Author: Dreaming of Words (Kaye)
Story: A Witch and A Doctor
Chapter 2: Meeting Two (Age 13)
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter and all its affiliated things, but sadly I do not.
Hey everybody, Kaye here! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Life has been so crazy and will continue to be busy until at least the second week of August. I just wanted to say thank you so, so much for all the follows and favorites and everything. It really means a lot to me that you all liked the first chapter so much. I hope you enjoy the second chapter just as much. Without further ado, here is the second chapter of "A Witch and A Doctor."
002
"Doctor, what is this?" Inquisitive ochre eyes narrowed at the small glass bauble while a mane of chocolate hair whipped around a heart shaped face in the wind.
"Why, does Hermione Granger actually not know something for once?" the Doctor replied, a cheeky smile on his face while the young witch glared at him.
"You should know better than anyone that I don't know everything, Doctor," Hermione sniffed, glaring up at the Time Lord while shifting the odd glass bauble in her palm.
The Doctor let out a short laugh and Hermione couldn't help the smile that split her face at the sound. She had known the Doctor for a few years now; he would pop in and out of her life sporadically sometimes older, sometimes younger, sometimes with a blonde girl or a dark haired man (Rose and Jack, Hermione's brain supplied but she ignored the voice), but always with the same face. Hermione had become great at detecting the Doctor's relative 'age' after the first few times that he had visited her and didn't remember things they had done before or talked about things they hadn't done yet.
It was Hermione's idea to keep a journal, something that would enable them to find out where they were in each other's respective timelines without giving up a surprise or changing the future. So she knew that this Doctor was much younger than the previous one that came with the girl and the man (Jack and Rose that same voice corrected her, but she pushed it down viciously, jealous of their ability to travel with the Doctor when he wouldn't let her). He was not young enough to not remember her, but still young enough that happiness and laughter was still a foreign concept, something he still did not do enough even when he was older and had companions with him.
Which brings her back to the odd little glass sphere lying quite innocuously in the center of her palm. It was a birthday gift, he had said, something that would help her with her upcoming years at school. (He was oddly cryptic sometimes, like he knew too many things that hadn't happened yet, that would happen in the future, and it made him so sad). But he refused to give her any other hints and Hermione felt her curiosity push back everything else that was crowding her mind.
"Doctor," she drawled, her tone just a pinch above whining, "why won't you just tell me what it is?"
The small smile that cracked the Doctor's lips made Hermione's heart skip in her chest as she barely suppressed a fist pump. Each time she could crack his stoic façade, especially when he was this young and still so very battle-worn, Hermione counted as a great victory. Instead of latching onto him as she so wanted to do, she settled with a beaming smile and leaning in toward him slightly with her hands on her hips.
Bending over to match her height, the Doctor pointed one finger at her nose and proceeded to poke it. Hermione scrunched her face and batted his finger away and succeeded in drawing a laugh from the Doctor. Her manic grin gentling, Hermione grasped his hands in hers before inquiring again, "But really, Doctor, why can't you just tell me what it is? You know that I won't stop looking for what it is and it will be so much easier for the both of us if you just tell me what this little glass bauble can do."
"Fine, fine, Hermione!" he chuckled, gently pulling his hands from hers. "I'll tell you, but only because I know you won't let it go if I don't tell you."
He went quiet and after a beat of silence Hermione impatiently blurted out, "Well? Come on then, Doctor, what is it?!"
The Doctor smiled at her gently and ruffled her hair a bit. Glaring up at him, Hermione was just about to tell him to quit it when he said, "It's a TARDIS."
Stopping in her tracks, Hermione looked from him down to the little glass bauble, TARDIS, in confusion. "But, it's… it's so small!"
"Well, it's actually a prototype TARDIS, one of the first ones that was ever made," he went on to explain, picking up the mini-TARDIS gently and twirling it between the callused pads of his fingers as it caught the light. "This is what the Time Lords planted to grow the TARDISes, the larger ones like the one that I have."
"So if I planted it, I could have a TARDIS like the one that you have?" Hermione asked, nearly vibrating in excitement at the prospect of having her very own TARDIS in which she could travel all of time and space (but she couldn't help but wonder if having a TARDIS would be worth it if the Doctor wasn't there to experience it with her…).
"No," the Doctor said sharply, and Hermione recoiled a bit at his aggressive tone. Sighing, the Doctor ran a hand over his face before beginning again more gently, "Earth does not have the right minerals that a TARDIS would need to grow. If you tried to plant this here, it would die."
"Oh," Hermione said softly, taking the mini-TARDIS back from him and cradling it gently this time. "Okay then. So, does this do what a full-grown TARDIS does?"
"No, it only goes back in time in your current universe," the Doctor explained. "If you put the TARDIS's chain over you and spin this little thing up here at the top, it will coincide with one hour of time. It will take you bodily back to the past though, just like a full-grown TARDIS. And just like when you go back in time with a full-grown TARDIS, you need to be extra careful that you do not cross paths with the past version of you. Crossing your own timeline is dangerous, and you might go mad if you see yourself in the past."
Hermione, who had been growing more and more excited with each word that exited the Doctor's lips, was hopping up and down in place while hanging on his every word. As he finished, Hermione launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly as she murmured a litany of thanks into his ear. Feeling his arms reluctantly come up to encircle her back lightly, Hermione only squeezed him tighter and vowed that she would not abuse this gift that her Doctor had given her.
A TARDIS! A real TARDIS! Take that, blonde girl and dark haired man (Rose and Jack, that voice in her head screamed but Hermione continued to ignore it). The Doctor had given her a TARDIS and she doubted that he had ever given his "companions" anything so precious as this. It almost made it okay that he refused to take her with him. Now she could journey into the past on her own! And, now that she thought about it, being able to travel into the past meant that she wouldn't have to choose between which classes to take for her third year; she could just take them all! Oh, the Doctor had given her the best gift she could have ever asked for!