I'm back!:D hopefully you all haven't disappeared. I've finally outlined the entire story. Really excited. It's all coming together!
The Doctor paused at the sound of Slytherin's voice. "Say that again, Sally?" he said lightly. In truth, he was anxious to get moving. Harry was pale from blood loss, he couldn't wait to see how Helga would heal him and there was a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view – no, wait, wrong fictional universe.
"Not you. You and your companion coming with me," hissed Salazar sibilantly. How could one hiss when there were no S's in that sentence? The Doctor resolved to find out sometime.
"No one to tell us no, or where to go," he sang. To his immense gratification, Salazar looked even more rancorous. He swept across the carpet of dead leaves, cloak scratching an ominous autumn symphony, until he was unnervingly close to the Doctor. He poked him in the chest.
"I don't think," he snarled, "that you quite comprehend the gravity of your situation. You mysteriously appear out of thin air in a magic box, wandless, yet you understand all of our secrets and expect to be initiated into our most sacred of dwellings! I, for one, have a few questions! Who are you, why are you here, and why do you look so very familiar – "
"Step away from me," the Doctor enunciated very carefully. Slytherin met his eyes challengingly, which just a moment ago had been a friendly brown. Now they were black as night. "Do not presume totouch me again. I need no wand to take your life from you, Salazar Slytherin." He leaned over the smaller man, who hastily stepped back. The Doctor felt a little silly saying those words, especially since he was certain Slytherin could kill him with two words and a flick of the wrist, but he hoped he'd made a point. Slytherin's reputation from the novels was too menacing to ignore. He hoped bravado would be a strong enough safeguard. "I am older and far, far more powerful than you could ever be. You cannot hope to challenge me." He lowered his voice dramatically. "So don't even try." He took a slow step forward, and Slytherin scrambled back. He tripped on his red serpent's-tail robe and then scrambled past the Doctor after Hufflepuff. After a safe distance he looked back and slowed to a dignified walk.
The Doctor strung a long arm around Hermione's shoulder. "Well, that was fun," he said cheerfully. She looked startled. "Not every day you get to threaten one of the most powerful wizards in existence and not have a single nosehair harmed."
She giggled. "You were quite imposing. I actually believed for a moment that you could kill him without a second thought."
"And who says I couldn't, Hermione Granger?" He wagged a finger at her. "Never underestimate a bloke in a trenchcoat. If you learn nothing else from time travelling, I hope you learn that." Her giggles became laughs as they strode up the green path into the forest.
Heylookyit'salinebreak
They caught up to Helga in a mossy little clearing. Slytherin was nowhere to be seen, but the ground was dominated by five stately white barracks. They were simple, constructed of cloth and sticks, large enough for perhaps ten people, and temporary looking. Each had a different sigil on it: a lion, an eagle, a serpent, a badger and a wolf. The Doctor recognized the first four as the symbols of the four Houses, but the wolf was unfamiliar to him. The tent with that insignia was half dissassembled.
He and Hermione hurried over to the tent with the badger on it, where they could see Helga inside bending over Harry. Dried herbs hung from the ceiling, outlined by a friendly yellow firelight. Comfortably fat armchairs dotted the dirt floor. A cauldron emanated earthy scents. In the corner, a simple bookshelf contained impressive looking tomes.
Helga's lips moved soundlessly. All of a sudden Harry sat up. "Whuzzah – " he muttered, bleary eyed. The breath was knocked out of him as Hermione hugged him fiercely.
"Thank Merlin," she said in relief. The Doctor was a little surprised to see a tear coursing down her face. He realized that with Ron gone, Harry was her only friend left who understood what she was going through. Hermione sat back and hurriedly wiped her face.
"What did I miss?" Harry asked sleepily.
The Doctor laughed a little. "Harry, meet Helga Hufflepuff. She just rid you of a very nasty headache." Harry froze in surprise, staring at the round, redclad figure bustling about the tent.
"We went back in time!" Hermione explained excitedly. "And Harry, they're all here! All the founders! And Gryffindor had the sword!"
"Oh, and I threatened Slytherin," inserted the Doctor casually. Helga looked alarmed.
"He'll have your head and family jewels for that, he will," she muttered. "Sally doesn't take kindly to being put in his place."
"Ah, so Sally is his nickname!" cried the Doctor delightedly. "Thought it had a nice ring."
Shaking her head, Helga left the tent. The Doctor left Hermione to her wild explanations and Harry to his silent mouthing and followed her. "Where are we going?" he asked happily. Somewhere exciting, he hoped.
"I," said Helga, "am off to speak with Godric and Rowena in private. You are going to stay right here." She fixed him with a stern look, obviously sizing him up as a troublemaker.
Probably Jackie Tyler's great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother or something. Her voice had the same commanding, maternal tone. He struck a salute. "Yes, ma'am!" She looked confused at the gesture, but turned and continued forward all the same. The Doctor waited till she was out of sight. He had a few questions. One of Salazar's comments was burning in his head: why do you look so familiar? He meant to find out the answer
The Doctor padded over to the nearest tent, which was Ravenclaw's judging by the eagle. He peeked inside. The tent was dark. The cold, sharp smells of mint and pine stung the air. The only light came from small glowing points of light on the sloping roof of the barrack. As the Doctor studied them, he realized they were constellations. They were so bright he could read the small letters of the books all around him. There were far more books than in Helga's tent, although the atmosphere was much less friendly. A spartan bed occupied the corner. His attention was caught by a small object that looked like it had been quickly hidden under the bed. Only the tip was peeking out. He moved towards it and pulled it out a little. It was a moderately-sized velvet case, splashed with the silver image of a delicate crown across the top.
"The diadem," he said softly. It was likely protected by Anti-Theft charms, so he regretfully replaced it, unopened, under the bed.
Leaving Rowena's tent, he moved towards the one painted over with a silver serpent, only to hesitate when he detected a voice. The spirant syllables were certainly Slytherin's. He seemed to have been waiting for Helga to leave, for the Doctor had not heard him earlier.
Well, this was an intriguing development.
The Doctor crept forward silently. He was barely able to make out the murmurs, but he caught most of it.
"My lord, he threatened me! Me! Wandless, he dared threaten me. He has some form of concealed power."
There was an answer. The voice was so deep and low that it thrummed in the Doctor chest. His two hearts slowed. He could not perceive the words.
"He called himself...Doctor." Slytherin pronounced the unfamiliar word carefully. "The girl was Her my nee, the boy was Harry – "
His words were drowned out by a concussive roar. It was powerful, yet quiet enough that it would not carry past the Doctor, almost as if someone had turned down the volume. And hearing it, the Doctor felt himself shiver. It was a sound filled with something more than rage, something impossibly old and frustrated beyond comprehension.
It was like the sound the Doctor had heard as he closed the time-lock on his own race, the sound of a million voices crying for his blood, for mercy, for help. A sound of utter despair. A sound of unutterable rage. His body rang with it. He tried to slough it off, but a sense of familiar, inescapable dread had settled on him. He attempted to focus on the rest of Salazar's conversation.
"...did not know! My lord, what am I to do in your stead?"
A rumbling voice.
"But the creature is not yet prepared! I have only half driven it to madness. What if it should turn on me, instead of the interlopers?"
A reply.
"Y-yes, my lord," came Salazar's agonized reply. "Of course I am ready to do whatsoever you require. You may depend on me..."
The Doctor did not hear the rest of the conversation. He quietly stole away from the tent and dashed up the path where Helga had disappeared.
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He burst out of the line of trees onto the shore of a slate-grey lake. Stopping to catch his breath, he took in his surroundings. Growly looking sky. Troubled waters. And across the lake were the foundations of a monolithic building.
The Doctor's eyes widened. The lake. The Forest. The building must be Hogwarts, as it looked in the early days of its formation!
"Incredible," he breathed. What he wouldn't give to see Hogwarts finished. Maybe another day, when a homicidal all-powerful wizard wasn't pledging his own life to kill the Doctor. Ah well.
Looking around some more, he spotted bright red robes a little ways down the shoreline. Helga, Godric and Rowena were deep in conversation, punctuated by angry gestures and occasional shouting, which he could hear as he got closer.
"...care not what that thrice-befouled tiara whispered in your ear!" shouted Gryffindor. "Sal is a loyal friend, he always has been, and what is more – "
"What is more," pushed in Helga anxiously, "is that our dear friend has been secretive, more than ever, and Rowena heard him muttering in his tent at night."
"I mutter," said Godric defensively. "I even walk around once in a while."
"Yes, but he was talking to someone, and – " She cut off as she saw the Doctor hurrying over. "Yes Doctor? Is Harry recovered fully?"
"Yes, he's fine," panted the Doctor. "Listen, I think Salazar's got it in for us."
Godric swelled like an angry bantam rooster, Helga looked sad but unsurprised, and Rowena's expression did not change. "What did you hear, Doctor?" she asked calmly.
"He was talking in his tent to some mysterious force," the Doctor explained rapidly. "About how he had driven something to madness and that he was going to set it on me and my companions."
Rowena turned impassively to the other two. "The creature," she said.
Godric muttered rebelliously and turned a distrustful eye on the Doctor. "And why should we believe you?"
"You shouldn't," the Doctor said sadly. Watching Hermione's intense relief at Harry's recovery had thrown Gryffindor and Slytherin's relationship into sharp relief. The first friendship had trust and affection on both sides. In the second, those feelings only came from Gryffindor.
Rowena looked at him closely. Her luminous eyes pierced him like a lantern in the dark. "Let us visit the creature," she decided. "We shall see if it is half-mad, as you claim." Taking hold of the Doctor's arm, she spun around three times.
"What – " began the Doctor, and then the breath was stolen from his mouth as they twisted away. They landed hard on a stone surface. "Apparition," he said excitedly. "Amazing! Like a personal TARDIS, but with less...blue."
"Doctor," Rowena said. "It appears we have to let you into our confidence. Although we have just met, you strike me as a person to trust. I know not why...but your face is familiar to me."
"That's what Sally said."
"And just now, as I was pondering in thought alone in my tent, the diadem whispered to me that you were here to lend us aid."
"The Doctor, here to help!" The Doctor said cheerfully.
She did not blink. "And so, trusting that, I propose to my three companions that we inform him of all that we know." When Helga nodded vigorously and Godric harrumphed, she began her story.
So. Little details are important. I hope you caught them :) Please please review! I really appreciate it. I've taken so much time to outline and write...I hope it was worth it. Please let me know if there's any way I can improve, or what you liked :) thankssss loves!