Chapter 4: To Save Clara

The Doctor hated having to try and explain himself. He really hated having to try and explain himself to idiots. So dealing with these humans, who understood nothing he said, and were constantly asking questions about dark magic was infuriating. They weren't even interesting characters, just some annoying secondary Aurors.

"Alright, I will only talk to Harry Potter!" The Doctor yelled, causing the men to roll their eyes and mutter. They must get that a lot, he realised. It wasn't just in Clara's world where Harry was famous.

"He's at St Mungo's," one of the men explained. "He's there with a patient, the one who was near the blue box. The one who got sick."

Clara. The Doctor jumped to his feet and the men pointed their wands at him. "Clara!" he yelled. "That's her. I know what happened to her and I know how to fix her." They looked sceptical. "I'm the only one who can save her now, so please, listen to me. Take me to her. Or I swear, she will die and I will hold you responsible." There was a dangerous edge to his voice here. "Trapped alone, on this planet, without Clara? You'd be taking away the only thing I have left to lose. God knows what I'd do then."

The men backed off. They left the room and two new people entered, Ron Weasley and Delores Umbridge. The Doctor's breath caught in his mouth.

"Who are you?" Ron demanded.

"I'm The Doctor. Huge fan of yours Ron, absolutely huge. You were my favourite character, well apart from Dumbledore of course, and Hermione and McGonagall and well, frankly Neville but hey apart from them…big fan. I reread the books every time I get a new face, refresh them in my memory. But never mind, I'm rambling again. Clara, I can help her."

"What happened to her?" Ron demanded.

"Why are you working with Umbridge?" The Doctor retorted. "I refuse to answer anything in her presence."

"I hate her as much as you do," Ron muttered. "Get out. NOW!" Umbridge obliged. "So what happened to the girl? Clara you called her?"

"Clara is being poisoned by magic," The Doctor explained. "She's not used to living in a world where it exists, so it's killing her. I have the algorithm to ensure that her body won't be harmed by it inside my scre- wand. But it's tuned to my wand only so only I can rescue her. You have to let me go and save her. Every minute she spends in St Mungo's is killing her."

"Why would magic harm her?" Ron snapped. "What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do anything!" The Doctor snapped back. "We're travellers, we travel through time and space and crashed here. We come from a world without magic, so the amount of magic in this world was toxic to her. You have to believe me, she'll tell you it herself when she wakes up."

"The healers say she won't wake up," Ron replied quietly. "There's nothing more that they can do."

"But I can save her!" The Doctor yelled and slammed his hands on the desk. "I will not let you stop me Ron Weasley. So you can either take me there to help her, or I will go there myself."

Ron pulled out his wand but the Doctor flashed it away with a flick of his sonic. Now that it was in tune with the field, he could operate it like a wand. Ron looked murderous and the Doctor tried his hardest to defuse the situation.

"Please," he whispered. "I'll tell you whatever you need to hear, but first, I need to save Clara. My Clara. It's my fault she's here. I asked her to fly away with me and now she's stuck here, in this world. And there's nothing I can do about that. If I can't get her home, the least I can do is give her a happy life here, try and repair the damage I've done. Because she's saved me more times than I can remember, probably than I even know. I love her Ron and she's dying here and I will not let her go. Do you hear me? And besides, if there's nothing anyone can do then it won't hurt if I go and see her will it?"

Luckily, Ron relented and sat back down. He nodded to the guards and they opened the door. The Doctor rushed out of it but Ron grabbed his arm as he passed.

"I'm going with you. And any funny business, you'll have earned yourself a one-way trip to Azkaban."

Harry was dozing off when the door crashed open. A strange man in a grey waistcoat came running in, over to Clara's side. Ron was two steps behind him. Harry exchanged a look with his friend and then looked over at the man, who had placed his hand in the girl's and he kissed her forehead.

"You can't save her," Harry said quietly. "There's nothing to be done for her. She has only a few minutes now."

"That's where you're wrong," the man replied, pulling out a short, silver wand that glowed green. "I'm The Doctor and I'm going to help her. Clara, come on Clara wake up… wake up!"

Clara's eyelids fluttered open and she gazed up at the Doctor who had arrived to save her. She sat up slowly and flung her arms around him. He kissed the top of her head as they moved apart and she clung to him to stay upright.

"What happened?" she asked him quietly. "The last thing I remember, the TARDIS crashed. Where did we end up?"

"You're not going to believe this," The Doctor grinned at her. "Look behind me!"

Clara glanced over his shoulder and gasped. She pointed at Harry and waved her arms around wildly gesticulating. "Is that Harry Potter?" she yelped. "The Harry Potter! We landed in Harry Potter world!"

"Is it?" The Doctor swivelled. "Oh yes, so it is, I didn't notice."

"You didn't notice you were in a room with Harry Potter?" Clara asked sceptically.

"The only thing I noticed was you," he replied tenderly. "You were dying. The magic in this world reacted badly with your body. Luckily, I managed to tune in the sonic and use it to save you."

"My Doctor…" Clara muttered, kissing him on the chin. "So, Harry Potter huh?"

"I know!"

"Excuse me?" Harry interrupted. "You said you were a Doctor? Doctor Who?"

"That's the one," Clara replied with a grin. "He's just called The Doctor. And oh my stars, I'm talking to Harry Potter…so where's the TARDIS?"

"What's a TARDIS?" Ron asked confused.

"Is that the big blue box that's leaking dark magic?" Harry snapped, standing to his feet and pointing his wand at the Doctor who swivelled. Clara put her hands up.

"Dark magic?" she whispered.

"Oh put your hands down," The Doctor put her hands down for her. "It's not dark magic, but they don't understand what it really is. All they understand is magic; they don't comprehend the complicated energy fields that they're utilising and how they work. They see something new, something they don't understand and assume that it's dark magic. Humans," he said with distaste in his voice. "They always assume the worst." Clara elbowed him.

"If it's not dark magic, like you claim," Ron mused. "Then what the hell is that box leaking?"

"Time energy," The Doctor grumbled. "She was damaged, badly damaged. But if she's leaking that energy, then that means…"

"Means what?" Clara asked, as his face lit up.

"It means that she still has something left to leak. If I can get back to her and shore her up…"

"She could still fly?" Clara asked, grinning wickedly and high-tenning The Doctor.

"You called her she again," The Doctor grinned, causing Clara to punch him playfully. "And yes, providing she can stabilise to this time zone and I can stop the Eye exploding and blowing up the planet but don't worry about that," he added hurriedly. "The sonic is tuned into the energy field, so I can use that to plug it into the TARDIS. Ooh. Hello. Power source."

"You mean the magic right? You've turned the sonic into a wand? And you can use that to fly the TARDIS? Like a broom?" Clara was beaming now and The Doctor nodded. "Exactly. And once she's flying, if the dimension tunnel is still there…"

"We can use it to go home?" Clara asked, grinning. She then pulled a face. "I kind of want to stay a bit longer, meeting Harry Potter and all that jazz."

"I'm sorry Clara, but who knows how long that tunnel might be open for? It could already be shut. We have no time to lose." He turned to Harry and Ron. "Take me to the blue box!"