"The Morning After The Night Before"
Chapter Three
"A Little Side Trip"
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven"
Ecclesiastes 3:1
"No! You can't-!" Harry stopped mid-cry. For a moment, he was once again the sad, mistreated little boy locked in the Dursleys' cupboard. You can't take her away from me! was his unspoken plea. But he had grown since then, due in great measure to his beloved Hermione. The words he eventually spoke were more altruistic, more the words of a man and a husband. "You can't send her back to that terrible place! Who knows what that creep Voldemort would do to her!"
"Now just a minute, Harry," Hermione said, trying to calm him. "Who says that I have to go back? Just who or what are you anyway, Doctor? The `time police' or something?"
"I hold no office and I have no official title," the Doctor said enigmatically. "Let's just say that I'm a concerned citizen of the galaxy who wants to prevent an entire universe from collapsing in on itself."
"Says you!" Harry shot back.
The Doctor ignored him and focused on Hermione. "You're a bright young woman, Hermione. Do the math for yourself." He hit a control and the columns of computer figures on the viewscreen were instantly translated into English. To Harry it was still nothing but numerical gibberish, but Hermione appeared to understand them.
"If these figures are correct..." She turned back to the Doctor. "If it really is that important…" She gently squeezed Harry's hand. "If it means that other lives will be spared, I'm willing to go back." She was doing her best to put up a brave front, but Harry could feel her trembling.
"If she has to go back, then I go with her!" Harry insisted.
The Doctor was confronted with the most pitiful expressions he'd ever seen, the two lovers' eyes begging him for some scrap of hope. How could he tell them that in order to save the universe, they might have to be parted forever? Face it Doctor, he thought, for all your supposed scientific detachment, you're nothing but an old softy.
"Before we decide on a definite course of action," the Doctor began, searching desperately for a solution, "it might be a good idea for Mrs. Potter to tell me exactly how she got here. It could make a difference as to how we proceed." The corners of the Doctor's mouth turned up slightly into a half-smile. "The laws of time and space aren't nearly as inflexible as you might think. If one studies the fine print carefully enough, it is possible to find the occasional loophole." Harry and Hermione gripped each other's hands tighter. The half-smile blossomed into an enormous toothy grin. He pretended to be occupied with the TARDIS console, turning his back so that they wouldn't see the flush of embarrassment in his cheeks at the sight of their embrace.
"Nobody move-what in blazes…?" All heads turned to the doorway. The man who had been driving the Aston Martin stood aiming a gun at the Doctor, but he was clearly as dazzled by the TARDIS interior as Harry and Hermione had been.
"Walther PPK?" The Doctor looked slightly puzzled. "Obviously you're from MI6, but I understood that your department had switched to the P99 by the twenty-first century."
"Call me sentimental." Harry started to aim Hermione's wand but the stranger's reflexes were remarkable. Before Harry could fully raise his arm, the stranger had pointed his Walther directly at Harry's head. "I don't think your playmate would be very happy if I were to shoot you between the eyes, Sonny." He motioned with his gun. "Let whatever it was that you were about to point at me fall to the floor."
Harry let go of Hermione's wand. It rolled to a stop at the man's feet.
"A baton?" The man couldn't resist a chuckle. "What were you going to do, boy? Conduct a few bars of Chopin?"
"Who are you and how did you get into my TARDIS?" the Doctor demanded.
"Bond, James Bond-and you left the door open." Satisfied that he was now in full control of the situation, he allowed himself a quick look around. "I'll say this for you, Doctor, you certainly know how to make the most of a limited space."
"It's `dimensionally transcendental'," Hermione pointed out.
"Impressive, but I've been impressed before: Dr. No's nuclear power plant, Blofeld's volcano base, Sir Hugo Drax's space station…As far as I'm concerned, you're just one more twisted genius trying to take over the world. It's obvious now why Whitehall had me following these kids around. They led me straight to you. So what's your game, Doctor? Nuclear blackmail? Germ warfare?"
"Tiddlywinks," the Doctor said with a perfectly straight face. "If you've come to challenge me, I must warn you that back at my old public school on Gallifrey, I was undefeated champ for seven years running."
While they were talking, Bond failed to notice the odd mechanical device that had glided silently into the room behind them. What appeared to be a pair of miniature radar dishes swept back and forth on either side of its "head", giving the impression of ears, while a long antenna protruded from the other end, suggesting a wagging tail.
"A mechanical dog!" Hermione squealed as it passed by her leg. "How cute!" The bizarre little machine did indeed resemble a dog. It even had "K-9" etched on one side of its body.
"You have got to be kidding," Harry said.
As 007 turned at the sound of Harry's remark, a small metal cylinder extended from the dog's "snout". A pencil-thin beam of light struck him squarely in the chest. His gun dropped from his hand and he collapsed unconscious to the floor.
"Well done, K-9!" said the Doctor.
"Thanks are not necessary, Master," chirped K-9 in reply.
"Will he be all right?" Hermione knelt down and felt for her wand. It had become lodged underneath Bond's body, out of the Doctor's and K-9's sight.
"He's only stunned," the Doctor assured her. "Just as well," he muttered. "Wouldn't want him turning the TARDIS into a shooting gallery. Pity the weapons neutralizer won't work on primitive mechanisms like that."
"TARDIS?" Harry asked.
The Doctor extended his arms. "It stands for `Time And Relative Dimensions In Space'. The Time Lords' greatest achievement," he proclaimed, then gently patted the console. "Aren't you, my girl?" Noticing a smudge of dirt on the one of the instruments, he took the end of his scarf and wiped it away.
With the Doctor's attention on the console, Hermione retrieved her wand. 007's gun was lying nearby. She was about to stuff them both of them into her robe when K-9 turned and aimed its ray projector at her. "Nice doggie."
"In the interest of passenger safety," the little robot chirped, "all weapons must be surrendered."
Reluctantly, she turned the gun over to the Doctor, who unloaded it, then set it down on the TARDIS console. The magazine went into his pocket. Apparently the little dog didn't recognize the significance of Hermione's wand, because it took no notice when she slipped it into the pocket of her robe.
Harry eyed her with concern. "What was all that about-" he whispered.
"Where were we?" The Doctor turned his attention to Hermione. "I believe you were about to explain how you came to be in this dimension."
"If truth be told, I don't really know the mechanics of how I got here," Hermione admitted. "Professor Dumbledore actually cast the spell that opened the portal. I have no idea how what spell he used."
"Spell?" The Doctor gave her a suspicious glare. "Are you seriously telling me that he did it with," he spat out the word disdainfully, "magic?"
"Of course."
"Stuff and nonsense," the Doctor said irritably. "As I've told Leela over and over since we've met, there is no such thing as…" The Doctor looked down. "Excuse me? Why am I floating ten feet off the floor?" He looked over to Hermione, who was pointing her wand at him. "Oh dear."
As Hermione launched into a detailed history of Hogwarts, the wizarding world and the war with Lord Voldemort, Harry was astonished to see how the seemingly unflappable Doctor appeared to be positively traumatized by the whole idea. Clearly he was a devout believer in science. There was no place in his reality for spells and incantations.
"In an infinite universe, it's conceivable that in certain dimensions the laws of physics are such that matter could be manipulated in ways that superficially resemble magic," the Doctor tried to reassure himself. "Perhaps through some form of advanced telekinesis." It wasn't completely satisfying, but at least he was able to turn his attention back to his mission. "From what you describe, it sounds like a simple, straightforward opening of a dimensional barrier. But if that's true, where did all that excess energy come from? Are you sure you're telling me everything?"
"Everything I remember. I lost consciousness right after Dumbledore shoved me through. I don't remember anything else until I woke up on the Dursleys' sofa."
"That professor of yours sounds like a very clever chap-but even so, using magic to penetrate the dimensional barrier sounds like a very risky business. Give me a good old TARDIS any day." He shook his head. "We're still missing something."
"Wouldn't the simplest solution be to see what happened for yourself?" Hermione suggested.
"Visit the `scene of the crime', as it were?" The idea clearly appealed to him, but then the Doctor's brow furrowed suspiciously. "It wouldn't be breaking the laws of time, exactly-but it would definitely be bending them. Technically speaking, I shouldn't be taking someone back into their own past. There's too much temptation to try and fiddle with events in order to change the future."
"We could stay in the TARDIS and watch on the viewscreen," Hermione suggested. "Surely we wouldn't change anything by simply observing."
"I should introduce you to Werner Heisenberg," the Doctor muttered as he set the controls. "He might disagree with you on that point."
The wheezing, groaning noise returned as the transparent central column of the TARDIS console began to rise and fall in a rhythm almost like someone breathing in and out. Harry watched Hermione carefully studying the Doctor as he operated the TARDIS controls. He could almost hear the wheels turning inside his wife's head.
Within a few moments, the wheezing and groaning began to fade. The central column slowed and came to a stop.
"Where are we?" asked Harry.
"If your wife gave me the proper coordinates, we're inside Hogwarts." The Doctor flipped a switch on the console and the viewscreen came to life. They were in the ruins of Professor Dumbledore's office. They could hear in the distance the sounds of curses being cast and the screams and moans of wizards dying in agony as Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters took the castle. Hermione was holding onto Harry's hand so tightly that he thought she might crush it.
A desperate and exhausted Hermione supported a wounded and dying Professor Dumbledore as he limped up the stairs.
"Poor, dear Minerva," the old man said sadly.
"Is there anyone else left, Professor?"
"No one in a position to help us, my dear," the old man wheezed. As Hermione helped the old wizard drag himself to the chair behind his desk, Dumbledore pulled out his wand. Chairs, tables and books piled themselves in front of the door to form a crude barricade. "I'm so dreadfully sorry about your parents, my dear. You must know that I did everything in my power to protect them."
"I know you did, Professor," She clutched the tiny heart-shaped locket hanging around her neck. "But my life was over even before they were taken. It ended the day we lost Harry."
The old man shook his head. "I was so certain that he was the one who would fulfill the prophecy and destroy Voldemort." He buried his head in his wizened, wrinkled hands. "I sent that poor boy to his death… How could I have been so completely wrong?" Looking up, he saw a dusty, leather-bound journal-his diary-sitting amid the debris on his desk. He picked it up and clutched it to his heart. "Can such hubris ever be forgiven?"
"You mustn't blame yourself, Professor," Hermione said gently. "We did our best. It simply wasn't meant to be." She opened the locket. In a secret compartment behind the picture of Harry was a small glass vial-his final gift to her. Looking around, she found two goblets lying on the floor amid the rubble, then located Dumbledore's supply of brandy. "Will you join me in a drink, Professor?"
"Eh?"
She filled both goblets then opened the vial and started to put a few drops in each.
"NO!" the old man roared. With a sudden burst of renewed vigor, Dumbledore leapt to his feet and grabbed the drinks away from her, tossing them out one of the shattered windows. "THIS IS NOT OVER!"
In the distance they could hear the sounds of the fighting moving closer as the enemy advanced through the castle corridors.
"You know what they'll do to us if we're taken alive!"
The old man wasn't listening. He seemed to be concentrating, as if gathering his remaining strength.
"Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem!" A tiny disc of light began to glow in the center of the room. As the old man continued to chant, it grew larger and larger until it was the size of a door. "You must start again!" Whatever he was doing, it was clearly a tremendous effort and the strain was beginning to tell. "You must rebuild! You are the only one who can!"
"What is it, Professor?" She peered inside. Unseen by Hermione, the old wizard placed a hand in the small of her back and shoved her into the portal. His last energies spent, the old man dropped to his knees as the portal slowly faded away. A blast of magic reduced the doors to the Headmaster's private sanctuary to splinters and now the Dark Lord stood triumphant over the body of his greatest enemy. He raised his wand.
"Avada--!" He knelt down beside the old man and felt for a pulse. "Stubborn old fool! You wouldn't even grant me the satisfaction of killing you myself."
"Turn it off," Hermione wailed as she buried her head in Harry's chest.
The Doctor hit a switch and the screen went dark, but he wasn't really listening to her. "A simple, straightforward portal from one dimension into another." He began pacing back and forth across the control room. "I just don't understand it…"
"So, what do we do now, Doctor?" Harry asked.
"Perhaps if I could observe Hermione emerging into your dimension, I might-."
"No, Doctor," Hermione said in a strangely calm voice. "We're going to stay in this dimension for a little while." She was pointing her wand at the Doctor once more.
"Hermione!" cried Harry. "What are you doing?"
"Giving in to temptation, I'm afraid," she said. "I'm sorry." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw K-9 swing around and extend his ray emitter. Hermione quickly whirled to face him. "Alea iacta est!"
"Master!" A fountain of sparks suddenly erupted from the mechanical dog's body. Its head lowered and the lights on its control panel went out.
Horrified, the Doctor turned to Hermione. "You've killed my second-best friend!"
"I just blew his fuses, Doctor," she assured him. "I didn't do any permanent damage."
"Hermione, what is going on?" Harry asked.
"We're going back into the past, Harry." She turned to where the Doctor now knelt over the lifeless form of his little mechanical friend. "You're going to help me stop the war with Voldemort before it begins, Doctor."
"You're not the first person ever to ask such a thing of me, Hermione--and I suspect that you won't be the last person that I refuse."
"I'm not giving you a choice, Doctor."
"You can kill me if you like." The Doctor shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time for that, either." (Hermione had no idea that the Time Lords were capable of regenerating entirely new bodies if they became fatally ill or were mortally wounded, so there was little chance that she could actually kill him-but to the Doctor it seemed a shame to waste such a precious gift over a petty little argument such as this.) "If I'm dead, who's going to pilot the TARDIS for you?"
Hermione strode over to the console and looked it over. With a self-satisfied smile, she reached across and hit a series of switches, then turned a dial. The Doctor's face went chalk white. This little girl from the primitive, backward planet of Earth actually seemed to know how to program space/time coordinates into the TARDIS' navigation system.
"WAIT!" The Doctor walked over to the console. "I'll take you to the past," he said with a look of resignation, "but that's as much as I can do for you."
"But what could you possibly do, once you get there?" asked Harry.
Hermione's answer was as much for the Doctor's benefit as for her husband. "There are a few key places where Voldemort made mistakes and we were unable to capitalize on them. A victory at any one of those points could turn the tide in our favor."
"And if it doesn't?" The Doctor almost seemed to be taunting her.
"Then we'll go back even further and try again."
"Oh no you won't!" said the Doctor. "You only get `one bite of the apple' as the lawyers say. Once I drop you off, you're on your own. I'm not going to spend the rest of my lives in prison for aiding and abetting!"
Hermione was unfazed. "Fair enough, Doctor. As long as I get my `bite' as you say, I'll make it count."
"How can you be sure which event to change?" Harry asked. "Suppose you end up making things even worse?"
"It's a risk I'm willing to take, Harry! Don't you see? It's not just for me! It's for all the millions of wizards and Muggles that Voldemort has killed over the years! If I were a Holocaust survivor, would anyone blame me for trying to assassinate Adolph Hitler before he could murder all those people? I'd be willing to strangle the infant Tom Riddle in front of his mother if that's what it takes."
"I'm not unsympathetic, Hermione," the Doctor said gently. "Among my people I am considered a renegade. Long ago the Time Lords adopted a policy of non-interference. They were content to simply observe and not get involved in the affairs of others. I was different; I couldn't just stand by while the strong bullied the weak and evil triumphed over good. That was why I left. No one knows more than I how tempting it is to go back and tamper with the past. In my travels I've witnessed more than my share of horrors. Not to diminish in any way the pain that you're feeling, but I've seen entire star systems wiped out by megalomaniacs who make your Lord Voldemort look like an amateur. If I had time, I could tell you stories about the Sontarans, the Cybermen, the Daleks, the Master… It took me a long time to learn that along with all the death and destruction, a great deal of good can also come out of adversity. You used the example of World War II. Peoples who had never gotten along before put aside their differences in order to unite against a common enemy. The United States became a world power and, in spite of some missteps here and there, a force for freedom and democracy around the world."
"If it weren't for the war, you might not have been born," Harry said, jumping in. "You told me yourself that your grandparents would never have met if your grandfather hadn't been in the RAF."
"War can also be the impetus for technological innovation," the Doctor continued. "Radar, jet engines, computers. Many of the engineers who were responsible for the moon landing-"
"Well then!" Hermione was almost hysterical. "Obviously, all those people being slaughtered was a good thing!"
"No." The Doctor shook his head. "That's just the way that history works. You have to take the bad along with the good. Slavery and genocide are abominations, but unfortunately without them, much of your modern world would not exist as it does. The trick is knowing when to intervene and when to let things run their course."
"And just what good could possibly come from the death of an entire magical civilization?"
"The birth of a new magical civilization," Harry pointed out. "We were going to build it together. Remember?"
Hermione's lower lip began to quiver, but she was determined not to lose her resolve.
"Set the coordinates, Doctor," she ordered. "I'll give you the time period and the location."
A hand grabbed hold of Hermione's ankle. James Bond had regained consciousness, but had been playing possum for some time. As Hermione aimed her wand and attempted to hex him, she stumbled backwards, sending the spell right into the TARDIS console. The entire room began to vibrate like a washing machine with an unbalanced load. The wheezing and groaning was almost deafening this time.
"We're out of control!" yelled the Doctor.
End Of Chapter Three
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Due to the demands of the "real world" and the diversion of my energies into creating my own original stories, it may be a while before this story is updated.
""
I'm the urban spaceman, baby, I could fly,
I'm a supersonic guy
I don't need pleasure, I don't feel pain,
If you were to knock me down, I'd just get up again
I'm the urban spaceman, baby, I'm making out,
I'm all about
I wake up every morning with a smile upon my face
My natural exuberance spills out all over the place
I'm the urban spaceman, I'm intelligent and clean,
Know what I mean?
I'm the urban spaceman, as a lover second to none,
It's a lot of fun
I never let my friends down, I've never made a boob
I'm a glossy magazine, an advert on the tube
I'm the urban spaceman, baby, here comes the twist
I don't exist.
See "Have We Met?" at www.astronomytower.org or "Child's Play" Chapter One at www.fanfiction.net