Disclaimer: Nothing related to Doctor Who or the Harry Potter Series is mine. I swear. I wish I owned them, cuz then I might have a bit more money, but I don't.
Warnings: Book Two of Three (Main books anyway). Swearing. Sarcasm. I have only watched the new series, no knowledge of early Doctor Who. EWE, kind of...
Dedication: To the Writers and Producers of Doctor Who, thank you for giving me something else to obsess over, now that Harry Potter is long gone. And to the lovely people who encourage me to continue writing in their reviews. To the lovely people who encouraged me to post the next chunk
Book 2: Stories of A Shop Girl
Summary: A Death too soon. A woman who steps up to save the world.
Rating: Dark T
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Part 1: Just a Replacement?
Chapter 2: A Man in a Tweed Jacket
I drop my bag off in the interior of the TARDIS and race to the console.
"Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?" I blink.
He was different. A lot different. I couldn't imagine the Doctor in leather, but it suited this face. He was different, darker. Less childish.
I suppose that's what regeneration meant, but it was strange, seeing him, knowing him, and yet not really knowing him at all. Not being able to recognize the face across the room. I could still feel him, and the TARDIS, even though they were weaker because I was taking the potion.
Was he a future version? Or a Doctor from the past? He didn't know Rose Tyler, which means it's before her time with him, which most likely means that either his memories of her are erased, or he's from the past.
And if he's from the past, every move I make, every word I say could have potentially life altering ramifications to what happens in my future. With that thought, I grew terrified to even speak, knowing that one wrong move could change everything.
I couldn't even ask the real Rose Tyler for help. As she wasn't alive, her presence outside of her memories in my mind was completely gone. Unlike when I became the Matron, there was no voice inside my head, telling me what to do. There was no presence inside my mind, trying to take over. I was completely alone, trying to pretend to be someone I had never even met.
I mean, I made Mickey believe I was Rose, but that wasn't so hard. He barely noticed any difference. Jackie was hard to convince, but she knew. Anyone else either barely knew Rose, or had only met me pretending to be Rose. One wrong move, one wrong twitch, and the whole house of cards fell, and life as we know it would end. And I really couldn't lie very well.
My only comfort in this was the Doctor mentioning I was a lot like Rose Tyler. (Which of course made me wonder, am I like the real Rose Tyler, or am I like the me pretending to be Rose Tyler? Was this meant to happen, or am I just bandaging the wound of time and space?)
Backwards or forwards? I made the choice I would normally make. "Forwards."
He grins. "How far?"
"One hundred years." Something simple, and hopefully not life threatening. Hopefully something Rose would say.
He grins, and begins to flick switches and pull knobs. We stop. "There you go. Step outside those doors, it's the twenty second century." I grin.
I honestly doubt that he got it right. "You're kidding."
He takes it differently than I meant. "That's a bit boring, though. Do you want to go further?"
My mind drifts back to the last time I went far into the future, and the results of that life, before bringing myself back. "Fine by me." Rose seemed to be more competitive in nature. Jackie said she's more likely to challenge authority.
He works the TARDIS again, and we stop. "Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside, it's the year 12005, the new Roman Empire."
I snort. "You think you're so impressive."
He frowns. "I am so impressive." He says, defensively.
"You wish."
He grins at me. "Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go. Hold on!" I grab the console, careful not to touch anything important, and laugh.
We stop. "Where are we? What's out there?" He leads me out of the door, and we are in some form of gallery. And outside of the window, is the Earth. A classic Earth.
He steps beside me. "You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to be killed by eggs or beef or global warming, or asteroids. But you never take the time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty six. Five billion years in your future, ad this is the day..." He glances to his watch, "Hold on."
The sun flares and begins to turn red. I gasp.
"This is the day the Sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world." Internally, I snort. Not nearly as impressive as the end of the universe, but a close second.
We walk to another room, through corridors. A computer announces that the guests are arriving, and I ask him if it means humans. He says it means aliens.
"Mind you, when I said the great and the good, what I mean is, the rich."
I frown. "But, hold on. The sun expanding, that takes millions of years."
"The planet's now property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. See down there? Gravity satellites holding back the sun." I sigh.
"How long's it got?"
"About half an hour before the planet gets roasted."
"What about the people?"
"It's empty. They're all gone. No one left."
"Just me then."
"Who the hell are you?" A voice called, we both turn and see a blue man behind us. The Doctor evened things over by showing the steward his psychic paper.
Names were called, and people were introduced, and all I really wanted to do was run away. It was too much. So I did.
I saw Rose run off, and I figured it was due to culture shock. I'd give her a few minutes. The steward introduced the last names, and I turned.
"From the Bad Wolf Corporation, we have Rory and Amelia Pond-Williams and James and Maria Lupus."
The first two looked human, the man being dark haired and the woman having bright ginger hair, while the other two looked... strange. The man, oh dear, he was me.
I storm over to the two. "What the hell do you think you're doing, crossing timelines." The man, who was wearing tweed and a bow-tie, his eyes widened, and he paled.
"Oh, no. I know what happens next and I'd rather not get punched today." He said, trying to duck behind the woman.
I sigh. "Please don't tell me I'm a wimp."
"Oi! I'm not a wimp."
"Doctor." The redhead woman (Amelia Pond-Williams?) hissed.
"Pond, go play nice with the other aliens. We're only going to be here for a few minutes." Amelia sighed, before leading the other man (Rory?) off to the rest of the party.
Maria turned to look at me. "Ignore him. He knows you're going to get pissy and punch him, and he'd rather not let that happen."
"I kinda want to punch him now."
She sighs. "Well, do it after he gets back from doing what he's supposed to be doing." She commented, shooing him away. He glared at her before leaving.
"So, who are you then?"
She laughs. "Oh, you know. Your future. Can't tell you. Spoilers." She smiles. She frowns. "I never got to..." And then she leans into kiss me.
I let her, than back away. "I thought you and me, well future me..." She laughs.
"Oh, yes. Well, it is a ridiculously long story. But you are you, no matter what ends up happening." She gives me a radiant smile. "You can't mention this to Rose. Or me, when you see me again."
"Why not?"
She grins. "I'm at the end of our time loop. You barely just begun. You haven't even met me for the first time yet." She pauses. "Well my first time. This whole thing is wibbly-wobbly, and timey-whimy." She grins. I laugh.
"Then why'd you kiss me?"
She gives me a smirk. "Incentive."
She thinks a moment, then hands me something. I glance down, seeing a key. "What's this for then?"
"The maintenance duct is behind our guest suite, but we won't be staying. You're going to need the key."
She glances up, and sees the other me walking back into the room. He nods to her, and she smiles at him. Glancing over my leatherclad shoulder, she looks for her other friends.
"Ponds! We're leaving, with or without you!" She calls, turning and taking the other me's arm. She turns back to me and gives me a wink. I sigh. I'm supposed to punch him. I forgot. I stop him, and he flinches.
"Listen, I don't know what exactly happens between now and your now, but I bet I should do this." I comment, before punching him.
"Ow! You punched me!" He whined.
Maria laughs. "Come on, sugar. We've got things to do, and I think that blinking light in the TARDIS is HQ calling needing back up. And besides, I think Craig and Sophie are done babysitting."
I blink, hearing the last of dregs of their conversation. Damn. I went domestic.
Meanwhile, with Hermione...
I was sitting in one of the rooms, attempting to come to terms with what had actually happened, and how I ended up here of all places, when someone came and sat down beside me.
"Hello, it looks like you need someone to talk to." He commented. I looked at him. Tweed, a bowtie, and a fez. Flippy hair and the appearance of a puppy. Inside his tweed jacket, suspenders.
"Look, I don't know who you are but-"
He cuts me off, "Yes you do. Or you will..." He frowns. "Time travel does wonders to your grammar." I frown.
"Alright then, who are you?"
"Hermione Granger, I can't believe you don't remember me after all we've been through. Or will be through." I laugh, and then freeze, noticing what he called me.
"I don't know who you're talking about, Hermione Granger. You must have me confused with someone else. I'm Rose Tyler."
He frowns. "No, you're pretending to be Rose Tyler." I look at him. No one knows that but Jackie currently.
"How do you..." I trailed off, and looked in his eyes. Something finally fit.
"Doctor?!" I almost yelled. He grins.
"The one and only."
I laugh. "Are you hear to take me back to my time or something, and fix it so that the real Rose Tyler can take her place in this time, or something?"
He smiles at me. "No, you're right where you need to be."
I look away. "Right, like I believe that."
He smiles. "Well, there is one way to prove it. You need to live it. And to live it, you need this." He said. I turned back to him, to see him holding up a locket.
It's about the size of his fob watch, only golden. And there are swirls of TARDIS blue stones inlaid in it. "What is it?"
He smiles. "Well, there's a simple answer, which gives away too much of your future, and a more complex answer, which gives away too much of my future. Or there's the easy answer, which is just annoying. You'll find out in time. For now, it is an interface. It will keep track of how long it's been since you need to take your potion, and a few other things."
I look at him. "Why?"
"Because, you're meant to have this." He smiles. "Oh, and I'm also supposed to tell you about our little tradition here. To make sure I know it is you, you have to tell me 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. But really it's only between this me and you." I frown, but nod, hoping one day he would make sense.
"You're not making any sense."
He smiles. "When have I ever made sense, Mia?" He grins. He leans in and snogs me. When we pull back, I'm flustered.
"What was that for?"
"Incentive. It's a long road to get to where I am." He gets up to leave, and I stop him.
"Is it worth it?" He looks at me and grins.
"I'd live my life a hundred more times, willingly, if I knew where I ended up. Trust me. I may be harsh now, but you change me. Make me a better man. Just like you claim that I ended up changing you." I give him a watery smile, and I try not to cry. He crouches down, and takes my face in his hands. "Hermione Jean Granger, I swear, it will be painful. It will be long. But it will be so worth it in the end." He kisses my forehead, and then gets up and walks away.
I sigh, rubbing at my cheeks, hoping that the ridiculous amount of mascara that Rose Tyler normally wears wouldn't run.
"Rose? Are you in there?" The Doctor calls. The other Doctor, the one I came here with. He enters and I turn to him.
"Aye, aye." He's grinning, and I grin back. "What do you think, then?"
I smile. "A little culture shock, but not too bad."
He smiles. He looks down and glances at the locket. "Where'd you get that?"
Thinking on the spot, I came up with a rather easy answer of "I slipped it in my pocket when we stopped by home. I forgot about it, and when I checked my pocket for my cellphone, I found it." He nods. I slip it on, quickly hiding it under my shirt, like the Philosopher's Stone and the broken time-turner. "So, I've learnt a little bit about aliens, but not a lot about you. Where are you from?" He looks at me.
"All over the place."
I sigh. "Who are you, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?" I'd rather get these questions out of the way, because then I don't have to fake not knowing it.
"I'm just the Doctor." I frown.
"From what planet?"
"Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is!"
I get a little angry. "Where are you from?"
"What does it matter?"
"Tell me who you are!"
"This is who I am, right here, right now, alright? All that counts is right here and now, and this is me."
I stop a moment, and look at him. Really look at him. And then I realize, he's just come from the war. He's just... Oh. "Alright. My friend's always saying, don't argue with the designated driver." I reach for my phone, trying to make him laugh. "Can't exactly call for a taxi." I glance at the phone. "There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit."
He laughs. "Tell you what." He takes the phone from me, and begins to take it apart. "With a little jiggery pokery."
"Is that a technical term, jiggery pokery?"
"Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?"
"Naw, I failed hullabaloo." He smiles. Whatever he's done to my phone, he hands it back.
"Oh. There you go." I give him a look. I phone Jackie.
"Hello?" My eyes widen. Oh.
"Mum?" I say, knowing he probably would question me calling my mother (or at least, who he thinks as my mother) Jackie.
"Oh, what is it? What's wrong? What have I done now? Oh, this red top's falling to bits. You should get your money back. Go on." I laugh. "There must be something. You've been gone for three weeks, and haven't phoned me."
"Oh, just wanted to make sure you got my note."
"'Course I got your note sweetheart. You have fun. And visit when you can."
"I'm sorry."
"No need. I knew this day was coming eventually. It's just a little hard, some days."
"I'll try and visit when I can."
We say goodbye, and I look at the Doctor. "You think that's amazing, you want to see the bill."
"That was five billion years ago. So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, and she's dead."
"Bundle of laughs you are."
The ground shakes, and the Doctor looks up. I look at him. "I take it that's not supposed to happen?" He frowns, grabs my hand and runs to the main room.
Overhearing a little blue man speaking, he said "Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf scenario..." I shiver, feeling the name rush through me. The Doctor mentioned those words following them, but this was something else.
"That wasn't a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that." He comments. He turns to one of the trees. And she tries to figure out what we are. After enough of her insulting me, I am fed up.
"Whatever I am, it must be invisible. Do you mind?!" I sigh. "Tell you want, you two go and pollinate, I'm going to catch up with family." I look, trying to find the trampoline. "Quick word with Michael Jackson."
I walk off, and he calls after me, telling me not to start a fight. I smile. He either knows me too well, or not at all.
She's commenting on how she used to live on the planet, and all I want right now is to shut her up, because she's just making a fool of herself to anyone who knows the real history of Earth. Or even geography.
"So, what happened to the human race?"
She glances at me, as much as she can, mind, given that she has no head to turn. "They say mankind has touched every star in the sky."
"Then why are you the last human? There've got to be billions of them."
She glared. "I am the last pure human."
"Right, the last one who's currently no more human than I am Dalek."
She sneers at me.
"I was born on that planet. That makes me officially the last human being in this room, 'cos you're not human. You've has it all nipped and tucked and flattened till there's nothing left. Anything human got chucked in the bin. You're just skin, Cassandra. Lipstick and skin. Nice talking."
I walk away, only to walk into one of the cleaners of the Face of Boe. He's wearing a hood, and I glance up. I see Harry Potter grinning down at me.
"I forgot what it was like seeing you tear into people, Hermione. Or should I call you Rose Tyler."
I flung my arms around him, thankful for someone that I knew. "I found him."
"I know you did." I look up.
I sigh. "You're alive. So alive."
"You've seen my death." He said flatly. It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyway, tears welling up in my eyes. "I figured, you know. The second I saw you in Grimmauld before that thing with the Master. You had more power. That only would have happened, if you'd seen..." He trails off. Something plays across his face.
When he looks back down at me, he grins. "Have you met the Face of Boe before?" I smile.
"Yes. You call him Bo-bo." Harry grins.
"That I do. He's a good man."
I smile, "Captain Jack Harkness always was." He snorts.
"So you know the secret. You know, Jack might want to see those memories again." I smile, but shake my head.
"I can't. The thing is, I'm taking the polyjuice potion, and pretending to be a muggle."
Something flickers in Harry's eyes, gone too fast for me to place. "Right. I forgot."
I blink. "Forgot what?"
He laughs nervously. "The boss would kill me if I answered that question. And it just might create a paradox." I frown.
"What?"
He laughs, trying to move on. "Promise you will know eventually, but right now I can't tell you at all." He glances at me. "I see you are still wearing Interface?"
I frown, glancing at my necklace. "Interface? Is that it's name. The future Doctor just gave it to me." Harry frowns.
"Damn, I think I am giving way too much away." He rubs a hand over his face. "This is so much simpler after..." He trails off, giving me a look.
"After what?"
"Can't say. Besides, I think your Doctor just came in. I suggest that we stop talking. We can't know each other, not yet."
I am honestly about to smack him, but he walks away before I can. I sigh, walking away, to almost run into a group called the Silence. They glance at me, and I see something rise up. It falls and I get knocked out.
I wake to the sound of a computer saying "Sun filter descending." I glance at the window, to see it slowly coming down. Brilliant time to be without my magic.
I run to the doors and start pounding on them. "Let me out!" I yell, over and over. Until I hear:
"Anyone in there?"
The Doctor. "Get me out!"
"Oh, well, it would be you."
I am going to smack him later for that. "Open the door!"
"Hold on, give us two ticks."
The sun fliter begins rising, and I sigh with relief. It starts falling again.
"Just what we need. The computer's getting cleaver." I glare at the door. I run to the panel, trying to work on things at my end.
I fix it quicker than he did. "Sun filter rising." With another few wires connecting, I open the slightly charred doors.
"How'd you do that?"
I roll my eyes. "Basic computer knowledge. Mickey good with computers, I picked up a thing or two." A straight up lie. I taught myself all I know about computers.
I run to the main room, to see everyone panicking.
The tree-woman, Jabe comes up, "The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One."
Cassandra starts making a fuss, which I ignore. Harry gives me a nod, and I smile.
"Someone brought their little pet on board. Let's send them back to master."
He takes a little metal spider and everyone watches as it moves to Cassandra, before walking towards the Silence.
I sigh. "That's impossible. The Silence is a religious group. They couldn't be here in person, so they sent androids. Which is great for a distraction. Who's the real culprit?" Harry comments.
"Nice cover for the real trouble maker. Go on, Jimbo. Go home." The Doctor said, giving the spider a nudge. It goes and walks to Cassandra.
She glares. "I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed. At arms!" Her attendants raise their sprayer nozzles, and I raise an eyebrow.
The Doctor comments first. "What are you going to do, moisturize me?"
"With acid. Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just a pretty face."
"Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it? How stupid's that?"
"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous."
I snort. "Five billion years later and it still comes down to money."
"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, not you Rose!"
"Actually, neither of you lot are the last human. Either of you. There's still me." Harry came forward, looking between Cassandra and me.
"And who are you?" Cassandra asked. He stepped in front of her, and looked straight at her. "Death! Death! Turn me away. He's Death! Spiders activate." She teleports away, leaving everyone in a state of confusion.
"Alright, I'm going to manually reset the computer, everyone stay put." Harry said, before disappearing himself.
I put my hand to my head, shaking it at Harry's actions. "Where'd pretty boy go?" The Doctor said, coming up to me.
"Probably to go reset the computers."
"Do you know him?"
I sigh. "I met him briefly, we talked."
"Right."
The glass in the windows starts cracking, and we all begin freaking out a little. And then:
"Exoglass repair." The computer repeated. The cracks begin to vanish, and all is right.
"Alright. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby." He walks over to the ostrich egg, and smashes it. "Idea number three, if you're as cleaver as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed." The Doctor does something with the feed, and Cassandra is transported back in.
"People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them." I spoke, giving her a look. Harry appeared right behind me.
Cassandra gives me what might be a winning grin, "It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court then, and watch me smile and cry and flutter."
The Doctor has an evil grin. "And creak?"
Cassandra frowns. "And what?"
Harry comes forward. "Creak. You're creaking."
Cassandra looks scared. "What? Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturize me, moisturize me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"
"You raised the temperature." The Doctor commented.
Cassandra started pleading. "Help her." I all but yell at the Doctor, at Harry.
"Everything has its time and everything dies." I don't know which one says it, but I watch Cassandra, and turn away just before she snaps.
I look outside the window, staring at the end result of Earth. "The end of the Earth. It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It's just..."
I've been to the end of the universe. I've dealt with so much. But to see this, the end of the Earth. It was huge.
"Come with me." The Doctor takes my hand and leads me into the TARDIS. I sit in shock, still thinking back on the end of the Earth. He pulls me back out those doors, and we're in London again. On Charring Cross Road. People are going about their daily lives, and it feels so strange.
It's like the first time I went into Diagon Alley, when I was a child. Coming back to somewhere normal, where I grew up. Everything looked strange, warped, like it shouldn't be there, but it should at the same time.
"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before it's time." The Doctor said, trying to empathize.
And I did. Empathize with him. More than I ever had before. To watch you home be destroyed, and not be able to do anything. To be the one to destroy it. I couldn't...
"What happened?" I asked.
He swallows. "There was a war and we lost."
"A war with who? What about your people?"
He looks away, staring into the distance, as if it would make the pain hurt less. It never did. "I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm left travelling on my own 'cos there's no one else."
"There's me." Which I'm going to continue to make happen.
He looks down at me. "You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?"
"I don't know. I want..." I pause, sniffing the air. "Oh, can you smell chips?"
He gives me a look. Something screaming, crazy human. "Yeah."
"I want chips." I said, internally pulling myself back together again.
"Me too."
I smile. "Right then, before you get me back in that box, chips it is, and you can pay."
"No money." He says, giving me a smile. I sigh.
"What sort of date are you? Come on then, tightwad, chips are on me. We've only got five billion years till the shops close."
And we sat. We ate chips. Something so normal for me. I'd never done it with the Doctor before. With the other one, it was always run for your life, or 'oh we've got less than an hour to save this ship' or 'we need to stay put, and I need to detect timey-wimey stuff'. We'd never done anything like this.
As much as this version of the Doctor claims he doesn't do domestic, looking at him, here and now, this was pretty domestic. Grabbing a bite to eat.
What else would I learn about him and Rose?