The Galley turned out to be right across the corridor from the library. "I guess the Old Girl moved it again - probably to make it easier for you," remarked the Doctor with a shrug. "She likes you, you know." He looked down at Hermione and smiled at the his thought of how his ship had affectionately spoiled their guest.
"Oh, I like her, too!" Hermione exclaimed with sincerity, as she stopped to pat the corridor wall. They both laughed at the feeling of smugness that radiated all around them at her words. "However, is that normal? Does she often move rooms around?"
"Whenever she wants, really," he explained. "So don't make her angry or you might not be able to find your bedroom for a month – or worse, the library will go missing!"
"That would be a punishment, indeed!" the other bookworm replied with feeling. They both laughed a little again and went into the galley where their breakfast already waiting for them.
"Oh, you cook, too!" Hermione exclaimed with honest surprise at the sight as she patted the wall affectionately again. "Thank you so much, TARDIS! You are wonderful!" The ship's feeling of delight at the praise filled the room.
Meanwhile, the Doctor just stood back and watched Hermione interact with his ship. He had never seen anything like it. The young woman was just so…accepting…of everything. Nothing seemed to surprise her. In fact, she reminded him so much of, well, him! He liked that, a lot actually, but he had to know why. Therefore, he brought it up as they sat down to eat.
"You seem strangely…unfazed…by all of this, Hermione. Most people are a bit more surprised when they find out about the TARDIS, me, and everything dealing with us, really."
"Doctor," she explained with a little half-smile that seemed both sad and amused at the same time, "you have to understand that until I was eleven, I was an ordinary girl living in an ordinary world, even though I could make some strange things happen sometimes without knowing why. If I had met you back then, I probably would have been a bit more freaked out. However, then I received a letter that changed my whole world. It was my acceptance letter to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I then entered the magical world knowing absolutely nothing about it. I suddenly found myself living in a sentient castle that moved her staircases and doors around at whim and made rooms appear and disappear on request. The castle was also full of secret tunnels, living portraits, ghosts, dangerous creatures, and a magical library that was almost the size of yours! Therefore, no, the TARDIS does not shock me. Amazes me? Yes! Shocks me? No!" Here she paused, and touched the wall with affection again.
Then she looked back at him. "As for you, my mysterious time-traveling, two-hearted alien friend," she paused here and offered him a brighter, more genuine smile that affected those aforementioned two hearts strangely. "At the wondrous age of eleven, I also suddenly discovered that the world was full of so much more than just mere people. I met, befriended, and/or became enemies of, not just Witches and Wizards, but also Elves, Goblins, Centaurs, Werewolves, Giants, Trolls, Vampires, and Merpeople...as well as many more. Therefore, meeting a good-looking man from another planet was simply a pleasant experience for me...but not a very shocking one." That being said, she reached over and squeezed his hand. Then she started to eat her breakfast in earnest as she tried not to giggle at his look of astonishment at her words...her tragedy forgotten for just a moment in the wake of her amusement.
Even after her surprising explanation, his predominant thought was She thinks that I am good looking. Me - with this daft old face! He found that he approached his breakfast with a light heart after that and also that he had to work very hard to keep a silly grin off of his face. After a few minutes, another question occurred to him, though. "Do I even want to know how and why you know about the smell of Time, then?"
"Well," she said, a bit deviously. "I may have a little experience in that area, as well."
"What?" exclaimed the Doctor. "Please tell me that time travel is not a common occurrence in your world." His mind was suddenly overrun with the consequences of such an irresponsible society. Therefore, he was very pleased when she quickly negated that idea.
"Oh, sweet Merlin, no!" replied Hermione, equally horrified. "What a disaster that would be!" she exclaimed and shuddered. "No...my professors had to get special permission from the Ministry for me to utilize the Time Turner. For the most part, I was very careful to keep the rules in mind, and found it to be a very meaningful experience. That particular smell or essense that I recognized from you was something that I noticed between each time jump and usually I jumped several times a day...so I became very familiar with it. However, I decided to give up the Time Turner after just a year. I was already a year older than most of my peers since I had an early September birthday, anyway. Unfortunately, doubling each and every day with the Time Turner just exacerbated that problem."
"So you only stopped time traveling so that you wouldn't age prematurely. Interesting…" the Doctor thought about it. "Well, you don't have to worry about that in the TARDIS. Time here on the inside is completely separate from the time flowing outside. However, why in the world would your teachers have wanted you to do such a thing in the first place?"
"It was my idea, of course! I requested the opportunity so that I could take all of the classes that were offered - instead of just the ones that fit into my schedule. However, I may have used it to circumvent a werewolf attack, prevent the execution of an innocent hippogriff, and to save my best friend's Animagus godfather from having his soul sucked out by evil Dementors, as well. That's about it, though…" she remarked innocently, as she looked up at him with a small smile that was again tinged with emotion.
She traveled in time just to take more classes? To learn more…and to save a few people along the way! That is absolutely fantastic! Will she ever stop surprising me? he thought as he blinked at her in wonderment for just a moment and then he grinned delightedly. "Hermione Granger," he said, reaching over to give her hand a squeeze. "I am so glad that I met you!"
"Me, too!" she replied quietly. Even though the sadness in her eyes was still present, she squeezed his hand right back and bestowed that beautiful smile upon him again.