The Doctor and Hermione did not have just one adventure, however. They ended up having many of them. For the next few weeks, the two of them stayed on the move with the TARDIS. They hopped from planet to planet and jumped from time to time – all while they carefully stayed away from Earth to avoid whatever answers may or may not be located there. Occasionally, one of them would get lost in their thoughts of the past and need the comfort of the other to get through the pain. However, for the most part, they tried to keep as busy as possible to distract themselves enough to stay one step ahead of their grief…and from their increasing mutual attraction, as well.
In fact, the Doctor constantly felt his Don't get too close! resolve being tested and, therefore, utilized the sheer number of adventures as a way to try and distance himself emotionally and physically from the beautiful young witch. It did not seem to help, though. The bravery, resourcefulness, and compassion that Hermione showed time and time again during these adventures just made him admire her – and want her - all the more.
After that one night of weakness, however, the Doctor forced himself to stay away from her room. He found that it was impossible to stay objective about the whole situation when he was snuggled up with the warm and soft sweetness that was his Hermione. They still occasionally shared a bed, but Hermione had to be the one to initiate it – she had to be the one who went to his room - whether it was to seek relief from her own nightmares or to provide comfort for him during his nighttime terrors.
The Doctor began to dread these after hour visits, however – and it was not because he did not want her there. Quite the opposite was true, in fact. However, he was powerless to turn her away and always ended up welcoming her with open arms. How could he not? He simply could not deny her comfort when she was suffering.
Then there were the nights when he would be pulled out of his own horrible dreams of fire and agony to find himself wrapped in the cocoon of her comfort. Those nights were the worst because it was all that he could do to not express his gratitude and appreciation by pulling her even closer to shower her body with the adoration that he knew she deserved and that he desperately wanted to show her! In many ways, this type of denial was far worse than the nightmares themselves. It may have been torture; however, it was a delicious kind of pain that he did not want to give up completely. Therefore, despite his discomfort, he never asked her to stay away.
Nevertheless, Hermione was an intelligent woman and it did not take long for her to figure out that the Doctor was attempting to keep her at arm's length. He was still friendly and companionable, but Hermione could sense that he was purposely trying to withdraw from her. Even though she lamented his decision – especially since she could barely contain her own attraction for him - she found that she just could not blame him.
That was especially true since she could feel her strength and endurance returning after every shared excursion with him and during every solitary workout in the gym. Therefore, she knew that their carefree time together in the TARDIS was rapidly coming to an end – in one way or the other. After all, she knew exactly what she would eventually have to do and she also knew that it would have to be soon. She rationalized that the Doctor knew it, as well. She theorized that he was trying to make it easier for her (Perhaps for him too, her heart whispered) by keeping her at a distance and purposely ignoring that tentative emotional tie that had been present between them since they had met…and had only continued to strengthen since then.
Consequently, she tried to honor his decision and to limit their physical interactions whenever she could. She vowed to only seek out his nighttime comfort for herself when she really needed it. After all, she knew that she would have to get used to dealing with her night terrors by herself. However, she also refused to apply those same conditions when it came to comforting him whenever he was locked in the depths of his own nightmares. After all, she had promised herself that she would be there for him whenever he needed her - for as long as they traveled together – and she meant it!
She tried not to dwell on the situation much in the daytime hours, however, by focusing all of her energy and attention on their amazing travels instead. Nevertheless, the Doctor unintentionally made it difficult even then. Every trip that they took and every adventure that they shared showed her just how incredible of a man that he really was! She had once accused Harry of having a bit of a "saving people thing," but in reality, that was nothing compared to what the Doctor seemed to do on an almost daily basis!
Occasionally, they had been lucky enough just to relax and sightsee on their trips. However, most of the time, they were drawn to trouble – just like moths to a flame. Hermione mused that they were both probably a bit jeopardy friendly on their own, but together they just seemed to be outright trouble magnets! How else could you explain the abundance of revolutions, invasions, social injustices, and other dangerous situations which they frequently found themselves needing to sort out in order to help the people of almost every planet and/or time period that they visited?
Another aspect of their adventures was that they tended to get on the wrong side of the local law enforcement with some frequency. Hermione liked to point out to the Doctor that she had never really been arrested before she had met him and that now she was running out of fingers on which to count the number of times that it had happened. His reply to her comment was a very sardonic, "You'll get used to it!" followed by such a disarming grin that Hermione realized that there were far worse things than having to occasionally share a cell with the attractive alien.
The first time they were arrested on some ridiculous charge, however, Hermione noticed that it took several very large and multi-limbed officers to take the sonic screwdriver away from the Doctor, as well as his leather jacket, before they tossed him into a cell. That meant that anything that could have been useful in the transdimensional pockets was also out of their reach. Fortunately, her wand was still up her sleeve and she had the presence of mind to shrink it, disillusion it, and attach it to the palm of her hand with a sticking charm before the guards noticed what she was doing. Therefore, when they also pushed her into the adjoining cell, it was just a matter of waiting until most of the guards had cleared out for the night before she Accio'd the screwdriver and jacket back to them.
After just a couple of Alohomoras and one Stupefy later, Hermione and the Doctor were running hand in hand to the TARDIS, laughing all of the way. Once they had reached the safety of the console room, though, the Doctor pulled the witch into a big swinging hug, told her that she was "fantastic" and "brilliant," and kissed her on the nose – rather than on the much more impersonal forehead region like he usually did. After realizing what he had done, however, he looked rather embarrassed and backed away. Then as he faced the console in order to avoid the Hermione's perceptive eyes, he immediately changed the subject with the suggestion of yet another new adventure. Hermione could only sigh and agree to his plan – even though all she really wanted at that moment was for him to continue to hold and kiss her and to see where it all took them.
At any rate, after that incident, "wand camouflage" became part of her routine whenever the possibility of arrest seemed imminent.
…
Also, through the course of these adventures, Hermione started to see a whole new side of her Doctor. From the moment they had met, he had been nothing but kind, affectionate, and generous with the wounded witch whom he had suddenly found in his care. However, since that first meeting in the infirmary, she had also always felt that he had the potential to be very dangerous - if he needed to be. Up to that point, though, she had not had any reason to see that side of his personality.
After all, besides the Vandelvorm incident, they had never been in a possibly life-threatening situation. Mainly he had just nursed her back to health and they had gotten to know each other while the TARDIS drifted peacefully in the Vortex. Consequently, before their constant adventures, she had never had the opportunity to see him in the warrior mode of which she knew he was capable. He had also never seen her in battle mode – except for in her memories.
All of that changed in one day, however. The Doctor had set the controls for Random since he strongly suspected that the TARDIS would take them wherever she wanted to go, anyway. When they landed on the planet China 5, they quickly realized that the cute Giant Panda-like sentients were not the gentle bamboo eating creatures that they knew from that country of the same name back on planet Earth. That discovery was made quite clear when the two of them were ambushed immediately upon their arrival in the jungle. During the struggle that ensued, Hermione lost both her wand and her state of consciousness soon afterwards. When she finally came to, she found that she and the Doctor were both strung up in a bamboo cage to await the beginning of the ceremony where they were to be the guests of honor – in other words…the main course! They were not alone either. On the ground, lining the edge of the clearing, were many other cages filled with scared and crying children!
Apparently, the pseudo-pandas were not natives at all. They were actually a recent invasion force that had landed on the planet and assumed the shapes of the gentle creatures that they now resembled after wiping out all of the actual ones in order to appease their voracious appetites. Then, they had turned to raiding the nearby villages to replenish their food supply. Apparently the livestock had run out, and on their recent raid, they had taken the children to make up the deficiency.
Upon regaining consciousness, Hermione learned all of this from the Doctor - who had listened in on the conversation of the guards with the hope of finding any tidbit of information that could help them escape. Even though he did not tell her as much, Hermione realized that he had stayed with her, held her hand, and guarded her the entire time, as well. He still had his sonic screwdriver with him, but as the cage was made entirely out of wood, even down to the complex locking mechanism, it had been of no use to him. In fact, the only thing he had been able to do with it was to scan her and reassure himself that she did not have a concussion.
Therefore, it was up to Hermione. She quickly Accio'd her missing wand, but she had to grimace when she saw the wide crack that now ran down the length of it – no doubt due to being trampled by the heavy footed Panda-like creatures. In fact, she could even see the wand's core, the unicorn hair. She found to her relief that it still worked (But for how long? she could not help but to worry). Consequently, after an Alohomora, they were free.
The Doctor then distracted their captors, as the fury flashed in his eye when he gave them a choice to leave the planet in peace or to suffer the consequences of their actions. Hermione, meanwhile, freed the children from their cages. With the help of the older ones, she led the children back to the village and into the grateful embraces of their distraught parents. As she waited for the Doctor, Hermione found out that the adults had been immobilized by the technology of the Panda-like invaders during the raid. Thus, they were unable to save their own offspring.
Once she saw that particular part of the jungle ravaged by fire after their departure, however, Hermione left the village to rush back to the scene in order to find her alien friend. She was relieved beyond words when he met her halfway. As she dove into his embrace, she asked him what had happened when she left. Even though he gently wrapped his arms around her, his eyes still turned cold when he told her that the invaders had not accepted the offer to leave. Hermione shivered then, not in fear of him - because she knew his anger was not directed towards her - but because of the sheer power that radiated off of him at that moment. Some of that power came from his anger because of what they had done to her, she realized…and because of what they had planned to do to those helpless children.
It was in that moment that she realized what the consequence had been. The Doctor had done what he had needed to do to insure the future safety of those young people. Hermione was immediately horrified– not because of him - but for him. She could feel the power of his despair, as well, and knew that he had taken no pleasure in his actions. Therefore, she tried to chase away the cold look in his eyes and to show him that she completely understood what he was going through when she pulled his head down to her level and kissed him gently.