Hermione stepped into her apartment, gritting her teeth a little as she shut the door with her back. She angrily kicked her shoe into the wall, growling a little before the other went sailing right behind it.
"Stupid Ministry – stupid work, stupid coworkers, stupid idiots," she muttered, unbuttoning her blouse and flinging it off into a pile on the floor once she entered her bedroom, stepping into the bathroom to turn on the shower. "I mean, who in their right mind would even think to cross-breed Acromantula with a bloody sodding dragon? This whole world's gone 'round the bend!"
Once she was showered, muttering to herself the whole time, and she'd stuck her wet hair up in a messy bun, she tugged on a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She sighed, stepping into her living room with her eyes closed and her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose, "I need to pick up drinking."
"Oh, now don't do that – you'll get massive headaches all the time," somebody said, making her fling her hand to her back pocket, where she usually kept her wand, except she hadn't stuck it there yet. Instead of cursing this stranger all the way to Australia, she was staring blankly at him as he stood from her couch.
He was tall, just like all of her other friends, with dark brown hair that was tugged this way and that. He was dressed rather oddly, with a brown trench coat and a suit underneath, red Converse on his feet.
"Who are you?" she asked, taking a step back when he took a step forward, her eyes darting around for her wand. Where did she leave it anyway?
"The Doctor," he said simply with a shrug, examining a picture of her and George on the wall, both of them making silly faces at the camera.
"What doctor?" she blinked, straightening up as she looked at him curiously, "Doctors don't make house calls anymore. And I didn't ask for any doctor anyway."
"Well not just any doctor, no," he rolled his eyes and grinned at her, "But I don't think you asked for me either."
"Who are you?" she asked again, fiercely.
"I already told you – the Doctor," he snorted, "I do hope I don't have explain things to you multiple times often, this is getting tiresome."
She let out a growl before diving for her wand on the bookshelf in between them, raising her hand to get this stranger out of her apartment, but he'd already gotten out some weird mechanical device and her wand was in his grasp.
"What are you?" she asked rather quietly after a pause, although she didn't intend for it to come out so.
"I am from a planet called Gallifrey," he said, twisting and turning the wand in his hand, "But it's gone now."
"Alright," she said, blankly comprehending that an alien was in her living room. But he looked completely human, so... "Did Chess put you up to this?" she bristled at the thought, "Ohh, Chess, I'm going to wring your little neck, you bloody bast – "
"I don't know any Chess besides the game," he said, offering her wand back.
She took it back warily, staring up at him, "What did you say your name was again?"
He gripped her shoulders quickly, making her gasp as he lowered himself to her eyelevel and looked into her eyes, an eyebrow arched and a small smile on his face, "Think. About. It."
She stared into his brown eyes as he stared into hers, "The…Doctor?"
"Now we're getting somewhere!" he stepped back, grinning down at her, "I was beginning to wonder why everybody called you the brightest witch of your generation!"
"Wait – what?" she was following him into her kitchen area, "How do you know that?"
"Oh, it's on your file at work," he said as he opened up a cabinet, closing it once he found nothing he wanted to eat and moved on to the next one. "Do you have any custard? Fish fingers, perhaps?"
"Wait, wait, you read my file?" she was blinking an insane amount of times.
"Hermione Jean Granger, born September nineteenth of nineteen eighty-one, fought alongside Harry James Potter and Ronald Bilius Weasley in the Second Wizarding War, didn't graduate Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but was nominated top of her class by the remaining Gryffindors – prefect, would've been a shoe-in for Head Girl if she hadn't had left. Muggleborn, parents' memories Obliviated into thinking they were Wendell and Monica Wilkins and sent to Australia before she, Harry and Ron went hunting for Horcruxes…" he trailed off, turning to her from the open cabinet and smiling, "Yes, I read your file. Nice picture in it, by the way, big bushy hair and those teeth. Very adorable."
"What do you want from me?" she questioned, her hands tightening into fists as he pulled out a drawer from her fridge and frowned down at it before holding up a green fruit.
"Pears," he said simply before turning and throwing it out of the open window, "I hate pears."
"Okay, but that really wasn't a reason to go throwing them out of the window!" she found herself yelling at him. In all honesty, she really rather hated pears as well and only bought them because Ron would eat anything and everything and she needed some food substance there that she hated and wouldn't miss.
"What I want from you, Miss Granger – Hermione – is simple," he said, shutting her fridge door and crossing his arms over his chest as he turned to her.
"Yes?" she prompted.
"You can either sit here, going through the torture known as working at the Ministry of Magic day in and day out, never getting farther on with your life besides getting a cat or two, or you can come with me," he said simply.
She brought her chin up, her eyes flashing at him, "And how do you know what my life will be like? I barely even know you!"
"But I've seen it," he said, "I've gone into the future and saw that you're going to end up shriveling up on that couch and dying with nobody there to see it firsthand, nobody to hold your hand as you slip away."
Hermione immediately crossed her arms over her chest, but said nothing, refusing to let that image – that probably true image – get to her.
"Come with me, and it'll all be different," he said.
She stared at him as he stared back before hissing out, "Why should I trust you?"
"Because," he offered a hand to her, offered an escape, "I'm the Doctor."