiled in cruel satisfaction. The action was over; he had won.
Professor Smith groaned.
The entire school drew a collective breath. He was alive.
"The thing is," Professor Smith said, wincing as he stood up. Bolts of green energy were still wrapped around his body, dissipating rapidly. "The thing is," he said again, "that particular spell is only a highly focused stream of charged particles travelling through a magic field. And while that particular dosage is lethal to humans, I'm not human."
A faint golden energy began sneaking out of Professor Smith's shirt collar and sleeve ends.
Voldemort's eyes widened. "What are you?" he said, actually taking a step back.
"Time Lord," Professor Smith replied calmly, before leaning backwards, arms outstretched. The golden energy erupted from his collar and sleeves, spiralling some distance into the air before fading away. With bated breath, the students and teachers of Hogwarts watched as the man's spiky brown hair lengthened and darkened; as the nose and chin grew bigger, as the sideburns disappeared.
With a final surge, the golden energy dissipated, and there stood Professor Smith, the real Professor Smith, with a long fringe of dark hair, and a young, boyish face.
"Whoa, hello everyone!" Professor Smith beamed around at the shocked crowd. "Gosh, it's nice to be back. Couldn't stand being my old self again; I hate repeats."
Giving the students one final, dazed grin, he turned around and faced Voldemort. The Dark Lord was rooted to the spot, too shocked to move.
"How did you change bodies?" he demanded. "Where can I gain these abilities? Tell me know, fool, or you will be destroyed!"
Professor Smith rolled his eyes. "You can't get regeneration, that would be ridiculous!" he said. "It's a natural ability for my people, we're born with it." He paused, and frowned. "Well, I suppose you could gain regeneration by inhaling the bio-essence of a Time Lord when they're confined to a Chameleon Arch receptacle," he said, before laughing. "But you're not going to find one in the universe, let alone here!"
His expression hardened. "Now, after everything you've done, you're lucky that I'm even offering you this chance, so I'd take it," he told Voldemort. "Basically, run."
Voldemort hissed. "You dare," he said. "You dare to order Lord Vo -" He broke off as Professor Smith inclined his head to the student body. Every single Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff student, plus one or two Slytherins, had taken out their wand and was pointing it at him. Chairs scraped behind him; he turned to see all the teachers aiming their wands at him, with the exception of Snape, who was being backed up against the wall by Hagrid.
This was all the encouragement Voldemort needed, and he turned on the spot and disapparated without another word, silently vowing revenge. His first port of call would be Azkaban; he was rather short on followers. Once his most loyal Death Eaters had been released, he could focus on that strange goldem 'Time Lord' energy...
Although everyone knew that Voldemort had escaped, it hadn't stopped the students finding an excuse for celebration, and after a desperate plea by the Weasley twins, the teachers had finally relented, and had organised a feast. Several hours later, though, it seemed that they too were enjoying themselves, and had forgotten to put a stop to it.
Professor Smith had joined in with a great enthusiasm, and after he had moved the TARDIS back to classroom six, he demonstrated his dancing skills, much to the delight of the younger year levels. The older students, on the other hand, all raised incredulous eyebrows, and threw looks at each other that asked 'is he serious?'
Eventually, though, Professor Smith grew tired of the dancing, and slipped out of the Hall quietly. Now that the zygons were no longer a threat, and Mouldy-wart had run away, there was no real need for him to remain at Hogwarts any longer. All he had to do was to visit the zygons and complete the paradox loop that made him return to Hogwarts to face Mouldy-wart when he had.
"Come on, old girl," he said, as he inserted the TARDIS key into the lock. "Time to go."
"Go? Where are you going?"
Professor Smith turned to see Harry, Hermione and Tonks standing in the doorway to classroom six.
"Away," he said, shrugging. "No more zygons, no more Mouldy-wart...you don't need me."
"Yes, we do," Hermione said. "Dumbledore wants to talk to you, and no doubt the Ministry will as well. Then we've got to fix up the castle and the forest, do our exams. Of course we need you!"
"Not to mention there's a few question we'd like to ask you, too," Ron said.
Professor Smith paused, shut the TARDIS door, and turned to face the four humans. Should he answer their questions? Yes, he should, some of them at least. Not too many, though, he wanted to get away!
"Questions? Okay then, what do you want to know?"
"Why didn't the avada kedavra kill you?" Tonks blurted out. "I mean, it is the killing curse, and it's meant to be unblockable."
"Well, as you know, I'm not human, I'm an alien," Professor Smith replied. "Basically, whenever my species is mortally wounded, we literally change our bodies and personalities to survive. There are only a few things in existence that stop the process from happening, a dose of charged particles isn't one of them."
"But you didn't need to die, did you?" Hermione asked. "You could've found a different way to defeat Voldemort."
"Well, yes, now you mention it. But the lingering effects of the time reverser would have eventually erased any memories that this body had experienced, essentially meaning that this version of me would never have existed. By regenerating, I stopped the memory wipe from occurring."
There was an awkward silence, before Ron piped up.
"What's happening with the zygon things, then?" he asked. "Are they leaving, or -?"
"Oh, they're leaving in the lake," Professor Smith said promptly. "Don't worry, they'll be quite peaceful."
"But you can't just arrange for an alien species to live here!" Tonks protested. "You have to go through the Ministry, and they have to be registered and everything!"
Professor Smith frowned. "The Ministry is not the boss of me," he said sternly. "As far as the zygons are concerned, they're living in the lake, no matter what the Ministry says."
"But the Ministry -"
"What the Ministry doesn't know, can't hurt them," Professor Smith grinned. "So don't tell them!"
He stood up. "Right, if that's all the questions, then I better be going. I've got things to do, places to go, people to see. Might pop in to say hello to the Ponds, I haven't seen them for a while, not since Christmas. Actually, I'm still late for that biplane lesson, I never did get around to it...No, wait, still got to take a short hop up to zygon land, give the General my sonic screwdriver, tell him to tell me some stuff when I get there again..." He whirled around and walked up to Tonks. "Screwdriver, please," he said.
Harry frowned. "You mean your wand? But Voldemort destroyed it in the Hall."
"I agree."
"So...how does Tonks have it?"
Professor Smith looked at their confused expressions in amazement. How could they not understand, it was simple!
"Come on," he said exasperatedly. "It's not hard. Tonks has the screwdriver, I take it to zygons, zygons give it to past me, past me takes it to Hall, it gets destroyed. The sonic screwdriver I used earlier is a future version of the one Tonks has. The zygons gave it to me when I vortex manipulatored there just before the ship exploded."
"Err, right..." Ron said, still confused.
Tonks smirked. "Don't worry, I understand you," she said, taking the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and giving it to Professor Smith, who smiled and chucked it in the air before catching it.
"Right, time to go!" he said, placing the screwdriver carefully in his pocket. "I'll guess I'll see you all another time then, hopefully in the near future. Well, that depends on your definition of 'near future'. Near future for me could be a hundred years, but only, I dunno, twenty for you -"
"Professor, you're rambling," Hermione interjected, an amused smile playing across her lips.
"Right, yes, sorry," Professor Smith said. He pushed open the TARDIS door, and made to enter it.
"Wait, Professor, there is one other thing," Harry said hurriedly.
Grumbling under his breath, Professor Smith once again closed the TARDIS doors. "Yes?"
"Well, um," Harry began. "It's just that me, Hermione and Tonks have had dreams about the zygons before they showed up. I mean," he continued. "The night before you came to Grimauld Place and found out Ron was a zygon, all three of us dreamt about the zygon, what it looked like, and then a few hours later, one turned up."
"Hang on, you had dreams?" Ron said, surprised. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Slipped our minds," Hermione said quickly.
"Not bloody likely," Ron muttered, but he let the subject drop.
"Anyway," said Harry. "A few nights before Tonks and I went to the Ministry, we both had a dream about a zygon and a time turner, and when we got to the Ministry, a zygon appeared, and he wanted a time turner."
Professor Smith looked thoughtfully at Harry. "I dunno, but it's some sort of psychic message, which seems to be able to predict the future. Could be a rift, or a crack, but it's not; I'd know...Ooh!"
"What?" Hermione asked eagerly. She was rather eager to find out what had been the cause of their dreams.
"TARDIS telepathic circuit," Professor Smith said proudly, patting the TARDIS fondly. "The TARDIS' matrix operates outside of your usual twelve dimensions, it can see the past and future. Has trouble with tenses," he whispered confidentially.
"What's a TARDIS?" Hermione said. "You mean your blue box?"
"Err, yeah." Professor Smith winced. "It's a spaceship, did I mention...?"
Harry, Ron and Hermione shook their heads.
"Oh, well, it is. It's how I travel, in time and space."
"Of course!" breathed Hermione. "So that explains it! Why you're –"
"So you're basically saying that your blue box sent us messages, warnings about the future?" Tonks asked.
Professor Smith nodded.
"That is so cool!" Tonks grinned. "Wait till I tell dad!"
Professor Smith turned once more to leave. "Okay, if that really is everything, can I go now please?"
"But you're coming back?" Hermione said sharply. "You can't just go running off!"
Professor Smith sighed. "Yes, fine, I'll come back, mother," he said grumpily. "I'll just go and visit the zygons, then come straight back."
"Good," Harry nodded, satisfied.
"Good," Professor Smith echoed, and he finally stepped inside the TARDIS. A few seconds later, the box shuddered, and a wheezing, groaning sound began. Slowly, the box began to fade away until nothing remained.
"D'you reckon he'll come back?" Tonks asked.
"Yeah," said Ron. "I trust him."
All four turned and made their way out of the classroom, only to bump into Professor Dumbledore.
"Have any of you seen Professor Smith?" the Headmaster asked. "I've got some rather pressing questions that I would like to ask him."
"You just missed him, sir," Harry said. "He's just left."
"Left?"
"He's gone," Harry shrugged.
"He says he'll be back, though," Hermione said.
Dumbledore sighed. "Well, as long as he's not gone long," he said. "I was rather hoping to talk to him...But as he has departed for the time being, let us return to the magnificent feast in the Great Hall."
As the group made their way back the Hall, Tonks rubbed her temples. She felt a little off balance, a little dizzy.
'Probably had too many butterbeers earlier; I did lose count!' she thought blearily. Maybe it was time to go to bed? No, she'd be fine; she could stick it out for another couple of hours.
Author note: This was the expostition chapter, where some questions raised during the story were answered, and others were left hanging. I think I've answered all of them, but if I've missed one, just let me know, and I'll put in an explanation in the next chapter. If I don't, then the answer will be in the sequel.
On another note, only one more chapter to go, and then we're finished! I'll be putting up a notice in the original story in a few days, just to let people who followed it know that this rewrite exists, and that the promised sequel is coming soon. With regards to when the sequel comes out, at this stage it will probably be the 11th of October, a week after the final chapter of this story is published. This date isn't set, though, hopefully it'll be the 8th instead.
Replies to reviews:
shtoops: Since this is the penultimate chapter of the story, the chances of Jack appearing are less than zero, I'm afraid. And he won't be appearing in the sequel, either. While I agree he is a good character to use in the HP universe, I can't see him fitting into any of my stories.
Insanityisgood25: If you don't like cliffhangers, wait till you read the next chapter! It's got the biggest cliffhanger of them all! Regarding your theories: 1) Nope, that's not the case. She's completely, 100% human, and there's no chameleon arch involved either. 2) Nope, but there's nothing stopping her becoming one... 3)Maybe, maybe not, you'll have to wait and see! And remember, her dad is a big sci-fi fan, so she knows a lot from all the movies and tv shows he used to watch.
Wonderbee31: Thanks! Hopefully my explanations as to what happened made sense.
Haven Wood: Of course! Thanks! Yeah, Tonks is really cool, and I wished we could have seen why she was an auror in the books and the movies...we're only told that she is one, and that's all we ever know. I think the chapter might have felt more rushed because the majority of events in it literally happen in under 45 minutes...things progressed very quickly!
Guest x1: The zygons: debatable. In different circumstances, they would have gained the upper hand. It's just lucky they were willing to negotiate! Voldemort: you're right there, he didn't stand a chance! Thanks!
TracyFace33: Thanks! Yes, I do agree that I need to put more thoughts in. When I go back and rewrite the rewrite (I'll just edit this story, I won't post another rewrite), that'll be one of my main priorities. While I'm happy with the way this story's turned out, there's still plenty of room for improvement! Thanks!
If I don't get any reviews for the first chapter, I won't lie, I do kinda feel disappointed. I shrug it off, though, because I recognise that one chapter isn't really enough for people to judge a story enough to leave a review (unless the first chapter's really long, or really good). I'll just keep posting/writing chapters, because ultimately, it doesn't matter how many people review, just as long as people have the opportunity to read a story that I've written and am proud of.
Guest x2: Chapters come every four days, but I'm sad to say that there's only one chapter of this story left!
SuOmAlAiNeN92: Maybe, maybe not! But basically, anything that wasn't answered in this chapter will be tied up in the sequel; next chapter will essentially be the conclusion. The events of this chapter should have answered your next question!
I would recommend publishing a rewrite only if you are going to introduce a lot of new story elements, while at the same time retaining the same basic plot. If you've just rewritten the story to improve the prose, just update the chapters of the original story.