A Storm Is Rising

Harry pointed his wand straight at the man. 'Liar, we don't have doctors here.'

Both Ron and Hermione also had their wands pointed towards the newcomer. 'Death Eater!' Ron spat. 'Get back!'

The man placed his hands in the air, never once taking his eyes from Harry. 'I'm not a Doctor, I'm the Doctor. And you need my help, just as I need yours.'

Harry gave the Doctor a sarcastic look. 'And why would I need your help? Got a way to kill Voldemort in your box?'

'No. But there's been something very strange going on lately. And if it's what I think, then there's something much worse than just Voldemort.' The Doctor still stood with his hands in the air, looking imploringly at Harry. 'Please Harry, trust me.'

Before Harry could reply, Hermione began to talk. 'Why should he? You turn up inside Hogwarts, completely defying the laws of the anti-Apparition fields I might add, declaring yourself to be 'the Doctor'? Do you realise how little sense that makes to us?'

Harry turned to Hermione, never hearing her sound so scared yet defiant before. He looked at the Doctor, taking in his appearance. Brown coat, brown pinstriped suit and pale-brown shirt with a battered pair of white trainers. He looked like any ordinary man, but unsettlingly reminded Harry of Barty Crouch Junior.

Ron, it would seem, was also giving the Doctor the once over. 'Are you a Muggle?' he asked, incredulously.

The Doctors eyes opened wide and he looked to the heavens with a look of bewilderment. 'Oh my, where to begin... You ever see E.T.?'

Just as Harry was about to ask what Muggle films had to do anything, the doors to the box where flung open once more and a young blonde girl emerged.

'Doctor what are you - Oh my god, what's going on?' she asked, as she took in the scene before her. Hermione immediately turned and pointed her wand at the girl.

'Rose, I'll tell you in a minute. Just stay quiet and put your hands up.' Although he spoke to the girl, the Doctor's eyes went back to Harry once more. He looked almost as though he was pleading.

Rose laughed. 'Why? So I can be at the mercy of some kids with sticks? I've seen scarier pencils.'

Harry, who for a moment had started to trust the Doctor, became wary again that these were spies of Voldemort's. 'Shut up! You're Voldemort's, I'm sure of it! Dumbledore knows we're here, he'll be down any minute now!' Harry felt like a five year old, telling off the school bully, but it was all he could think to do.

The Doctor smiled sadly at Harry. 'It's a good job I'm not a Death Eater. Dumbledore's tucked up safely in bed, and thinks you're doing the exact same. Don't you think if I was a Death Eater, I would have attacked you by now?'

To Harry's surprise, it was Ron who spoke. 'I think he's alright.' When Harry and Hermione looked at him in shock, he carried on, 'What self-respecting Death Eater would walk around with a girl in a t-shirt saying 'Blondes Have More Fun'? You imagine Narcissa Malfoy in that?'

Rose, only half-grasping what Ron was talking about, still gave him an evil look. 'Mickey got me this,' she muttered.

Although Ron's sentiments made him smile, Harry wondered if he had a point. After all, any Death Eater would have attacked him by now. Or at least tried to.

He slowly began to lower his wand. 'I'm not saying I trust you, but I wouldn't mind an explanation. So, erm, we're not going to kill you.'

Hermione looked warily at Harry. 'Are you sure this is wise? They might not be Voldmort's, but... but you just can't Apparate onto the grounds!'

'Hermione, I don't like it either. But my feet are cold and I'd quite like to go inside,' said Ron, putting a hand on her arm. He gave her a quick once-over. 'And you must be freezing! What are you doing out in your pyjamas?' She sighed, and lowered her wand steadily, but not without raising her head high.

'I didn't have time to change, we were in quite a hurry to get down here in case you hadn't noticed,' snapped Hermione. 'There had better be an amazing explanation for this,' she said, before turning and walking to the castle.

Harry suggested that new arrivals should follow them, before turning and walking with Ron towards the looming darkness of Hogwarts.

As they were walking, he could hear furious whispering between the Doctor and his companion. He tried to listen in, but all he only heard the final exchange.

'Doctor, what are Death Eaters?' he heard the girl say.

'No idea!' was the Doctor's cheery reply.

***

Silently, Harry led the way to the Room of Requirement. Hermione was whispering furiously, wondering if they had just led a pair of Death Eaters into Hogwarts; whilst Ron kept his eyes locked straight forward. Harry wondered if it was to stop him from looking at the girl's rather tight, low-cut top, knowing it was a sure-fire way to put Hermione in an even worse mood.

After they had been walking for what seemed like an age, they finally reached the seventh floor. When they reached the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, Harry started to walk up and down three times. 'Somewhere safe. I need somewhere that will be safe, if something should go wrong. But also somewhere to explain this whole mess.' After his third walk along the corridor (and hearing the girl ask the Doctor what he was doing), the door appeared.

'Okay, door appears from walls. That don't happen every day,' the blonde girl said with surprise.

Harry pushed open the door, and was greeted by the sight of a huge prison cell in the centre of the room. He felt embarrassed when the Doctor walked in. 'Er, room? I think you might have gone a bit overboard with the cell.' The cell suddenly disappeared. In its place were a wide variety of defensive and offensive weapons, from surplus wands to invisibility cloaks. There was even something that looked suspiciously like a samurai sword.

The girl screamed when the cell disappeared, before turning to the Doctor with a look of panic upon her face. 'Okay, now would be a really good time to explain what the hell is going on here! That thing, it just vanished into thin air. How?'

Hermione gave her a sardonic look, as she walked towards a rather large cupboard. She paused for a moment, before taking out a plain black robe and throwing it over her head. 'You just appeared on our grounds in a 1950's police box. Do you seriously think a cell vanishing into thin air is impossible?'

Before she could receive a reply, the Doctor intervened. He clapped his hands together, and looked altogether too happy. 'Well, isn't this nice? I think a few introductions are in order.' He smiled and looked around the room. 'I'm the Doctor, hello!' He waved to the room, as though he had a huge audience. 'And this is Rose. Rose Tyler, care to introduce yourself?'

The girl, Rose, gave the Doctor a look of disbelief, before raising her eyebrows and giving a quick 'Hi' in reply.

'And you, of course,' the Doctor turned to Harry, 'are the famous Harry Potter, a bit shorter then I was expecting. Hmm, sorry. And these are...?' he said quickly changing tact and directing to Ron and Hermione.

'Ron,' said Ron simply. Hermione followed suit.

'I'm glad we all know each other a bit better,' Harry began. 'Except that we still don't actually know what you're doing here, or for that matter how you got here in the first place.'

'And what do you mean, the Doctor? What kind of a name is that?' asked Ron.

It was Rose who replied. 'Yeah, you're probably never gonna find out much more than that. I've been with him over a year, and it's still good old Doctor for me. He's a bit... private, if you get what I mean.' Rose had coughed slightly over the word 'private', as though it was once something that had annoyed her but now she had grown to live with it.

Harry turned and sat in a large leather armchair, which the Room had provided. Everyone bar the Doctor followed suit. Instead, he wandered around the room looking fascinated. 'All this time, and I've only been here... ooh, five times? Annoying, how the TARDIS can only get through the barrier when there's an emergency.' He picked up one of the extra wands, and gave it a wave, looking genuinely sad when nothing happened. 'Every time I try... but still! There's plenty you can do with a screwdriver.'

He stopped pacing and joined the others at the chairs. He sat, elbows resting on his knees as he leant forwards. 'I might as well get straight to the point. Have you heard of anything, anything strange, happening recently?'

Ron snorted in sarcastic laughter. 'You mean, anything strange apart from You-Know-Who and his lackeys attacking anyone not Pureblood?'

If the Doctor didn't understand what Ron meant, he didn't show it. He adopted a sympathetic look. 'I know, as well as anyone, how devastating war can be, but I need you to think: has there been anything odd about the war lately? Even the smallest, insignificant thing?'

Hermione gasped, just as Harry seemed to remember the same thing. 'The Prophet! It has a strange, a horrible, story in the late-night edition.' She looked around, willing the Room to have a copy of the paper somewhere. Sure enough, a Prophet appeared on the coffee table next to her. She passed it to the Doctor, just as Rose gave another gasp of shock.

'Voldemort,' he began, pausing for Ron's obligatory sharp intake of breath. Once it had come, he carried on, 'They think he's invented a new Unforgivable Curse. Something that's not just killing his victims, but wiping them out apart from a pile of dust.'

He watched as the Doctor read the article in the Prophet. Before, his face had been a look of curiosity and happiness. Now it could only be described as horror. 'This is bad. Worse than bad.' He looked at Harry once more. 'This Voldemort, he's the worst wizard in living history, right?' Harry nodded, wondering if the man was being serious.

'Then I'm afraid we have ourselves a situation. Right, Rose?' He turned to his companion, his mood changing entirely once more. 'These people here, they're wizards. Harry, Ron, Hermione? We're time-travellers. Been all over the universe, seen the end of the world - everything. Good, now that's out of the way -'

If the Doctor thought he was getting out of an explanation that quickly, he had another thing coming.

'Time-travellers?'

'What do you mean, wizards?

'End of the world!'

Everyone seemed to have at least five questions, and they were all shouting them out at once.

'Okay, okay!' The Doctor ran his hands down his face, sighing. 'Yes, we're time-travellers. My ship is that box you saw us land in, named the TARDIS. It can go anywhere, even alternate universes, but Hogwarts is still one of the hardest places to penetrate. Only lets us in if there's a real emergency. I'm a Time Lord, from another planet. Far away, though, so we don't need to worry about that. Rose, here, is a nice normal girl from about 10 years in your future. Londoner, likes her chips.' He grinned at Rose, knowing he was only able to get away with it due to her being stunned at all the revelations she had just received. 'Will that do for now? Any more questions, well just ask them really. I'm standing right here so you're bound to get an answer.' He turned to Rose expectantly, never missing a beat.

'Wizards? You mean like David Blaine or something?' Rose asked, giving him a look of incredulity.

The Doctor replied rather whimsically. 'Not exactly like David Blaine, no. In fact not at all like him. You know Gandalf in Lord of the Rings?' He waited for a reply, but when he got none he took it as his cue to continue. 'Well, they're a bit like him really. Wands are a bit smaller, but the premise is just the same. In fact, you'll probably meet his look-a-like later.'

Rose laughed. 'I've met a few mad things in my time, but wizards? Pull the other one, Doctor. Next you'll be telling me the Slitheen don't stink.'

Instead of a reply, the Doctor gestured to Harry. 'Would you?'

'Er, would I what?' asked Harry, confused. The Doctor mimed waving a wand about.

'Oh right, yeah. Erm - Orchidious!' A bouquet of lilies sprung from the end of his wand. Harry thought it strange how the newcomer knew so much about him and the wizarding world. He had wondered if it was a good idea to show them his magic, before realising that the Doctor already knew far more than he was letting on. Though normally he would once have been hesitant, Harry now decided to trust his instincts and trust the Doctor. Silently, he plucked the lilies from the end of his wand, and presented them awkwardly to Rose.

'Er, thanks. But that's impossible. Tell them that's impossible, Doctor.' Harry heard Hermione gave a small titter of laughter, not that different from the kind she normally reserved for Fleur Delacour during the Triwizard Tournament. Fortunately, he seemed to be the only one.

Ron turned to Rose this time. 'We're wizards, okay? We can do spells, make potions, become invisible. And you just saw some flowers appear from nowhere, and a cell disappear into nowhere. It's not only possible, it's real.'

Harry wondered if he had ever heard Ron give such an eloquent speech before, and wondered if he should suggest that McGonagall start wearing revealing outfits.

'You heard the boy, Rose. And if they can believe that we're time-travellers, then surely you can believe that they're wizards.' The Doctor rose from his chair, waiting for an answer from Rose, as he went an inspected a bookcase filled with defensive spell books. Rose, too, began to stand, leaving only the students seated.

'Alright, I'll believe they're wizards -' she started before Hermione intercepted.

'And witch.'

Rose paused for a moment. Seemingly, the word 'witch' made it slightly more surreal.

'Alright, I'll believe they're a witch and wizards. But where are we?'

The Doctor stopped in his examination of a book entitled 'Minimal Magic And How To Maximise It'. He looked and grinned at Rose again. 'Earth.'

'What!' Rose exploded. 'Earth? My Earth? Not Cyberman Earth?'

The Doctors grin got wider. 'Your Earth, Miss Tyler.'

'But how can magic be happening on my Earth and me not realise it? Are you sure? My Earth?'

The Doctor was barely concealing his laughter at this point. 'I can assure you that this is indeed your Earth. We're in Scotland, in fact. And as for your question about how you never knew before, I believe they have a rather good Ministry of Magic -'

'Or a rather bad one,' interrupted Harry. 'They'll Obliviate - wipe a person's mind -any Muggle who comes across anything remotely magical. For all you know, you've met a wizard before.' Harry gave her a dark look, imploring that magic was something to be taken very seriously.

'Yes, I remember Dumbledore mentioning once before how the Ministry bureaucracy was something to be avoided by all sane persons at all costs,' said the Doctor.

'You've met Dumbledore before?' questioned Hermione, who sounded like she had warmed to the Doctor considerably more than she had Rose.

'Oh, only the once. Long time ago now, but in fact only fifteen years ago in real time. Brilliant fellow, if a bit on the barmy side. We got along spectacularly!'

'Sounds like your soul-mate,' Rose muttered.

Ron, however, was looking confused and had wondered the same thing Harry had only moments earlier.. 'How come you know so much about Harry?'

The Doctor, who had resumed in his reading of the spell book, now closed it with a snap. He had a grim look on his face. 'It's a long story. Let's just say, bad guys are as much of my past as they are yours.'

Harry opened his mouth to ask what was meant by that, but the Doctor simply shook his head. 'Not now, Harry. You'll know eventually, but now isn't the time'.

With anyone else Harry might have argued, but the Doctor had such an aura of authority that he knew when to back down. He could also tell that whatever the Doctor knew, it wasn't a good thing.

He shook his head, as though to clear it. 'What's the emergency your space ship brought you here for? And what's all that in the Prophet you seem to know so much about?'

The Doctors mood, once again, changed dramatically. He seemed like an emotional rollercoaster, to Harry. 'If I'm right, this Voldemort's just taken evil to a new level. You thought he was bad before?' He laughed ironically. 'You haven't seen anything yet.'

Rose seemed to sense that the Doctor was being deadly serious. When she spoke, she had a nervous edge to her voice. 'Doctor, what is it?'

The Doctor closed his eyes for a moment, thinking deeply. Suddenly, he snapped them open again. 'He's working with the Daleks.'