"The Ghost who Followed"
The Doctor's PoV
..London 2023..
It would've been easier if I used time travel to go back, but It'll be too complicated. I wan't answers from her. Sort a few stuff out. Or maybe just because I miss her. I miss her so much.
I was standing right outside a house and was having a hard time if I should knock or not. Maybe this is a mistake, but it's the best I can come up with. I never even know this could be possible but this is my last chance. Those empty eyes I begged to stay are watching me from yesterday. I'm a feeling a little weird but I do it. I knocked on the door and as I expected a grown woman in a smart attire with brown hair tight in a bun opened the door.
"Good Day! Who are you and what brings you here?" She said.
"Hermoine Granger or should I say, Weasley. I need to borrow something."
"Excuse me? And are you?" She said surprisedly.
"The Doctor."
"So are you telling me you're a two-hearted,900+ alien time traveller who never ages and never dies and has a blue police box for a time machine?" Hermoine said, offering me tea.
"Yup. And I need to borrow something. Even just for an hour.I need it badly."
"Ok. What?"
"The Resurrection Stone." I said before sipping a little from it.
When I said those words, her eyes shot up. More surprised than ever.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Hermoine said turning her back on me.
"I know it! You know it Hermoine! You're the brightest of your age!" I replied sarcastically.
"How could you prove that you know what you're babbling about?"
"Do you want me to tell you, all of it, all of your seven years at Hogwarts? How you helped Harry get through that fire, that a cat's hair was in your Polyjuice potion and your boggart is McGonagall telling you've failed everything and-"
"Okay! Okay! You got me there Muggle." She said, now her mood changing, positively.
"I'm not a Muggle. I'm a I haven't got any Magicky-Abrakadabra or all of those potions stuff, which makes me a muggle but I got my Wibbly-Wobbly,Timey-Wimey...stuff."
She laughed at my choice of words but when she was done, she asked me:
"Resurrection stone eh? Can't bring someone to life, just a mere shadow and them more than dead but less than alive. How did you know it's in my possesion today, huh?"
"I told you, I'm a time-traveller." I replied flatly.
"You're in time. I asked Harry just yesterday for this." She said handing the stone over to me.
"Hermoine, I'm just curious. How did your story was ever known by Rowling?"
She chuckled at the mention of Rowling.
"J.K. Rowling? Joanne Kathleen Rowling if I'm not mistaken. That's who wrote all of these, right?"
"Yeah."
"She's not Joanne Kathleen Rowling. She's fond of making anagrams, she made one for herself. Her whole name stands for 'Jannette Glen Nikol Wanher'. A close friend of ours. She was a witch in the same year as us, sorted in Ravenclaw as you can see how smart she was. She was ever mentioned in the book, you see, after the 'Battle at Hogwarts', Jannette volunteered to acknowledge all those wizards who put their lives at stake and especially 'the Boy Who Lived'. She started off at our highschool life. I mean, who wouldn't want to write about school life with excitement and trouble every year?" She expalined cheerfully.
Awestruck and dumbfounded all I can ever say in admiration and wonder is:
"Good 'ol J.K."
"One hour, Doctor. Enough to not make you madder than you already are." Hermoine said before leaving the room.
Now, I'm not sure of this but I have to. Feeling stupid I flipped over the stone 3 times. I closed my eyes. God knows I hope it hers.
Then there she was. Wearing a fitting white ankle-lenght dress. Maybe that's the one where she was buried in. Her eyes looking back at me intently. Her smile that I never thought I would see again. Suspended in the air looking back at me. Other than that, she's the red haired lass I'm missing
"Hey Amy." I rushed to hug her but she's made out of thin air.
"Doctor! It feels so good to hear my name again! Gosh! If you only knew how living in that era was so hard where everybody is like calling me Amelia. Even Rory teases me about it!" She says in a complete relief.
"I missed you. Even I was dead or in the process of dying I still wait for that madman in the blue box. Looking up if he still plans to drop by."
We talked about her happily ever after with Rory. And she asked me,
"How did you manage see me anyway?"
"Harry Potter stuff. Martha love those books, so I tried to find where this Resurrection stone is and Ta-da!"
"I've always been following you. Found you wandering in London once, so I thought you were thrilled to see me just to realize I'm that kind of invisible ghost. Then I found again you outside the door of that lady." She said laughing.
"So are you planning to change your title from the "Girl who waited" to the "Ghost who followed"? Improvement. Pond" I replied. Then she stared at me, her emotions shifted.
"Since I am already dead, Can I ask you this question? Did you ever, even for once in your life thought I was good enough for you? I'm not assuming, just curious and confused."
I thought I needed answers for these questions, but I'm about to give them. I need the right precision of words. Or just something that couldn't hurt her. But as I looked at her, words just came out and I just cannot control it.
"Let's just say and think for a moment everything I did was not to hurt you. Amy, when I first found you, I was at the brink of my brokeness. Eventually I saw you and hope as well. You cheered me and bulid me up. But as you build me up, I was being torn down. I thought for one time in my life I fancied you, but I am and was and will be sure of this: I love you. Love not Loved. I didn't thought you were good enough for me, I knew you were the best for me. Yet, I don't deserve you.
Rory was perfect for you. He loves you, takes care of you, a good man, I daresay. And I was thanking the heavens to grant me such priveledge to not hurt you but myself. I'm trying to not love you so I won't hurt you. Even if that means forcibly falling and intentionally tripping for your daughter. Don't say I'm not genuinely happy. I am because you were."
Awestruck as she was, I was in tears.
"You! You! Idiot! If you love somebody, you were supposed to tell them! You are so stupid. Now were both stuck in different ends, regretting all the decisions we've ever made." she burst out. I don't know if angrily or shockingly or sarcastically.
"What do you mean?"
"We were both trying not to cause each other pain. I thought you didn't love me. That I was just a friend. Yet I never had the thought that you loved me back. I can't and chose not to be with you because it's hurting us both. so I chose Rory. I learned to love him more than I loved you."
Silence fell. Just choking and sobbing sounds.
"I just want to spend forever with you. All I've ever wan-"
"No. You can't. I didn't grant you that chance and promise." cuttting her off, looking away.
"For the reason of?" She said sarcastically even crying.
"The last time I promised forever to someone, we ended up getting hurt. Me being in pain and she was broken beyond repair. It was my fault. That Bad Wolf. That Rose which eventually withered. And I made a promise never to do that same mistake on you. In the end, one of us will have to give up for the sake of the other."
I remember that perfectly. How I left her,crushed her and broke her. And she returned the favour without even knowing it.
"I don't care of being in pain-"
"YOU DON'T KNOW PAIN, AMY! You humans will feel it a few years, few months, few weeks. days, hours, minutes, seconds! but it'll all go away somehow. But this curse I live with enables me to feel it right into my core leaving me guilty for centuries." I snapped.
Yet, she still replied calmly at me.
"I care not living a cursed life if it's with you. Even just you. No time and space travel. No save-the-world dillemas. Even without a blue-box that's bigger on the inside. Just a madman with a bow tie and fez that I love and loves me back. Just that. If I can't have that, I'll be at least your invisible companion. I can try to compromise my happiness."
I'm too broken to say anything.
"Why not?" I answered.
I looked at the clock and said, "Time's up"
"I'll always be at your side, raggedy-man. I'll always love you."
"I'll always love you too. Geronimo."
As she slowly disappeared, I broke down to tears. I sank to the floor, beating my fists against it. I was trying to catch my breath. I can't be a hypocrite to convince myself I'll join her in the afterlife because that'll be a long time or maybe an impossibility. Hermoine came inside to comfort me as Amy's words are still ringing in my head.
"...Now were both stuck in different ends, regretting all the decisions we've ever made."
I clasped Hermoine's shoulder telling her, begging her.
"Bring her back. Please... I'll love her...I'll let..her spend the rest of her life with me, let her be my..forever. I love her...Bring her back, I'll make up for what I've done. I love her, Hermoine. I love her, I miss her, her laugh, her voice her smile. I need her. Even just for one last kiss. I can try to compromise my happiness." hopelessly sobbing.
"Doctor, if Jannette really correctly stated as far as I can remember and as you have said, there are fixed points in time and no spell can ever reawaken the dead. I'm sorry but it's time to let go."
" . .No. I love her."
"It's too late."
Then she looked me in the eye. She suddenly flinched and there was something in her eyes was in there that wasn't supposed to be there. A familliar gleam. A familliar Sparkle. Before I knew it she cupped my face in her hands and kissed me. I was taken aback and surprised but I suddenly realized why she did that.
"I have to do that. At least one last time." She said smiling.
Then Hermoine flinched again and the gleam in her eyes disappeared.
"That was weird. What happened? What did I do?" She said worriedly when she saw her hands touching my face, immediately keeping her hands to herself.
"You don't want to know." I said staring into the blank space. At least I know now, somewhere behind me, a face I love, a soul that loves me, smiles.
Hermoine leads me out to the garden where my TARDIS is waiting.
"Is it really bigger on the inside?" She asked curiosly.
"See for yourself." As I opened, her jaw dropped while she looked around.
"Bloody Hell! So this is the TARDIS! Time and Relative Dimensions in Space is really bigger on the inside! If I had this when I was in third year, it could've been more awesome."
"Thank you. So much for lending me the stone."
"Anytime." She replied.
"I guess this is goodbye. For now at least." I told her.
"I'll see you around. Goodbye Doctor!" She said while walking back to the house.
"Bye Hermoine!"
Hermoine's PoV
"So Hermoine? How was your day?" Ronald asked me. Then,I told him everything about the Doctor.
"You have such imaginative mind. I'm happy to have you. Come on, let's doze off. We got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." He said kissing my forehead.
"You live in a world of magic, Ron. It's not hard to believe an immortal 900 year old time-lord alien in a spaceship-slash-time machine which looks like a blue police box on the outside but bigger on the inside, wearing a bow tie and a tweed coat."
"It's not hard if you live in a world of sci-fi like muggles do. Am I right with my terminology?"
"Of course you are."
Wait. That voice wasn't mine. It was a familliar one. Then I looked outside the balcony, the TARDIS. and the Doctor.
"Just dropped by to prove my excistence. Good Night! Geronimo!" He immediately ran inside the TARDIS and left like he's in a hurry. Then the TARDIS slowly disappeared.
"That just happened." Ron said looking at me. Shocked.
"Madder than ever."
...The End...