Chapter 5
Four hours later, the Doctor and Hermione entered the Tardis both laughing their heads off.
The Doctor said, "And that is why you always bring a banana to parties. Good conversation starter's bananas."
Hermione, looking around the Tardis, found a purple shirt hung around one of the Tardis corals.
She asked, "Who's is this?" She asked thinking the Doctor made a habit of picking up young women.
The Doctor face immediately sobered up. He gave Rose's shirt a look that showed how old and how much lose he had sustained. With a voice barley audible, he said, "That's my friends."
Hermione asked, "Where's your friend?"
He replied with the same tone, "She's gone"
"Gone where?"
"I lost her"
"What do you mean lost?"
The Doctor gave her a look that for the first time since she entered this strange man's blue box, Hermione was afraid.
The Doctor paced over to her and snatched Rose's shirt from her, and put it away in one of the many rooms of the Tardis. For the first time Hermione didn't see the Doctor as this crazy eccentric man, but as a person.
The Doctor came back to the Tardis controls with his usual maniac persona back on. As his hands worked across the consol and said, "So where to next?"
Hermione asked, "Can we go to your planet?"
The Doctor's smile dropped an octave and said in a casual tone, "No, plenty other worlds."
Hermione persisted, "But the planet of the Time Lords. That has to be worth a look. What's it like?"
The Doctor not looking her in the eye said, "It's beautiful yeah."
She said, "Is it like outer space cities, great big spires and stuff?"
He said, "Suppose it is."
"Great big temples and cathedrals." She asked with a smile.
He said in a distracted tone, "Yeah"
"Is there a lot of planets in the sky?"
He finally looked up from the consol and looked off at the ceiling, as if trying to recall a memory, "The skies are burned orange. With the citadel encased in a mighty dome. Shinning in the twin suns. Beyond that the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, caped with snow."
The Doctor broke out of his daze and went back to work on the consol.
Hermione, eyes wide in wonder, breathed, "Can we go there?"
The Doctor looked at her, his persona back and said, "No. Where's the fun for me. I don't want to go home. Instead, I was hoping you would give me the Grand Tour of your Hogwarts."
Hermione, a little disappointed, said, "Sure, I'll give you the tour. But won't people be able to tell your not one of us?"
The Doctor said, "Well… if my charming smile won't get me thru the door, I have other tricks up my sleeves." He produced his psychic paper wallet from his pocket.
As the Doctor set the coordinates, Hermione remembered her bruised body from the last trip, and grabbed the hand rail.
The Doctor, with his hand on the hand break, gave her a maniac smile, and then pulled the lever. And the Tardis started the shake.