Chapter 18 – Can't Repeat

All of the air felt like it had been sucked out of the Great Hall following Romana's declaration. For a few moments the Time Lady stood dead still, cautious that an uninformed witch or wizard would draw their wand. There was one thing Romana knew about the human race, they were naturally suspicious of anything different from them. The Doctor had told her a few stories of an organisation known as UNIT, a trigger happy military organisation who when faced with the unusual would often choose to blast it off the face of the Earth.

The wizarding world shared that trait with ordinary muggles, if anything they were more xenophobic. Creatures such as vampires, centaurs and werewolves were looked upon with suspicion and often fear. The current war was based upon outdated notions of superior blood, a ridiculous option Romana thought. She hoped that humanity would grow out of this primal fear but based judging by the Doctor's stories, that never really happened.

Even though the group in the hall were the so called light side, many of them shared the same discriminatory views as the Death Eaters they battled. Whilst they never openly stated their opinions, their actions often gave them away. How they would react to an alien from another world was anyone's guess, "Hermione dear, I don't understand what you're saying", Mrs Weasley mumbled.

Stage one; Denial. Romana recognised that from her psychology training at the Academy. She had to try and ease them through this stage, she really didn't fancy having to deal with a group of angry wizards. "Hermione Granger was my human identity", she began, "I escaped a Great War on my home planet and I was then disguised as a human. The disguise was so good that even I forgot who I really was".

Romana studied the mixture of looks, no one was outright rejecting her notion yet which was a good sign. "When Harry, Ron and I escaped capture at Malfoy Manor, my true heritage was released". She reached into her pocket, pulling out the ornately carved pocket watch which housed her real identity. "The Chameleon Arch", she displayed the watch, "my true personality and biology was stored in here".

"I remember seeing that watch", Bill muttered, "you said it was broken and practically useless".

"A side effect of the Chameleon Arch", Romana stated, "the watch hid its true purpose until the time was right for it to be opened".

Silence fell on the room and Romana allowed the information to sink in. She could feel Harry and Ron moving up behind her in an attempt to prove some back up. The Time Lady could feel the confusion amongst the gather witches and wizards. Some felt a little more accepting than others, mostly the teenaged magical. Romana was slightly surprised by this, she would've thought that Hermione's peers would've been more devastated by her loss. "So if you're not Hermione", Kingsley asked cautiously, "who are you really?"

Holding her head high the alien woman replied proudly, "Romanadvoratrelundar or Romana for short, Time Lady from the planet Gallifrey".

"Hell of a name", the dark skinned Auror grunted, "tell us Romana, do you mean us harm?"

Resisting the urge to snap at the Auror, he was only reacting in typical human fashion after all, Romana continued, "Not at all, in fact I have been trying to help you defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort". Ignoring the shudder from the gathered crowd she planned to bring the Rani into the conversation at this point but when she looked around, the dark haired Time Lady had disappeared. Grumbling to herself she decided to soldier on alone, "The metal arch at the entrance to this room will remove the threat of Voldemort permanently, once it's fully operational of course".

"Muggle technology", Mrs Weasley snorted, "you're not going to be able to stop You-Know-Who with that". Annoyance bubbled within Romana's chest, the magical community were so ignorant of the level of technology the rest of humanity held it was almost ridiculous. Countries around the world had the power to level cities with a single bomb. No amount of magic would be able to repel an atomic bomb yet the wizarding world insisted on looking down on Muggles. "What can we do to bring Hermione back?" Mrs Weasley's sudden question broke Romana out of her thoughts.

Stage three; Bargaining. It seemed that Mrs Weasley had skipped the anger stage of grief and moved on to trying to bargain for Hermione's return. Romana had to remind herself that this was all part of the grieving process and not to take anything personally. That was easier said than done though, "I'm sorry Mrs Weasley but that isn't possible", Romana replied softly.

"The process wouldn't be able to return Hermione, not with her original memories", Ron chipped in much to Romana's gratitude, "she could be turned human again but she wouldn't be the Hermione we knew".

Instead of a quiet nod of acceptance, Mrs Weasley rounded on her son, "Has she done some weird alien magic on your Ronald", the matriarch of the Weasley family snapped, "get away from her this instant".

Stage two; Anger. It had made a late appearance but there was definitely much anger in the room. Most of it seemed to be coming from Ron, "Mum she has done more to help us stop Voldemort in the last few hours than most of you have in your entire lives". Romana looked wide eyes at the teen, that was certainly a bold statement and one which would inflame tensions in the room further. "She negotiated with the Goblins, helped us escape Malfoy Manor, destroyed something vitally important to Voldemort and taken us into space".

Romana was grateful to Ron but she really wished he had stopped talking. She watched carefully as Kingsley slowly produced his wand, her hand automatically moving towards her sonic blaster, "Perhaps we should test for any mind altering spells", he ignored Ron's cries of protest and continued, "you have to admit Ron that all this sounds a little farfetched".

"Then come outside and see Romana's TARDIS, that should confirm everything", Harry added.

"Not you too Harry", Romana heard Mrs Weasley mumble under her breath, "what exactly is a TARDIS?"

"My ship", Romana replied shortly, her patience growing ever thinner with the gathered crowd. Voldemort was getting ready to attack and they were standing around bickering. More importantly she was losing valuable time that she could've spent working on her device, "It stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space".

"It travels through time and space, we've been to a planet in the distant future", Ron added excitedly, which might not have been the best course of action.

"A time machine, really", Tonks snorted, leaving her husband's side for the first time, "then go back and change all this".

Romana sighed, "I can't do that", she stated regretfully, "the resulting paradox would tear the universe apart".

"Really?" the metamorph sniffed, "you can't do it or you won't do it? What gives you the right to decide what's best for us?"

"Four hundred years experience and knowledge of the time space continuum", Romana replied firmly. She could understand why Tonks was angry, she had just lost her husband and seen many other people she cared about severely injured or worse, "I understand you're upset-"

"Upset!" Tonks shrieked, "my husband is dead and one of the brightest witches in centuries has ceased to exist only to replaced by you". Romana frowned, her shoulders raised and ready for a verbal scrap, "Tell us what you've lost oh mighty Lady of Time".

Romana's simmering annoyance boiled over, if these humans wanted to know what she had lost then she would tell them, "My planet, my people and my entire way of life", she stated with a quiet yet angry whisper. "Billions of Time Lords and Ladies gone in one flash of light, can your tiny and pathetic human brains begin to comprehend that", her voice reached a bitter crescendo. "Do you know how many children were on Gallifrey on the day it was destroyed? Two point four seven billion".

A shocked gasp from somewhere in the crowd wasn't enough to interrupt Romana's angry tirade, "The greatest civilisation in history wiped out in an instant, leaving me stuck with you bungling apes". Romana didn't truly hate humanity but she wasn't a huge fan like the Doctor was. She could see some of their good aspects but on days like today, the negatives were too great to ignore, "My people died to give lesser species like you a chance to live, now I'm wondering why they bothered".

Spinning quickly on her heel, Romana marched out the Great Hall making sure to slam the door on her way. She could feel a few warm tears in the corner of her eye, the pain of Gallifrey's loss too much to bear. Stepping to her TARDIS, Romana leaned on the console for support. There was so much anger inside her, she was angry at Gallifrey's destruction, angry at the unnecessary loss of life today and resentful towards the close minded attitudes of the humans in her presence.

Most of her anger was directed towards herself though, partially for losing her temper so easily a few moments ago but also for her leadership during the Time War. Gallifrey and its residents had been her responsibility and she had led them into oblivion. The Daleks did need confronting and war was probably inevitable but if perhaps her preparations had been better, her home planet would still exist. True, Rassilon had usurped her position and oversaw the final downfall but the end was in sigh long before then. Maybe living amongst humans and travelling alone was her penance for her poor leadership.

"Romana", Harry's voice pierced her thoughts. She quickly sniffed back her tears and subtly wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. Turning around she spotted Harry, Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville entering the TARDIS. The latter was looking around the alien ship in awe whereas it was old hat for the others, "We're sorry about everyone else".

"That's sweet of you Harry but I'm just at fault", Romana shrugged, "they were right to be suspicious, especially at a time of war. I should've done more to keep my temper under control".

"It's alright to be angry sometimes", Ginny added, "you've lost a lot, it's understandable that you would feel a little angry".

Romana sighed, "Yes but emotional outbursts are such a-".

"Human reaction", Ron smirked, forcing a small chuckle from Romana. "I don't pretend to understand much about any of this but I don't believe humans and Time Lords are that different". Romana stood back and thought about that for a moment, perhaps Ron was right. Her species did share more in common with humans than just an outward appearance. They might be more technologically advanced than humanity and had control over much of their emotional responses but they were still there under the surface. Time Lords weren't robots or Cybermen after all, they felt pain, anger, sadness and well as joy, pride and excitement. They just chose not to be a slave to those emotions.

Looking around the room, she could feel the loyalty from the teens in the room all aimed in her direction. It was strange, standing inside her TARDIS with five young humans who had restored her faith in humanity with just a few sentences. Perhaps there was hope for the wizarding world's future, "So what's the plan", Neville said to no one in particular.

"Well we've already destroyed five of Voldemort's Horcruxes", Romana replied, drawing a small gasp from Neville, "oh yes we haven't told you about those yet, sorry it's been a very long day". She looked over towards Luna who didn't looked shocked in the slightest, "You don't seem surprised Luna?"

The blonde haired Ravenclaw shrugged, "It's a logical answer to the question of his immortality". A ghost of a smile flashed across Romana's face, she was growing to like Luna more with every passing second.

"We know the snake is probably with Voldemort", Harry continued, "but we have absolutely no idea what the final one is".

Romana slowly looked towards Harry, trying to keep a painfully sad look from her face. She mostly succeeded, although she felt Luna's curious gaze aimed firmly in her direction. Romana had figured out the mystery of the final Hocrux a long time ago. Strictly speaking that wasn't true, Hermione had actually been the one of figure it out. Her human self had been carrying around that secret for a long time.

The Time Lady suspected that Harry also had a vague idea that he was the final Horcrux a while ago, he was just living in denial. If Romana's plan worked though, the Horcrux inside Harry wouldn't be an immediate problem. They could work together to remove it from his body without killing him in the process. What the group inside the TARDIS didn't know was that something was watching them very closely and getting ready to strike.