Chapter 11 – Back To School
Romana slammed the Rani's TARDIS door shut and stomped out into the forest. She always hated talking with that woman, a scientist who valued her precious experiments more than anything else. She was so cold and clinical Romana sometimes thought she would get more sense out of a brick wall. The Rani of the Time War had been slightly different, she still valued scientific research but there was a purpose to her experiments, the continuation of the Time Lords. The woman who Romana had just spoken to was a shell of her past self, quietly living out her days in solitude, almost totally without purpose and surviving on the memories of her past glories. The brunette wasn't sure why she asked the Rani to help, maybe out of pity for her loneliness or maybe Romana was just being selfish and wanted another member of her species around.
The Time Lady found Harry and Ron standing nervously a few metres away from the camouflaged TARDIS, their wands ready to defend themselves if necessary. The pair almost looked surprised that she was alone, "Is your friend not coming?" Harry asked.
"The Rani isn't anyone's friend, especially not mine", Romana spat and marched past the wizards without a second glance. She didn't even wait to see if they were following her, all she was concerned about was getting back to her TARDIS and flying away.
"Did you two have an argument?" Ron began, "because I can go back and have a word with her".
Romana smiled to herself at Ron's brave if slightly foolish suggestion, "Thank you for the offer Ron but the Rani has graciously granted us free passage off her planet. It would be wise to take that offer because you have no idea what she's capable of".
Whether the red heads offer was serious or not, his attempt to make Romana feel better had the desired effect and with most of the tension gone, the Time Lady's pace back to the TARDIS slowed. Now that she was able to enjoy the beauty of the planet, Romana realised that the Rani couldn't have picked a better spot to live. The planet would always remain untouched by external forces and if the Rani desired, she could live out the rest of her lives in peace and solitude.
Her natural time sense told her that the Rani had only regenerated once since the Time War and she still had several regenerations left, should she choose to use them. It was rare for a Time Lord or Lady to voluntarily choose not to regenerate but her people were in uncharted territory now. With just a handful left in existence and with no home planet, would the other three members of her species choose to regenerated? The Doctor probably would, if Romana knew him as well as she thought then he would be up to his neck in trouble saving the universe. The Master would choose to live on, it wasn't in his style to end his existence prematurely. The Rani on the other hand was a slightly trickier person to read, she couldn't be happy living on a primitive planet like this one but to refuse regeneration, Romana wasn't sure.
Something the Rani said though did resonate with the former President, if she wanted to be happy then she needed to do something she was good at. Saving planets was more the Doctor's thing but she had acquired a taste for it during their travels. She had failed to keep Gallifrey safe and Romana was determined that the same fate wouldn't befall the wizarding world. "Is that usual for your people", Harry's question broke Romana out of her thoughts, "using other planets as their personal playthings?"
The venom in Harry's question stung Romana, "Of course not, the Time Lords had a strict non interference policy", she snapped, "unfortunately there was a few renegades who disagreed with that philosophy". Romana sighed to release some of her tension, "The Doctor loves Earth and humanity, he only would've interacted with the wizarding world if he felt it was in danger".
"And the Rani?" Ron chipped in.
"The Rani is a gifted biochemist and loves exploring her personal theories and hypothesises", Romana replied, "she has no love for humanity but doesn't truly hate it either. Masquerading as Morgana served no purpose to her other than to prove a theory".
"Pawns basically", Ron grumbled, "that's a little sick if you ask me".
Romana couldn't really disagree with the red head, "She will claim it was all in the name of science and the pursuit of knowledge. That's how the Rani rationalises everything that she's ever done and probably ever will do".
"Sometimes the most dangerous people are the ones who think they're doing things for a purpose", Harry commented, "a little bit like Voldemort, he believes all the lives he's ruined has been for a reason".
The Time Lady remained silent and thought about Harry's surprising deep comment. She saw his logic but disagreed with him slightly. If anyone was like Voldemort it was the Master, full of overtly complicated plans that served no purpose other than to destroy. Of all the Time Lords to have survived, she really hoped that she didn't encounter him in the future.
As they reached the now familiar red phone box, Romana noticed a few of the grey skinned creatures lingering in the shadows, "Get inside", she whispered to the teens and slowly produced her sonic screwdriver. This would be her chance to get some readings on these creatures to confirm a theory of her own.
The loud noise of the sonic device riled the crowd up and soon they began to cry and chant loudly. Romana didn't need the TARDIS translation circuit to know that wasn't a good sound and quickly jumped inside her ship, bolting the door shut behind her, "What did you do to them?" Ron asked in a panic as the creatures banged loudly on the door.
"Scanned their DNA", Romana commented and bounded towards the console, "how was I supposed to know that the sound would upset them?"
"I thought you were meant to be the smart one", Harry snapped and he joined Ron in holding the door closed.
"There's no need to do that, virtually nothing can get through that door once it's locked", Romana stated but taking no chances, she set her craft into flight. Now they were safely away from the Rani and her planet of savages Romana was able to look at the readings from the creatures. Checking the data from the screwdriver, a small frown appeared on her face, "Curious, not completely what I was expecting".
She felt the two wizards move a little closer but neither of them commented. She could sense their interest though so decided to continue, "I was expecting to find traces of mind altering chemicals, that's a common mark of the Rani", she could see a frown on Ron's face, "think of it like a liquid Imperious", she explained to the science ignorant wizard.
"Right got it", Ron nodded, "does that thing say why they look like house elves?"
"Not in so many words but now I've eliminated chemical control I have my own thoughts", Romana answered, "it's quite likely that the Rani bred those creatures from house elves. Maybe she liked the loyalty and dedication elves show to their master and wanted an army of them for herself". She paused and pocketed her screwdriver, "I guess we'll never know exactly without going back and asking her".
"No that's alright", Harry waived off the Time Lady, "there's one thing I don't understand-"
"Just one thing mate", Ron interrupted with a snort, "I'm still bloody lost".
"Just go with it", Harry replied, "that's helping me get through this". Romana looked up from the console and gave the dark haired teen a small smile, "How could the Doctor and the Rani be Merlin and Morgana? You said it yourself that Time Lords can't use magic".
Romana had been thinking about that too and she had only come up with one explanation, "There was a British writer by the name of Arthur C Clarke who came up with three adages", she began, "his most commonly quoted is the third one, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
"So the Doctor and the Rani used technology and passed it off as magic?" Ron asked in confusion, "but muggle stuff isn't meant to work around magic".
"You're thinking too linearly Ron", Romana stated, "Earth technology of the late twenty century might not work but Time Lord technology is far more advanced". She un-holstered her sonic blaster, "With this I could do many things that a wand could, I could use it to stun or even kill someone if I wanted. With the right setting I could replicate a pretty powerful blasting spell", she placed the weapon back in its holster, "imagine seeing something like this over fifteen hundred years ago, how could you possibly explain it to someone?"
The two teens glanced at each other before mumbling together, "Magic".
"Precisely but Clarke's Law work in reverse too", Romana continued, "if someone from a technologically advanced world saw someone apparate, they would believe you had done that using a personal teleporter rather than magic".
"So there's no way you could beat Voldemort by yourself", Harry asked, "we're going to have to work together to stop him".
Ron nodded in agreement, "Magic and technology working in harmony, kind of ironic really when you think about it".
A devious grin appeared on Romana's face, that was exactly what she had in mind, "Well then boys, shall we do this?" Harry and Ron nodded firmly, their conviction written firmly across their face, "Right then Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, First of May 1998 coming right up".
Romana's hands were a blur as she set course for the magical school. There was a small bump in the time vortex once she had confirmed their destination but a minor correction soon smoothed their path. Something was building up inside Romana's mind thought, that same feeling of dread she felt after leaving Gringotts behind. Something big was about to happen, something that couldn't be avoided. The trio were heading straight into a fixed point in time, the rigid nature of the event assaulted Romana's time sense. Everything was telling her to leave but she couldn't turn back now, not when they were so close to the end.
The landing was a little bumpier than expected, the TARDIS was probably unhappy about entering a fixed point too. Harry was nearest to the door and he cautiously took a look outside, "Looks like the Great Hall", he commented, "and the TARDIS has disguised itself as a statue".
"Good, that will draw less attention to ourselves", Romana locked the TARDIS controls and joined the dark haired teen outside. Through the windows she could see the setting sun which given the time of year, should've meant that it was approaching the end of evening meal time. At least that's what she recalled from Hermione's memories. The corridors of the entrance hall were deathly silent though, almost like everyone was hiding, "I don't like this", Romana commented.
A sudden and piercing cry of pain grabbed their attention and immediately the trio sprinting in the direction of the sound. Romana leapt up the stone steps two at a time, her sonic blaster already in hand. They heard the scream against and narrowed it down to the first floor corridor. The boys wanted to charge in but Romana held them back. If she learned anything from the Time War, it was to always take a few moments to assess the situation. Many a Time Lord had failed to do this and paid for it with their lives.
Peeking around the corridor, Romana could see three large boys in Slytherin robes standing over two fallen students. The red trim indicated they were Gryffindor students, "Stop protecting the girl Longbottom", Romana's eyes widened, one of the fallen was Neville.
"Maybe the blood traitor wants a bed next to his Mummy and Daddy", another one of the students taunted. There was a flash of red and one of the boys stumbled backwards with giant boils growing on his face. Neville had defiantly fired a hex at the attacker, "You'll pay for that Longbottom", the student hissed.
Romana didn't need to hear any more and immediately fired a stun bolt from her blaster. The overpowered shot sent the would-be attacked tumbling several feet down the corridor. The other two Slytherin's immediately turned around, only to be met with stunning spells fired by Harry and Ron. With the attackers neutralised Romana sprinted over to the fallen Neville. His face was swollen with an impressive bruise and there was blood coming out of his nose but otherwise he looked in good shape. Ron though was more concerned with the identity of the girl he was protecting, "Ginny", he cried, "if I had known I would've used something stronger than a bloody stunner".
"Good to see you too brother", Ginny Weasley slowly stood up, "we had the situation perfectly under control". Moments later the tough facade fell and she threw her arms around her youngest brother, "I'm glad that you're alright though, you too Harry", she added shyly towards the dark haired teen.
"How about you Neville, can you stand?" Romana offered her hand to the fallen teen.
Neville nodded, "Yeah", he took the hand and jumped to his feet. Almost immediately though he began to sway, "Nope", he added and slumped into Romana's arms, "You smell different Hermione, are you using different shampoo?"
"Clearly concussed or a delusional stalker", Romana shrugged, "we need to get him some help", she said to Ginny, "is Madam Pomfrey still here?"
"Yes but take him to the Room of Requirement, we've set up a base of operations there", the girl replied. Without looking back, Romana practically carried the taller and much heavier Neville towards the seventh floor, "There's something different about Hermione", the red haired girl commented, "what have you three been up to?"
"Trust me Ginny that's story that can wait for another day", Harry placed his arm gently around her shoulder, "right now we have bigger problems to worry about".