Here we go, the third chapter. Hope you all read, enjoy, and review!

–

Wherever it was, it wasn't Earth.

Hermione threw open the TARDIS doors and stood looking out, a massive grin on her face. The sky was a shimmering green. Three suns shone through the haze, their heat prickling her skin. The muddy ground was the color of olives and sloped up sharply, while beyond it a range of pale mountains, perfect pyramids, stood like pitched tents on the far horizon.

It wasn't Earth. She was, officially, Somewhere Else.

"Another world..." Hermione closed her eyes, opened her arms and leaned out a little. She felt giddy for a moment as a gentle breeze blew up and ruffled her bushy hair. "You did it, then," she called out to the man who had brought her there.

"Huh?" He sounded preoccupied. "Oh, yeah, right. The alien planet thing."

Hermione heard him crossing over to her and smiled to herself. He gave her a gentle shove in the small of her back, and she stumbled outside. The alien soil squidged beneath her white trainers.

"Oi! Doctor, I was building up to that!"

"What were you gonna do? Plant a flag? Make a speech?" the Doctor asked as he stepped out after her, looking all about. "Nah. Take a giant leap for humankind, and nine times out of ten you squash whatever's beneath you. The best things are always just stumbled upon. Just look," he said softly, pointing to something on the other side of the TARDIS. A single flower.

Hermione went over to see. It was a scraggly specimen, but smelled sweet, and its red petals were the only plats of color in the muddy desert.

"There you go," the Doctor murmured. "Your first contact with alien life on its own turf."

"Literally." Hermione picked up a fallen petal. It felt velvety between her fingertips and made them tingle.

"This could be the rarest flower in the universe, the last of its kind," the Doctor said as his eyes suddenly fixed on hers, clear and unnervingly green. "Or it could be one of billions. Common as daisies. Just the first to poke its head through the soil to greet the three-sunned springtime."

"Doesn't matter, does it? It's here, and so are we!" Hermione said with a smile, and the Doctor grinned back. "But where are we?"
He shrugged. "Dunno. Edge of the galaxy somewhere."
"TARDIS not telling?" She still didn't know how Time And Relative Dimension In Space was supposed to explain how come you could disguise a massive control room inside a poky police box and travel anywhere and any time in the universe.
"What do you think?" the Doctor asked, glancing about.

"You're the nine hundred-year old alien, you tell me!"

"I mean, what do you think of all this? Strange air in your lungs. New suns in the sky."

"That's a point... Three suns up there, we'll burn really quickly." Hermione was wearing jeans, a red tee-shirt, and a white jacket, but her face was still exposed. "Maybe we should get some cream?"

"Let's have a poke about before we crack open the Ambre Solaire," the Doctor said and set off up the muddy rise. "See if it's worth sticking around."

"Speaking of sticking," Hermione said, "how come the ground's so soggy when it's so hot?"

He shot her a sideways glance. "This isn't Earth. Earth rules don't apply."

"That's true. I feel lighter," Hermione said, taking a balletic leap after him.

"Less gravity."

"So I weigh half a stone less, and I'll tan three times as fast..." She smiled as she fell into step with him, bouncing along. "We have to stay here forever, you know that, right?"

"Tell you what, if we like the view from this hilltop, I'll dig out the deck chairs," the Doctor said and offered her his hand. "Deal?"

"Deal," she said, taking it.
They were still hand in hand when they reached the lip of the rise.
Hermione found they were far higher up than she had realized. And whatever view she had been expecting, it couldn't have been more gobsmacking than this.
"No more flowers, then." She felt she was overlooking the set of some incredible Hollywood epic. "I thought those things in the distance were mountains shaped like pyramids..."
"But they're the real thing," the Doctor said, nodding.
"And are those real Egyptians?"

In the valley far below, tiny figures were building a pyramid right now. The ground area had to be twice the size of Trafalgar Square, thought Nelson's column would barely peep over the second of the five steep steps cut cleanly into the pyramid's sides. These baked-mud plateaus were a seething, sweating mass of activity as workers toiled to disguise the steps and create a true pyramid. Overseers watches, massive arms folded across their well-oiled chests, as scores of sweating men in loincloths heaved huge bricks up ramps of rubble to add to the massive construction. A hundred more were struggling with ropes and pulleys to lower the finishing blocks into position.

"Built the same as your pyramids on Earth," the Doctor informed her. "Buttress walls built up around a central core. Fourth dynasty, maybe."

"And not what you'd expect to find on the other side of the galaxy..."

Hermione watched as a man stumbled and fell while struggling to push a sledge full of rubble down one of the many ramps. An overseer strode forwards at once with a vicious-looking whip, and started laying into him.

The man screamed as the leather lashed him.

"There's no need for that," Hermione said fiercely. "What's going on? I mean, space-traveling ancient Egyptian chain gangs?"

"Doubt it."

"They look human."

The Doctor stared on as a further whip-crack scored through the air.

"Yeah, they act human, too."

The man, his back burned now with four thick red stripes, was dragged to his feet by two more workers and shoved back towards the sledge. Weakly, he struggled with it once more.

"This is horrible," Hermione said, looking disgusted. "Can't we do something?"

"No."

She looked at him sharply. "Oh, yeah? What's this? Posh alien morality?"

"Oh, no, I'm well up for it," the Doctor said. He was looking back the way they'd come. "But I don't reckon they're keen."

Hermione turned back from the lip of the precipice. Four of the overseers had crept up behind them, swarthy, bare-chested, massive, and mean-looking. Each held a heavy whip in one hand.

And a futuristic space gun in the other.

"Okay, so what's the charge?" the Doctor asked, grinning as he raised his hands above his head. "Trespassing on sacred land? Nicking secrets so we can build bigger pyramids down the road?"

Hermione raised her hands, too. "Trust me, whatever you take us for, you're wrong."

"Put the guns down, and we'll explain why," the Doctor said.

The four men ignored them and took a threatening step forward. Then, one of the whips cracked out, and Hermione gasped as the leather bit into her ankle.

"Too far, mate," the Doctor snapped. He kicked the whip handle from the overseer's hand, freeing Hermione. Then, he tried to wrestle the man's gun away.

Hermione took her cue. As the overseers brought their guns to bear on the Doctor, she shoulder-charged one and knocked him flying. Another guard lunged for her, but she dodged aside with a speed that surprised even her. Lower gravity, she realized. She wrestled the gun from his grip, but he swiped it aside and shoved her backwards toward the lip of the precipice.

Hermione tried to duck past him, but his thick, slippery fingers clamped down around her wrists, digging in hard.

"You okay?" the Doctor shouted. One of his opponents lay sprawled in the mud.

"Never better!" she gasped, squirming in the big man's grip. Then, instead of struggling against her attacker, she plonked herself down on her bum, bent up her legs, and shoved her feet against his oiled-up gut and pushed with all her might. That broke his hold, and he fell backwards.

"Leg it!" the Doctor yelled, two of the overseers lying at his feet. "Back to the TARDIS!"

But now the one who'd whipped her was blocking Hermione's way. She pulled her wand, and there was a flash of red light as the man dropped into the mud, Stunned.

"Forgot about that," the Doctor said as they ran down the hill. One of the overseers had gotten back on his feet and was running after them. He reached into his jacket and took out his magic screwdriver, pointing it over his shoulder. Another flash of light, and the overseer fell face-first into the mud.

The duo reached the TARDIS and went inside. The Doctor immediately locked the door, and the two of them collapsed to the floor, panting and laughing.

"Well," the Doctor said, catching his breath and sitting up, "I suppose this is one planet I can add to my list of hostile planets."

"I'll say," Hermione said with another laugh, hearing a banging on the door. "Shouldn't we, I don't know, leave?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said. "This place is impenetrable, but let's not take any chances, right?"

Later, the Doctor had his arms crossed and was leaning with his back against a wall, staring across at the large console that sat in the center of the room, on which a myriad of lights flickered and sparkled. His face shone green in the glow from the tall, thin column in the center of the console, which indicated that they were in flight.

Hermione didn't know where they were going, but perhaps the Doctor could tell from observing these things exactly where in the universe the time-and-space machine was taking them.

"Doctor?" Hermione spoke up. The man nodded, indicating that he was listening. "I've been meaning to ask... Why did you take me with you on these trips? Why not Ron, or Ginny?"

"Ew, why would I bring them along?" the Doctor asked, making a nauseated face. "They're gingers. This new body of mine really doesn't like gingers. Besides, you're much more fun to bring along. You appreciate the thrill of traveling through time and space for knowledge and for the sake of discovery, whereas they would not."

Hermione smiled brightly. "So, where to now?"

"How about the future?" the Doctor asked, walking over to the console and spinning a wheel on it.

–

Chips had been a mistake. Hermione blamed the Doctor. He was used to this time-traveling lark. Other worlds, other times... He ought to have tipped her the wink, explained to her that chips in the year two thousand four hundred and sixty-nine weren't chipped potatoes, but chipped something-or-other-else. Some futuristic vegetable, a bit too soft, a bit too blue, with an oily texture and a peppery aftertaste.

As she pushed her plate aside, though, she felt a familiar tingle. Sometimes, it took just that sort of incidental detail to remind her how far she was from home. That she was breathing the air of the future.

Hermione still found it hard to take in, as if it was too much for her mind to process all at once, and it would only let her focus on one thing at a time. It didn't help that the future was so... mundane. Crowded pavements littered with discarded wrappers, streets clogged with traffic, and the buildings... Almost without exception, they were concrete towers, devoid of character, no more than boxes to hold people. How disappointing.

Peering through the grease-streaked window beside their table, Hermione eyes a line of cars simmering resentfully at a nearby junction. She wasn't even surprised to see a big red bus turning that corner.

Look at the details, she thought. Like the menu, no thicker than a normal piece of cardboard, and yet it projected life-sized aromagrams of its featured dishes. And the way the cars floated over the roadway on air jets, churning the gravel beneath them. And the TV screens, as flat as posters, seemingly attached to every available surface.

This had been her first impression of this place: newsreaders looking down at her from the sides of every building, their words subtitled so as not to be lost in the ever-present traffic grumble. There were two screens in the cafe itself, one behind Hermione, and one of the wall in front.

The Doctor had been attacking his burger with the same gusto with which he tackled Slitheen and other alien menaces. As he glanced up between mouthfuls, though, his eyes followed Hermione's gaze, and his lips pulled into a grimace.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "Not exactly 'Man Bites Dog,' is it? You want those chips?"

Hermione pushed her plate toward the Doctor, who dug in. She didn't even want to contemplate what manner of alien creature that might have come from. Those chips had opened up one hell of a mental can of worms...

"This must be the most boring future ever," Hermione said, looking around the cafe, and the Doctor looked up from scarfing down chips.

"Er, do you mind? I don't do 'boring.' There's something new and exciting to find on every world at any time if you just look for it."

"You know," Hermione teased. "I thought it was only in naff old films that people in the future wore those one-piece jumpsuits. I figure that's why they've been giving us the eye."

"They have?" the Doctor asked.

"Must think we're pretty eccentric," Hermione commented, which made the Doctor chuckle.

"Been a while since I've been called that," he said, smiling.

"You know, I've been thinking," Hermione said, gesturing for the interior of the cafe. "There are people here wearing robes. Are they wizards?"

"Yep," the Doctor said. "In two thousand seventy-five, the magical world was discovered, and since then, they have coexisted with Muggles. The Muggles helped them overcome the barrier between magic and technology, and the wizards helped the Muggles with health-care, for starters. It became a very profitable relationship."

The two sat in silence for a while. Then, the Doctor finished eating and stood up.

"You're right, this place is pretty boring. How about we head to the past, see Hogwarts, eh?"

"Let's!" Hermione said excitedly with a nod as she rose from her seat.

–

Hermione looked down at herself, wondering how daft she seemed. Did she really have to wear a dress again, thin cotton down to the calf? And in mint green? She had found a long, dark cloak with a hood, which she dumped across the TARDIS console.

The Doctor spared her a glance. He was tapping at some meter or other. Satisfied, he nodded and moved to the next control, which was covered by Hermione's cloak. A brief frown, and the Doctor moved on. Hermione watched his fiercely intense eyes reflecting the light of the console as he focused on the next control. She liked the way he stood so still and so confident, yet any second she knew he might break into a broad grin.

Seeming to realize he was being watched, he looked up at her again. "What?"

"Are we there yet?"

"You sound like a kid on an outing."

"I am a kid on an outing. An outing back in time." She couldn't help smiling at the prospect, and he grinned back.
"Yeah. Great, isn't it? It's nine hundred and ninety-two out there. Or will be in a moment." He tapped encouragingly on a control.
Hermione laughed. "Tell me again, why do I want to see Hogwarts being built, and not Hogwarts during Merlin's school years?"
He blinked in feigned disbelief. "Because your best mate's going."
That made her grin. "So why doesn't he have to dress up for it?"
He was shocked now, standing back from the console and gesturing at his own clothes. "Excuse me," he said, pointing at his chest. "New-"

"Shirt, again, yeah," Hermione interrupted him. His shirt was black this time, but she didn't think that was enough dressing up on his part, when she had to wear that suffocating dress.

Seeming to read her thoughts, the Doctor shot her a grin. "You look good in that."

Hermione shot him a cross look, but the Doctor ignored her as the light in the center of the console stopped pulsing. As Hermione stepped out of the TARDIS, the first thing she noticed was that there were buildings everywhere. Stone buildings without straw roofs. The sun was blazing, and the people were not at all dressed in medieval clothing. The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS and gave a small hum.

"Looks like we undershot it a bit," he said and looked at his wrist watch. "It's not the year nine hundred and ninety-two. It's fourteen hundred and ninety-two, and it's not Scotland. It's Italy."

"Italy..." Hermione mumbled, closing her eyes in thought. What was so special about that year again? Her eyes snapped open with excitement. "We can meet da Vinci!"

The Doctor's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, can we? I hadn't thought of that," he said, only to get smacked in the chest by Hermione.

"Prat."

"The man's a genius," the Doctor said, looping his arm with Hermione's and walking off. "Did you know that he came up with the idea for the submarine and scuba divers long before they were invented?"

"I've heard about that. He came up with many things, didn't he?"

"Indeed he did. He conceptualized a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull, and he outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics."

"Sounds like someone's a fan," Hermione teased with a shrewd smirk, only to get scoffed at.

"As if you're not."

"Very true."

"Not that I'm complaining, but I wonder why the TARDIS sent us here?" the Doctor said as they walked down the street, getting a strange look from Hermione.

"You speak as though the TARDIS has a mind of its own."

"Well, it does," the Doctor spoke, not a hint of joking on his face. "It actually has a soul, and tends to send me wherever it thinks I'm needed sometimes."

Hermione smiled shrewdly and smacked him on the chest again. "You're making that up."

"I'm dead serious," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "Oh, here we go, there's someone important-looking."

Indeed, the man coming out of one of the buildings lining the street was dressed much fancier than the rest of the people around them. The Doctor walked over to him and flashed his psychic paper.

"Excuse me, I'm the Doctor, and this is my assistant, Hermione Granger. We are looking for Leonardo da Vinci's studio?"

The man squinted at the paper, then widened his eyes. "Ah, you are Leonardo's new physician!" he cried, a smile appearing on his face. Without missing a beat, the Doctor nodded.

"Indeed I am!"

"Well then, follow me! I was just heading there myself," the man said and gestured for them to follow him.

The man took them up a steep hill, to an amazing, very storybook-like castle located on a cliff, which Hermione immediately recognized from the movies and history books as da Vinci's workshop, where he made his sculptures and inventions from fourteen seventy-six to fifteen thirteen.

"Leonardo!" the man called as they entered the workshop. From a desk looked up a man who looked to be in his early forties. He was tall and strong, with a big beard and long, black hair. He cast a curious glance at the Doctor, then at Hermione, before looking to the man who had brought them there.

"Yes?"

"These two are here for you," the man said, gesturing for the Doctor and Hermione to step forward, which they did.

"Hello, good sir. I am the Doctor, and this is my assistant, Hermione," the Doctor said, flashing his psychic paper. Da Vinci looked unimpressed.

"Interesting, that paper of yours. It is blank."

The Doctor opened his mouth, then closed it. Then, he spoke, "Oh, that's... very clever. That proves it. Absolute genius. It's a pleasure to meet the great Leonardo da Vinci."

He shook hands with da Vinci, who nodded.

"I am sure."

"Your work is unparalleled, sir," Hermione said, also shaking da Vinci's hand.

"I'm your biggest fan, Leo," the Doctor said, getting a strange look from da Vinci.

"Fan? In what way are you anything like a means of keeping oneself cool?"

"No, fan, means fanatic, admirer, the works."

"Oh. And no one calls me Leo."

"The ladies do," the Doctor said with a teasing smirk, making Leonardo's eyes widen.

"How did you...?"

"I told you, I'm your biggest fan."

Leonardo gave something of a grumble. Then, he pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering under his breath before looking at the Doctor again. "I am sorry, but what are you doing here?"

"Oh, just having a look around, if that's alright with you?"

"Sure, just... do not get in the way, I am working on something."

"Doesn't look like it," the Doctor said, gesturing for the desk, which didn't have so much as a scrap of parchment on it. "In fact, it was looking more like you were slacking off."

"If you must know, I was taking a break. Great artists are allowed to," Leonardo said heatedly, to which the Doctor laughed.

"Of course, of course, and- Oh, hey! This is your clay horse!" he said as he charged off, Hermione in tow. In an adjacent room, there stood a massive horse made out of clay, which only had the tail left to be finished. Hermione gaped. She never would have thought she'd ever see the Gran Cavallo before it was finished. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that.

The Doctor gasped and pulled at Hermione's sleeve, gesturing for a man at another desk, writing in a book. "Look! There's Luca Pacioli! They collaborated on a book together around this time. It's probably that very book he's working on."

"You know an awful lot about me and my peers," came Leonardo's voice from behind them. "Perhaps you truly are as fanatic as you claim to be."

"Oh, more than that, actually," the Doctor said, wrapping an arm around Hermione's shoulders and pulling her close. "Hermione and I are great art lovers."

"I especially liked the Last Supper," Hermione said rather shyly. "It was, truly, a masterpiece."

"What?" Leonardo asked, blinking.

"Not painted yet," the Doctor whispered to Hermione, who gasped. "What she means is, all your paintings are simply masterpieces."

"You are too kind," Leonardo said, bowing his head. His personality seemed to have changed, and he was almost radiating a kindness that Hermione had only ever seen in Professor Dumbledore. "But come, you must be thirsty. Can I offer you some water?"

"That would be nice, thank you," Hermione said, curtseying Leonardo, who clapped his hands.

"Larenzo! Larenzo, where are you?"

A man came over. He looked very strange, that's what the Doctor noticed immediately. His skin was very, very pale, and had an almost dead look to it. His eyes were bloodshot, and he had a very stiff, jerky walk.

"What is wrong, Larenzo?" Leonardo asked, sounding concerned.

"Nothing is wrong, Leonardo da Vinci," Larenzo said with a wheezing voice. "Soon, all will be well."

"Excuse me?" Leonardo asked, blinking, making the Doctor's eyes widen.

"He's not speaking Italian!" he cried and pushed Leonardo aside just as Larenzo lunged for him. Larenzo turned to them, and his skin split down the middle. Another creature rose out of what could only be described as a Larenzo skin suit. It was eight feet tall, had grayish skin with brown flecks on it, and it had three eyes on its head, along with a maw of razor sharp teeth.

The creature once more lunged for Leonardo, but was knocked off course by a shoulder-tackle from the Doctor.

"Leg it!" the Doctor yelled, rushing over and grabbing Hermione and Leonardo's arms, pulling them with him through the panicked apprentices and artists in the workshop.

"What on earth is that?" Leonardo wanted to know as they exited the workshop and jogged down the path leading away from it. "That was not human."

"That was a Gallemyte, from the planet Gallemeck," the Doctor said, making Leonardo's eyes widen.

"Planet... You mean, that thing came from the stars?" he asked, gesturing for the sky, to which the Doctor nodded. "Extraordinary..."

"Indeed, and so are you. That's why it wants you," the Doctor said. "Gallemytes feed on brains. The smarter the brain, the more knowledge it holds, the longer it can sustain them. Your brain, Leo, can keep them going without feeding for years. In fact, all three of us are a group of brain delicacies."

Behind them, the doors of the workshop were smashed off its hinges, and the creature, the Gallemyte, came running after them on all fours.

"Hermione!" the Doctor called, whipping out his sonic screwdriver and spinning around. Hermione took out her wand and yelled, "Stupefy!" at the same time as the Doctor yelled, "Incarcerus!"

The red light hit the Gallemyte, causing it to collapse, unconscious, at the same time as thick and heavy chains materialized around it, binding it tight.

–

"This is extraordinary, indeed!" Leonardo said as he stared around the coral-like design of the TARDIS. They were in a side-room, where the Gallemyte sat in a chair, wrapped tightly in thick, black chains.

"It can't get out of those, can it?"

"She."

"Huh?"

"It's a she," the Doctor clarified, gesturing for the Gallemyte. "See the third eye? Only the females have those. And no, she can't get out of those. They are unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a dwarf star."

"So, this is a machine capable of traveling through time and space..." Leonardo mumbled, and both the Doctor and Hermione tensed.

"What?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow, feigning ignorance.

"Come now, Doctor," Leonardo said, smiling. "You are from another world like the Gallemyte, and Hermione is from the future. Having seen this, it was not hard to work out."

"That's... incredible... You are incredible," the Doctor said, then looked to Hermione with a grin. "Didn't I tell you he was incredible?"

"You did," Hermione said with a nod.

"So, this creature eats brains?" Leonardo asked, and the Doctor nodded.

"And they never hunt alone. We need to find out how many friends she's brought."

–

So, what did you guys think? Please review!