Author's Notes: I think that I should point out that in the Whoniverse, my OTP is definitely Nine & Rose. However, my muse latched onto this particular idea and just wouldn't let go until I wrote about it. I believe that the Nine & Hermione pairing makes a lot of sense in the context of this alternate universe, though. In fact, they really are quite perfect for each other. :)

You should probably also recognize snippets of dialogue from the first season of the new "Doctor Who." Yes, I shamelessly stole them and used them for my own purposes. ;)


An Unlikely Meeting

The battle raged around Hermione all day and through half the night. Flashes of green and red, with the occasional purple or blue lit up the sky. One by one her friends, professors, and fellow Order members fell around her. Her heart broke each time she looked up and one more beloved face was gone, one more head of red hair was on the ground, or one more familiar voice cried out for the last time. Soon, too soon, she and Harry were the only ones left. They were exhausted, injured, covered in blood and muck, and devastated with grief. However, together they fought on. Back to back, they threw spells, curses, and basically anything and everything they knew.

All too soon it was time for Harry to fulfill the prophecy and face off with Voldemort himself. He was not the victor, and therefore, Hermione found herself alone, friendless, and surrounded by the enemy. She did the only thing she could at that moment. She took out the Death Eaters nearest to her…and then she ran. She had to find a place to rest and plan her next move. Knowing that the castle was compromised, she ran for the only place where she could possibly hide long enough to avoid capture – the Forbidden Forest. She knew after just a moment, though, that she was not going to make it. At least four Death Eaters, and possibly more, were on her tail. She could not let them take her alive, but she also knew she could not take out all of them at once, either. Therefore, she prepared to apparate as soon as she came to a clearing. Unfortunately, just as she started the process, she was hit by a spell from each side. She could not tell for sure but she thought she saw all four major spell colors hit her at once. Then, just before she lost consciousness, she disappeared from view.


The Doctor had never planned to come back to the little insignificant planet, even though he had been quite fond of it and its inhabitants in the past. However, he found that he had somehow been drawn there, anyway – just in time to battle the alien trying to take over the world. Now he stood there, in the underground system, struggling in the grasp of his plastic captors while the insane pile of animated goo in the giant vat in front of him shouted threats.

The last thing he wanted to do was to take another life, so he had given it a choice - a chance to leave this planet in peace - and it had declined. Now he just needed to find a way to tip in his anti-plastic and get out of there before the fireworks started. It was at times like these, he thought, that a companion would come in handy. It would be nice if there was someone else, someone who could possibly come swinging in on one of those chains, perhaps, and knock the dummy holding the anti-plastic over into the vat. He had decided not to take any more companions, however. He just could not bear to grow close to anyone again. He did not deserve to, anyway, not after what he had done. Therefore, if he was going to escape this situation, then it would have to be all up to him. He sighed, knowing that the Nestene Consciousness was not going to listen to his rational argument. Unfortunately, that meant that he would have to do things the hard way, and finish it off permanently.

Once he had made his decision, however, he moved quickly and used his Venusian Aikido moves to break loose from one of the plastic mannequins. He then used that one to push the other dummy into the vat. As they both tumbled down, along with the anti-plastic, he made his way back up to the blue Police Box on the higher level. It was time to get out of there before the whole place blew up. Just as the TARDIS dematerialized and sent them into the Vortex, though, something very unusual happened. A woman appeared out of nowhere and collapsed, unconscious, in a heap on the grating of the console room.

The Doctor rushed over to the mysterious visitor. He gently turned her over to reveal a young human woman of about twenty years of age, he guessed. The Time Lord was happy to note that even though she was unconscious, she was definitely alive. Her pulse was relatively strong, but she appeared exhausted, dehydrated, and malnourished - as if she had been living on the run or had been held in captivity for a while - in addition to the obvious fighting in which she had been recently involved. From the look of her clothing and injuries, she had been attacked, but had fought back hard! The Doctor felt an irrational surge of pride that the unknown woman had defended herself. He then checked her over again for any other visual clues as to her identity. He noticed that her filthy ripped clothing was consistent with the planet and time period that he had just left, but something seemed unusual about her. She just felt different than any other human that he had ever met. The alien did not know the how or the why, but he was determined to find out. He sent out a mental query to his ship, but the TARDIS only sent back a mental image of the sick bay.

Right, he thought. We can't do anything else while we are in the Vortex anyway, so we may as well get her cleaned up and check out her injuries. Hopefully, she could tell him more about who she was and how she got there when she regained consciousness. Therefore, he bent down to pick her up and noticed how alarmingly light she felt in his arms. She moaned softly as he carried her and he found that his arms tightened around her automatically. He could not help but to wonder about that unexpected reaction to the strange girl as he strode down the corridor to the infirmary. In his preoccupation, however, he completely failed to notice the oddly shaped and carved wooden stick that she had left behind her on the metal grating of the floor.