SIXTH MONTHS LATER
Hermione combed through the books in the library, absentmindedly reading the titles
and running her hand across the spines. She wandered down a few isles before making her way to the history section. She stopped in front of Hogwarts, A History, but didn't want to read from a book she'd already memorised, so kept walking. A few shelves down from Hogwarts, A History, she saw one entitled The Founders of Hogwarts: Personal Accounts. She'd never seen it before, at least never taken notice of it. Intrigued, she pulled it off the shelf, made her way to an empty table, and started reading.
"An appearance by two strange travellers left all four founders dumbfounded. Below are the accounts of all four of the founders, each with drastically different perspectives. No name was ever mentioned of the girl, and the only name provided of the man was 'Doctor.' "
Hermione's eyes shot up when she read the word Doctor. Doctor, she wondered, as in...? She took a deep breath and continued reading.
"No other accounts of these two people exist in known documents written by the founders, and it is unclear the relationship between the two travellers. Slytherin seemed to think they were married, though Ravenclaw suggested they were mere 'companions' with a spark for something more. Hufflepuff had no mention of a hypothesized relationship, and it appears the two rescued her, though it is unclear from what they rescued her. Gryffindor appears to have been in love with the girl, but no account of a return was ever written by any of the four."
The Doctor hadn't been with a girl when she'd met him...she wondered if he'd found someone now, and had taken her to back in time to the Founders' Era. She narrowed her eyes at the idea, wondering if he would ever come back to Hogwarts, or if he even remembered her. She looked back down at the page, itching to read more, to see what the founders said about them. She checked her watch; it was the time she normally went to charms, but how could she go to class now? She looked back down at the page, begging her to read on. She fingered the time-turner around her neck. Always room for charms later, she thought. Despite the Doctor's warnings against the time-turner, she'd continued to use it. Screw charms, she thought, and kept reading.
Godric Gryffindor
I know nothing of the girl we've encountered, for both she and her friend came and went like the wind. A most extraordinary girl she was...with her ivory skin and that beautiful green dress. I crave to know more of her, and to see more of her, but I fear such a curiosity shall never be satisfied. I hold out hope that one day she shall return and I may be reunited. Such a fierce girl, yet such a soft, touchable face...the face of innocence, with exquisite features. She embodied a beauty indescribable by the negligence of words. She had a confidence about her that was most alluring, and she proved to be a most valiant and heroic young lady. Such a quality alone is more intoxicating than any handsomeness, yet the enticing young lady I write of today conveyed both with such compelling attractiveness that to not desire her return feels an abomination.
Helga Hufflepuff
I know not who she was, or where she was from, only that without the likes of her I'd be dead. She saved me, and her Doctor friend tended my wounds while Rowena paced the room and raved methods in which to rid the world of Salazar. I should love for the opportunity to see them again, if only once, if only to thank them for their kind services, but I fear that return, they shan't, and I shall be subject to a lifetime of wondering...
Rowena Ravelclaw
A beautiful girl and a most handsome man who disclosed only the name of Doctor, two of the most inexplicable people I've met, and yet they are reason I remain here, able to inscribe these words. They must have been companions, at the very least, though the way she looked at him I deem something more. I do wonder what has become of them now, but a return, I think is unlikely.
Salazar Slytherin
A most unwelcome visit by a girl and her husband has left me reeling and fuming. By a stroke of luck, she managed to outsmart me. I hope only for another encounter, so as to finish the girl off and have a man-to-man fight with her husband.
When she'd finished reading, she exhaled in amazement.
"So I wasn't dreaming..." She whispered to herself.
"Dreaming? About what?" Someone said from across the table. She jumped at the voice, not having realized anyone was there.
"God, how long have you been there?"
"Not too long. Not that you'd have noticed, you were engrossed in that old book with tiny print," Ginny remarked snidely, turning a page in her book. "So what were you dreaming about?"
"Oh...nothing, just..." She looked down at the page again, then shut the book. "I have to go to charms. I'll see you at dinner," she said hurriedly. She replaced the book on the shelf and practically ran out of the library, her heart racing.
So he was real. For the past few months, she'd battled with the idea that nothing she remembered from that fateful morning was real. But what she just read provided proof - concrete, irrefutable proof - that everything that happened really happened, that the crazy Doctor who claimed to be an alien and had a screwdriver that held all the answers, who allegedly travelled through space and time in a tiny blue box, he was real.
SIX MONTHS AFTER THAT
"So do you want to tell my why you're acting so weird?" Ginny asked.
"What do you mean? I'm not acting weird," Hermione responded, avoiding her gaze.
"Well, not all the time, but come on. I'm your best friend, and I notice these things. Sneaking off to the library, obsessive reading, even more than usual, and you've been looking so preoccupied. And don't tell me it's just classes," She added when Hermione opened her mouth to say just that. "Because I know you're school-stressed face, and it's not this."
Hermione was silent for a while. She and Ginny were taking a walk on the grounds, circling around the black lake. It was early in the morning, probably around the time of day the Doctor had shown up one year ago.
"Well...okay." Hermione said, looking at her friend. "Let's sit down, then. It's sort of an...odd story."
They sat under a tree right by the lake, leaning up against its trunk, and Hermione started to tell Ginny everything. She told her about how a blue box had appeared out of nowhere, how she thought she was hallucinating, and how the Doctor hadn't believed her when she said she was a witch.
"Wait, so you mean that after he materialised out of thin air in a blue police box that went out of fashion ages ago, he told you that a levitation spell was impossible?" Ginny asked in disbelief.
"That was my reaction too! He was acting so weird, like everything around him was preposterous and awe-inspiring..."
"Yet he was the one who claimed to be an alien, with a police box for a spaceship? And what did he call himself, the God of Time?"
"Lord of Time, actually..." Hermione speculated, looking at Ginny. She was relieved that Ginny hadn't called her crazy, but also suspicious that she was secretly thinking her story was ridiculous.
"Right, with a magical screwdriver?"
"He called it sonic. Apparently it contains all the answers."
"To what?"
"I don't know, life? He said he could use it to scan whatever he wanted, and it would just...give him all the information he needed. It can also apparently open doors," A smile was creeping up on her face. She thought of using the computer analogy to explain the screwdriver, but then remembered Ginny was a pureblood and wouldn't know what a computer was.
"That is ridiculous." Ginny said flatly, staring at Hermione.
"Well...the thing is...it is ridiculous, but he scanned my necklace with it...the time-turner, remember? And then he read from the screwdriver or something, and he knew all about it all of a sudden."
Ginny was quiet for a moment, pursing her lips and staring out at the lake.
"And then he just...left?"
Hermione nodded. "He was acting like he knew me...before he left, he said 'nice seeing, I mean meeting you.' What is that supposed to mean?" She looked at Ginny, who shrugged and looked over at her. "And then he got back into his spaceship and disappeared. Literally. He just faded away."
"But that doesn't make any sense!" Ginny speculated.
"I know..." Hermione returned, exasperated.
"Have you told Harry and Ron?"
"No..."
"Have you told Viktor?" She asked teasingly.
"No, why would I?" Hermione's eyebrows knitted together at the sudden subject change.
Ginny shrugged. "Just curious. So have you two done it yet?" She asked casually, lifting her hand and inspecting her fingernails.
"Ginny!" Hermione gasped, aghast. Ginny laughed and rolled her eyes at her.
"I'm only joking." She said, allowing her hand to fall back to her side. Hermione nodded, looking away uncomfortably. Ginny smirked, and added, "Kind of."
Hermione ignored her and brought the subject back to the Doctor. "I mean, it's not like I spend every single moment thinking about him, I just want some answers," she reasoned.
"Uh huh. Sure." Ginny said satirically.
"I'm serious!" Hermione countered. "Whenever there's nothing else to think of, my mind just...slips to him." She waved her hands around in front of her, as though that would explain everything.
Ginny said nothing. Hermione let her hands fall into her lap and looked out over the black lake. She felt Ginny turn toward her and felt her eyes bore into her.
"I know. I believe you."
It was impossible to tell if that she meant it in a sarcastic way, saying she believed that she hadn't spent every moment obsessed with the encounter, or if she meant that she believed the story.
Hermione decided to deem it was the latter.
ONE YEAR AFTER THAT
It was late at night, and Hermione and Ginny were the only two girls still awake in their dormitory. They were both in Ginny's bed, hiding under the blankets with Hermione's wand tip sitting illuminated between them, conversing in low tones so as not to wake any of the other girls.
"How long do you reckon we can get away with it?" Ginny asked, referring, of course, to Dumbledore's Army and how long they could hide it from Umbridge.
"Who knows," Hermione replied, shrugging lightly. "Umbridge is such an idiot anyway, if she finds out, it'll take her ages."
Ginny grinned and stifled her laugh behind her hand.
"Anyway," Hermione said, changing the subject. "How are things with Michael?"
"Michael..." Ginny licked her lips, pondering an answer. "We're alright, I guess. Average, I suppose. What about you? Still keeping in touch with Viktor?"
Hermione shrugged. "A letter here and there, but not really."
"Anyone else, then?"
Unexpectedly, Hermione's mind went to her third year, that fateful day when that crazy "Doctor" had materialised on the grounds and pestered her about the time-turner. Not because she thought of him as crush-worthy, of course, but because...well, for no real reason at all.
"No..." She bit her lip, looking to the side. "I sort of miss Viktor, to be honest, so no one else, really."
They were both silent for a few moments, looking at each other. Hermione had put her wand under the sheet so the light wouldn't be so bright, so it was a dim sort of yellow light around them. It reflected off Ginny's red hair and made it look golden-blonde, and shined on her pale skin, turning it a darker shade.
"I know what you're thinking about." Ginny broke the silence. Hermione raised her eyebrows, inviting her to answer. "That man. The one who just showed up randomly and then disappeared. Literally,"
Hermione smiled. "I was actually thinking that this light makes your hair look really pretty," She returned. Ginny smirked.
"Right."
SIXTH YEAR
It had been three years since Hermione's encounter with the Doctor. She was in the midst of her sixth year at Hogwarts, but not much had changed. She sat on the grounds, up against a tree, deeply immersed in one of her textbooks, per usual. She jumped rather badly when someone tapped her shoulder.
"Remember me?" A man stood above her, smiling brightly. He was wearing a long brown trench coat over a brown suit with white pin stripes. She jumped up and slammed her book shut, staring at him. He was standing right in front of her. After all that time, there he was, just...standing there.
This isn't real, she thought. But it was real; she knew it was.
"It is possible to forget a man like you?" She asked, facing him.
"Well, since you asked, no. It's not. How long was I gone, exactly?" He asked. She'd just opened her mouth to answer him but he held his hands out and shook his head. "No, wait! Let me guess. Let's see..." He examined her height and hair length. "Well, you're taller. And older looking. So I had to have been gone for some time. Maybe four years. No, no, no...three. No! Four. Yeah, four." He placed his hands on his hips and grinned at her triumphantly.
"Actually, three. Why? Did you lose track of time?" She mocked, tossing her hair from her eyes.
"You could say that, but...I didn't even mean to end up here. Again. Why am I always drawn here? Oi!" He suddenly added, and Hermione raised her eyebrows in a questioning manner.
"Yes?" She asked sweetly.
"You continued to use that timey-wimey necklace and travel back in your own personal timeline, didn't you?" He pointed at her with a childish scowl, like he was accusing her of stealing his ice cream.
"So what if I did?" She asked feverishly. "I hardly think it's any of your business."
"Actually, young lady, it is my business. I'm the lord of time. And I told you not to use it. You said you wouldn't, either, remember that?!" He still sounded so unbelievably immature; she couldn't help but laugh at him.
"I did not. You told me not to use the time-turner anymore, but all I said was that I understood. Never once did I say I would listen to you." This seemed to leave him speechless, and he just stood there in front of her. She was smirking. He slowly moved his arms in toward him and crossed them over his chest.
"Humph!" He grumbled, sticking his nose in the air like a four year old that hadn't gotten his way.
"What?" She asked, unable to keep the bemused expression off her face.
"Oh, nothing."
"Would you please act your age? What are you doing here?"
"I am acting my age, how do you know what a 900 year old should act like?" He challenged. "And I'm not doing anything here. You dragged me here." He accused.
"I did not!"
"Did so!"
"How do you figure?" She asked, now crossing her arms in a rather immature fashion to mimic his.
"With that stupid timey-wimey necklace. Something about it is wrong, and the TARDIS doesn't like it, so she ends up here."
"Okay, fine, but I stopped using it thee years ago, after my third year was finished. I never used it after that." She told him. His expression gradually went back to normal. "But since we're talking about what brought you here, you can't just show up somewhere the way you did and then leave." She crossed her arms.
"What way?" He seemed genuinely bewildered. She rolled her eyes.
"You literally materialized out of thin air, told me you were an alien, said that box was a spaceship in which you travel through space and time, you claimed to have a magical screwdriver that can open doors and answer all your life questions, and you said you were the lord of time and then proceeded to tell me what to do. Then you just got back into your out-of-date police box and faded away. And through all that, you had the nerve to tell me that my simple levitation spell was what was impossible." Everything rolled off her tongue so smoothly, and she drew satisfaction out of the slight O his mouth had formed.
"Well, when you put it like that..."
"Did you not think for one second how any of that would effect me?" She demanded. She knew he hadn't, but she could tell now that he didn't want to admit it. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "No, of course you didn't," she answered for him. "Because you're crazy and impossible and impulsive and..." At a loss for words, she crossed her arms and stared at him.
"Sorry. I didn't think...I mean...how about I make it up to you?" He suggested, sliding his hands into his trench-coat pockets. He was wearing the exact same suit as three years ago. Absolutely nothing about him had changed, from his clothes to his childlike expression to his perplexed, fascinated tone of voice.
When she didn't answer, he took that as an invitation. "Would you like to go somewhere?" He asked her.
"What?" She shot back, caught off guard.
"I want to take you somewhere. I admire your gut."
"My gut?"
"Yeah. You're so...feisty, and vivacious." He said with a wink. She rolled her eyes.
"No, I'm not." She crossed her arms again. He pursed his lips.
"Yes you are. You're sassy."
"You're sassy!" She disputed defensively.
"Do you want to go somewhere, or what?"
"Where?" She challenged.
"Where ever you like." He enunciated each syllable and reached behind him, pushing the TARDIS doors open. She eyed him rather suspiciously before taking a cautious step inside. When she did, her jaw dropped. She heard him come in behind her, and, determined not to give him the satisfaction of her awe; she turned around to face him with a completely neutral expression.
"Undetectable extension charm?" She asked unimpressively.
"What? No, this is...how it's built. I'm not a wizard." His smile brightened. "So, where would you like to go, then, Mione? Future or past?"
"Er...forward." She was captivated and hesitant at the same time, but also rather pleased at the nickname.
"Lovely!" He began working the controls until the box gave a lurch and she grabbed onto a handle nearby to keep herself from falling. He chuckled softly at her reaction. "Allons-y!" He grinned and ran to the doors. She followed him. He pulled the doors open, but didn't step out. When she rushed to the edge and saw what was on the other side, she gasped and jumped back, her heart summersaulting in her chest. They hadn't landed, but rather were floating around in space. Asteroids the size of cars flew past them, and she could see planets in the far distance. Right next to them was a large planet that looked around the size of Earth, but was a whole lot redder.
She was speechless.
"Where are we?"
"End of the Earth."
"Then why aren't we on Earth?" She asked, beyond confused at the science of this all.
"You tell me." He pointed to the planet next to them, the red one that she'd assumed was Mars. "I hear you're somewhat of a genius."
"Well...we must be almost 8 billion years into the future."
"Seven and a half." He corrected. They both were standing at the edge of the doors, staring out at the site before them.
"Right...well, the luminosity of the sun increased, which increased the amount of solar radiation that reached the Earth, which increased Earth's temperature...three and a half billion years ago all life on Earth would've been wiped out due to the increase in temperatures, and all the water on Earth would've evaporated."
"Keep going." He encouraged.
"Well...seven and half billion years in the future...so, I guess, now...the sun will consume the Earth. Oh my god, is that what's happening right now?" She asked, staring out at the Earth below them.
"Yeah. Which is why we aren't down there, on Earth, because it's practically already engulfed in flames. Any minute now, it'll fly into the sun and burn up. Gone forever." The TARDIS flew back and to the left, to reveal the sun...they had to have been light years further away than it seemed, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to see the whole thing.
"Then why aren't we burning up right here?" She asked.
"Because the TARDIS is magical, to put it shortly." He turned to watch her reaction as the events before them played out, like they were a computer animation in a Stephan Hawking documentary.
The sun swallowed the Earth. It was such a simple thing that happened, and yet it was the most complicated, ridiculous thing she'd ever seen.
"And... That's that." He said, pulling her back into the TARDIS and shutting the doors.
"That's it?"
"For the earth, yes. But would you like to see something even more remarkable?"
"I...yeah..." She stumbled over her words, at a loss for what to say.
"Brilliant, let's be off then! We're not going far, just a few billion years into the past." He shut the doors and ran back up to the central console. When her eyebrows rose in surprise, he clarified.
"Well, it'll still be billions of years into your future, but from where we are right now, we are going three and a half billion years into the past."
"So, essentially four billion years into the future?" She asked, trying to wrap her head around all this.
"Well, your future, yes. But 'the' future is relative. We're technically going three and a half billion years into the past, since right now we're at seven and a half billion years into your future and we're going to only four billion years in your future-"
"Okay, okay," she interrupted him, having heard enough.
"Allons-y, then!" He slammed down the controls and they were off.
This time, they landed, and before he opened the doors for them, he stared at her expectantly. "Any guesses?" He asked.
"None at all." She admitted. He rolled his eyes.
"Some genius you are." He teased, running for the doors. "We're on Earth. But this time, it's not on fire, so we can safely be on it."
"Wait, hang on though, if we're four billion years into my future, all life on Earth has gone extinct due to the climate change. It's too hot, even all the oceans evaporated. We can't go out there, even if it's not on fire, it's too hot for life."
"Ah, but see, that's where you're wrong." He grinned and she waited for him to continue. "The TARDIS provides a sort of protection. Obviously she can't stop us from burning up if we land in a pit of fire, but here, she can provide temperature regulations, so we won't even notice! It'll just feel like warm August air. It's like what happened when we watched the earth get eaten by the sun. Remember, how we just hung out of the TARDIS? But we could still breathe, because of the TARDIS protection. Otherwise we would've suffocated." He explained carefully, and she finally began to understand some of his words.
"I didn't think about how we were breathing..."
"Well, now you know!" He yanked the doors open and they both ran outside. He was right; it didn't feel very warm at all.
It was dark, like it was nighttime, but the light of the stars in the sky lit everything up and gave it a glowing quality. It was eerie, but it was also, in a strange way, beautiful.
They were standing in front of a trail that obviously hadn't been trekked in years. It zigzagged through a dead-beat forest and looked like it led all the way to the horizon, where a mountainous silhouette was all she could see.
"Up for a little hike?" He asked. She stared around her, speechless, unable to think, even. This place looked nothing like earth, especially the view of the sky. It looked like a work of art, not something you'd expect to just see, up in the sky. "I'll take that as a yes." He said when she didn't answer.
"All the way to the horizon?" She asked as they started on their way.
"It's not as far off as it looks." He said. "Just appreciate your surroundings. This is what Earth will become." He ducked under a branch. "What do you think?"
"Well...it's almost like nothing lived here at all. When I pictured the Earth after humans left it, I always pictured it in ruins. It seemed like we were on our way to destroying it, what with all the pollution and infrastructure and technology. You know?" She looked up at him, hoping he'd agree, but he just shrugged.
They walked a few minutes in silence, and she drunk in everything around her. They were no doubt in what used to be a forest. By the looks of it, it had once been green and luscious. Now, though, it looked like the trees did in the winter, when they were nothing but trunks and branches. The only difference was that there were no leaves on the ground, or no snow on the trees. It was odd seeing such barren trees in an environment that wasn't cold. She knew it was because they were in an environment that made it impossible for nature to prosper, but it felt like the seasons were backwards, like an alternate universe or something.
"What are you thinking?" The Doctor asked her. She hadn't realised they'd been silent for so long.
"About how strange it is seeing trees with no leaves even though it's not winter. Also how crazy you are." She added.
"Hey!"
"What?"
"I'm not crazy!"
"Yes, you are." Hermione laughed, looking up ahead. They were almost out of the forest, and then they'd be going up a steep hill.
"How do you figure?" He challenged. "Actually, never mind. Don't answer that, you're right. I'm crazy." He lifted his hands in defeat. She said nothing, just stared ahead as they walked uphill. "You alright?" He asked, and she was surprised to feel his hand come in contact with her shoulder, and even more surprised to feel the tingles is sent shooting down her spine.
"I'm fine, I'm...better than fine. It's just so...hard to believe." She said.
"Ha! I knew you'd be impressed with me." He grinned proudly.
"Well...I guess, for once, you were right." She smirked at him and pushed ahead.
"Hey! I'm always right, it just took you this long to admit it." He argued, running after her. "Slow down!" He demanded, but she only sped up.
"Race you!"
"You don't even know where we're going!" He called from behind her.
"Better run faster then!" She tantalized.
"You...!" He sped up and eventually caught up with her. When he did, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her toward him.
"Cheater!" She spun around and pushed him off, but it hardly fazed him. Eventually, they both stopped and collapsed on the ground, laughing and struggling for air.
"You're a little devil." He said when he'd caught his breath.
"At least I'm not an alien."
"Who says I'm the alien? To me, you're the alien." They stared at each other for a few more seconds, and then he stood up. "Right. See that field up there? That's where we're going. Race you there." He beamed.
"You're on," Hermione said, an idea coming to her.
"Good," He said, bracing himself. She did the same. "On your marks..."
"Get set..." She started thinking really hard about the field and what it looked like.
"Go!" He raced off, but she didn't move. She gave him a few seconds head start, then shut her eyes and spun around. When she opened them again, she was at their destination, but he was only halfway there. She smiled to herself and sat in the field, waiting for him.
When he caught up, he was breathless and wide-eyed. "How did you...what was..." He stared at her dubiously.
"I apparated." She answered.
"What the hell is that?" He stipulated. She paused, considering her answer.
"Illegal." She finally said.
"Oh! Oh, I see how it is. Little Miss Genius is also a criminal, huh? Well, if you're not careful, Missy, I'll arrest you inside my police box!" His eyes were wide and confused.
"I'll let you win the next race, if that's what you're sore about." She giggled. He exhaled and sat next to her.
"I let you do that."
"I know you did." She smiled at his defensive face, like a child who'd lost a game of chess and was now claiming he'd let his sister win in order to be a gentleman, even though she was clearly the superior player.
"So, what do you think of the view?" He changed the subject, pointing ahead at that sky.
It was something no other human could say they'd seen, except on TV. There was hardly any black space visible. There was a streak of light across the entire sky, with pinks and oranges and browns and greens. If you squinted, you could almost imagine it to be a sunset, but it was perpendicular, instead of parallel, to the horizon. It looked like a tornado of a galaxy. It thinned out around the edges, the way an illuminated wand was really bright at the tip and then let the light spread out around it. There were specks of colour littered throughout the sky. Off to the side of the streak of lights was another, that looked like it had been twisted around itself and was now a swirling conglomeration of lights, with colours orange and white twisted together. This too let off light rays on its sides, the way the other one did. The two met and looked like waves of opposite directions meeting in the middle.
"It looks like a Van Gough painting." She finally said.
Everything around them seemed to exist only in silhouettes against the bright sky. Up ahead of them were yet more mountainous ranges that looked like black paint on top of all the beautiful colours. Even when she looked over at the Doctor, it was hard to see anything but a silhouette.
"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" He said softly, also staring out mystically.
"That's an understatement." She whispered. He nodded slowly in agreement.
"One of the reasons I like it here," He began, speaking lowly. "Because it's impossible for any living creature to be here. Except us, but we have the TARDIS. There's no chance of anything going terribly wrong. It's just...serene and tranquil." He said. She nodded in agreement.
"Andromeda, isn't it?" She confirmed, staring out at the sky. "This is when the Milky Way and Andromeda become one galaxy."
"Very good..." He expressed. "The Milky Way is practically right in the middle of Andromeda, now, hence...the view." He gestured out toward the skies. "Technically, there's no Milky Way or Andromeda anymore, they've fused together as one."
"If only there were someone left to give it a name," She pontificated. The Doctor's eyes lit up.
"Well, we're here! We can name it. How about...Milky Andromeda?" He offered. Hermione made a face.
"No, that's awful. Andromeda Way?" She suggested.
"Hmm..." He pondered for a second. "Yeah, I like that. Andromeda Way..." He said mystically.
"You know, I wasn't lying. When I said I hadn't forgotten about you over these past three years." Hermione said, lying back in the grass.
"Yeah?" He asked, leaning back next to her.
"I actually remained really curious. I wasn't going to admit this, but I did a lot of...research on you."
"You mean you stalked me?"
"No!" She immediately replied, defensively. "I just looked you up."
"You stalked me."
"I did not!"
"Did too!"
"Well, if you're going to be like that then I'm not going to tell you what I found." She said stubbornly.
"Okay, okay, fine. What did you find on me?" He said, coming up onto his elbow and facing her. "Hang on, where did you look?"
"In the library, of course. There wasn't much," She raised herself onto her elbow as well, so she was level with him. "But I did find references to you in one book."
"You have my full attention."
"It was about the Founders of Hogwarts. You know, the school I go to," she clarified. She pursed her lips, pondering how to explain what she found. "All four of them wrote about a mysterious man who only disclosed the name 'Doctor', and a young girl he was travelling with,"
"Really..." He sounded fascinated.
"It never mentioned the girl's named, but apparently she and the Doctor saved Helga Hufflepuff's life."
"So I'm a hero then!" He said, falling back onto his back. Hermione rolled over onto her stomach and supported herself with both elbows.
"I suppose... Gryffindor wrote the most. Apparently he was enticed by the girl and always hoped she'd come back, but she never did." She was quiet for a moment, watching his expression. "Interesting, huh?"
"Yeah. Especially since...I haven't done any of that yet."
"What?" She asked, rolling back over onto her back and looking up at the incredible sky again.
"Well, it hasn't happened yet. Well, not exactly," he contradicted himself. "It has happened. Just not for me. The time stream of life on earth and my personal time stream are really out of synch."
"I see." She said, even though she didn't.
"But hey, I'm sure it'll happen eventually! Maybe you were even the girl they were talking about!" He suggested.
"I doubt it...I can't travel with you like this forever, I've got to get back for exams."
"Hermione, you're in a time machine. Don't worry about your stupid exams." He sat up and she followed his example. "I'm just saying. It's possible you're the girl they mentioned. Since it hasn't happened yet, it can't be any of my previous companions, and you're also a witch, so I'd be more likely to take you to meet Gryffindin or whoever." He theorized. Hermione burst out laughing. "What?" He demanded.
"Gryffindin?" She asked incredulously.
"Don't laugh at me because I can't remember your fancy wizard names!"
"Gryffindor." She corrected, but he just waved it off.
"Whatever."
"Oh, grow up." She uprooted some grass and threw it at him.
"Oi! Hey, what are you, twelve?!" He demanded, gathering the grass off him in a mock-pompous way and then throwing it back at her. She swatted the grass away, smiling, but didn't throw any back at him.
"Show me some magic." He said suddenly. She looked over at him.
"What?"
"Please? Defy gravity or something." He grinned, and she couldn't keep a sly smile off her face. Defy gravity...of course. She took her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the ground.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" She chanted, and every individual piece of grass they'd uprooted and thrown at each other glided upward, resistant of gravity.
"Amazing." He breathed, watching her. She let the grass hover around them.
"Yeah, because I'm the one with a spaceship and screwdriver that holds all the answers,"
He laughed. "You remember that?"
"Of course I do." She let the floating, defiant-of-gravity grass fall back on to the ground.
"Well!" He stood up, changing the subject. "Now that I've officially jinxed this place, maybe we best be off,"
"What are you talking about?" She asked, though making no movements to stand up.
"Remember? I said there's nothing ever dangerous here."
"Because it's impossible for living creatures to thrive here, yeah."
"Well..." He sat up. "The thing with me is that I sort of attract danger, so now that I've said that nothing can go wrong, something is bound to go wrong. So we should probably leave before something comes out and tries to eat us." He explained, speaking in a very matter-of-fact manner, like this was all perfectly logical.
"Whatever you say." Was her response, though she was a little disappointed to be leaving already. When she stood up and they turned around, the TARDIS was standing right behind them.
"Hello!" The Doctor said, beaming. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"How did it get here? We left it all the way back there," She pointed. He shrugged, unlocking the doors.
"It's magical, like I told you." He said nonchalantly, shrugging and entering the TARDIS. She followed him. When he reached the central console, he rounded on her. "So?!" He demanded. She stared at him. "What did you think? On a scale from mind-blowing to marvellous?"
She laughed at his confidence. "Stunning."
"Huh? That wasn't one of the options!"
"Was too. You said it was on a scale from mind-blowing to marvellous. Stunning falls within those categories, wouldn't you say?"
"Right. Well," He began working the controls of the TARDIS. "What do you say, then? One more adventure?" He ginned at her, his fingers encased around the lever, ready to slam it down. "I still admire your gut."
Hermione looked down before returning her gaze to him, abandoning her pride. "I'd love that."
A slow grin crept up on his face. "Good. So, what do you know about dinosaurs?"
"What?"
"Oh come on! You know everything, so tell me. What do you know about them?" The smirk written all over his face made her feel like he was testing her, and she wasn't about to let him win, so she took a deep breath and let out all her knowledge.
"The dinosaur age is split into three periods - Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Geologists originally marked out these periods to distinguish among various types of geologic strata, but since dinosaur fossils are usually found embedded in rock, palaeontologists associate dinosaurs with the geologic period in which they lived," She paused for dramatic effect.
"Go on..." The Doctor coaxed.
"There are several theories for how and why they went extinct, the most widely accepted being that an asteroid about 6 miles wide travelling at around 45,000 miles per hour fell onto the Yucatan Peninsula, leaving an approximately 110 mile long crater, and releasing as much as 100 trillion tons of TNT, more than a billion times more than the atom bombs that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki." She tilted her head to the side and smirked.
"That all you got?"
She rolled her eyes. "It's been estimated that the impact would have set off a nuclear winter scenario, meaning the amount of moisture and dust thrown into the atmosphere would have shut out all sunlight, resulting in the death of all photosynthetic organisms, which would have caused all the herbivorous dinosaurs to die off, which would have, in turn, killed the carnivorous dinosaurs that fed on the herbivorous dinosaurs..."
"Impressive. Not as impressive as me, of course, but still. Not bad."
"Thank you?"
"Anytime! So! I'll tell you something I bet you didn't know."
"And that would be?"
He flicked his eyebrows up, slammed down the lever, and then grabbed the handle for support.
"I'd rather show you!" He shouted over the sound of the flying TARDIS.
When they came to an abrupt stop, he stared at her with a proud grin on his face.
"Where are we now, then?" She asked, slightly tentative at the idea that they were about to walk out into a place where dinosaurs thrived.
"Well, technically, we haven't moved in space at all. We're in the exact same spot as we were before, only..." His voiced trailed off, inviting her to finish his sentence.
"65 million years ago, before dinosaurs went extinct."
He rolled his eyes dramatically. "No, haven't we been through this?! Time is relative. Past and future, it's all relative. We've gone 65 million years into your past, but technically, we've gone 4 billion and 65 million years into the past, speaking from where we just came."
"Okay." She said quickly with wide eyes.
"God, I thought you were a genius."
"And who gave you that crazy idea?"
He smirked. "A little birdie told me." He stared at her with an adolescent grin. "So, let's go meet some dinosaurs."