A/N: Hello there! About five years ago I started writing this fan fiction, but I never finished it. A few weeks ago I suddenly remembered writing this and decided that I should rewrite it. To anyone who has read this in 2013: the storyline remains the same, but there will be some major changes. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Harry Potter and Doctor Who, only my imagination.

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It was an ordinary Tuesday in spring. The sun peaked through the grey clouds and lit up Hermione's face as she walked through the streets of muggle London. She had just gotten back from work. About six years ago she had started working at the London Library. Never had Hermione had a quiet day at work, until today. It had been more silent than ever. No more than 50 people had visited and none of them had needed any help.

With a sigh Hermione sat down on a bench. Today had given her lots of hours to think about, well, about everything. She was feeling a bit down. It was a feeling that had started to haunt her a few months ago. She began to feel that her life didn't have any meaning and purpose anymore. It lacked challenges and excitement. Life had been the same for years now. Every day her alarm would go off at seven, she'd have a quick shower and get dressed, have breakfast in a rush and go to work. She repeated the same routine over and over again. When she got off work, she would walk back home, have dinner, read for a bit and then go to sleep. It was a tiring routine and it started to bore Hermione more as the days passed. She wanted more than this. At days like this, she wished to be back in the wizarding world. The more she longed for adventure, the more she forgot about the reason why she had left magic in the first place.

Why had she left? She wondered. Sure, there was the break-up with Ron, the staring and pointing whenever she walked through Diagon Alley and the lack of privacy. Wherever she went, people followed. There was never a moment of rest, a moment that belonged to her and only her. But all of these things didn't seem to bother her anymore right now. Maybe it was time to go back. Maybe the Ministry would give her her old job back if she'd ask friendly and maybe Ron and Harry would be forgiving enough to let her be their best friend again. Hermione decided that it was worth a shot. She told herself she would owl Harry as soon as she'd get home.

Her thoughts distracted her from how nice the weather was. For a spring day it was extraordinary warm. Lost in thought she didn't see the tourists lost in maps, the businessmen in suits, the joyful children. She missed the sight of an elder man and woman sharing a kiss and she would've missed the odd looking man as well if he hadn't decided to sit down next to her.

"Hello," the main said as he sat down. The sudden sound made Hermione jump slightly. She looked at her right and saw a thirty-something-year-old man with dark, messy hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a long sand coloured coat with a blue suit underneath it. The red tie matched colours with his All-Stars.

When Hermione didn't reply, the man turned to her. "Can you perhaps tell me anything about that building over there?" he asked and pointed at a white building, greek revival style.

"It's the Oxford and Cambridge club. It opened in 1838 and is designed by Sir Robert Smirke. You know, the one who also designed the British Museum. Quite a lovely building if you ask me," Hermione answered. She didn't have to look up to know which building he was asking her about as she knew exactly where she was.

The answer seemed to make the man think. "Interesting. Old building then, yes? What's it used for?" he asked and looked at her with curiosity. He found that the young woman reminded him of Rose Tyler. Their appearances weren't alike at all, but her expression, the way that Rose looked when she walked out of the TARDIS or whenever she saw something beautiful looked exactly like hers now. It hurt him a bit. He missed Rose so much, it was killing him on the inside.

"It's a gentlemen's club. Only members of Oxford and Cambridge may join. I believe it's possible to rent rooms, but only through current members of the club," Hermione answered.

"Thanks for your help! What did you say your name was again?" the man asked.

"I haven't told you my name yet," she said and chuckled softly, thinking that he must've been a bit confused. "I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger," she said and held out her hand for him to shake. When he still hadn't taken her hand, she awkwardly dropped it to her side.

"Hermione? That's an uncommon name.. That's right! I was going to find something uncommon." The man seemed very excited all of the sudden. He jumped up from the bench and quickly started to walk towards the building. He walked with long strides and speed, showing off confidence with his walk.

Hermione followed the man. She wondered why he was so interested in the building. He didn't strike her as the posh uni type of guy. Why would anyone other than such type be curious about the Oxford and Cambridge club? "Aren't you going to tell me your name?" she asked once she was walking next to him.

"Right, I'm the Doctor and very occupied at the moment," he said and waited for the young woman to ask the question. She didn't ask him. Instead she asked him something else. "Why are you so interested in this club?"

"It's the Doctor. Just that, the Doctor," he said, but realised his answer didn't fit her question at all. "I mean, errr, can you keep a secret?"

A look of confusion was visible on Hermione's face. Answering a question with another question was usually her technique to avoid speaking about a specific topic. Clever she thought. "I like to think I'm a trustworthy person, so yes, I can keep a secret."

"Are you up for an adventure, Hermione?" the Doctor said and looked at the brunette. His smile suddenly faded into a worried look. Without knowing so he had expected to see Rose's face glowing out of excitement. Instead his eyes had met two brown eyes filled with confusion.

"Weren't you about to tell me a secret, Doctor?" Hermione asked, emphasising the word Doctor to make it sound a bit ridiculous. In a way, this was her version of the question "Doctor Who?" and the Doctor knew it. He raised an eyebrow at her and remained silent while he waited for her to answer.

"Fine, yes, I'm up for some adventure," she sighed. She didn't want to admit it, but her heart had skipped a beat when the Doctor had mentioned an adventure. The adrenaline was going to kick in anytime now. She could tell from the way she was breathing; it was more shallow than normal.

"Alright. This building over here is currently holding unknown life and I need help finding out what's inside. Could be good, could be bad. But better safe than sorry right? We don't need any humans knowing about extraterrestrial life." The Doctor said with a chuckle. Oh, the many times he and the aliens had been discovered by people. It always surprised him how quickly people wanted to forget what had happened.

Hermione didn't know how to respond. What on earth was he talking about? Extraterrestrial life? 'Humans'? Well, she thought, this is what you get from talking to strangers apparently. "So, just to get things straight. We're talking about what? Aliens? Martians? Eopies perhaps?" They were standing in front of the gentlemen's club now.

"Oh, no, no, no, no," the Doctor said and shook his head, looking mad while doing it. "I don't understand why all of you always associate aliens with green skin and the big black eyes. They look nothing like that! And they're all different. Wait, no, I take that back." He frowned and sighed, knowing that he had to admit to it. "There are the Slitheen. They are green and they, well, they have the big black eyes.. So yes, that's the Slitheen. But, believe me, no other alien resembles any other alien image you people have made up."

"Alright, sorry. So no martians then," Hermione said and chuckled. The man was bonkers. But bonkers in a good way. "What are we dealing with then?"

"Like I said, I don't know. Could be anything." The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed at the door. The tip of the screwdriver lit up in blue and a somewhat irritating, buzzing noise came out of it.

"Err, what are you doing?" Hermione asked. It looked like the screwdriver had the same sort of functions as her wand. That's what the Doctor was suggesting anyways by holding his screwdriver in front of him. But nothing seemed to happen, so maybe it was just a flashlight.

The Doctor lowered his sonic screwdriver and let out a frustrated sigh. "Of course, it's wood. It does not work on wood." He looked at Hermione. "This," he said while holding up the sonic ,"is my sonic screwdriver. It can hack ATMs, track alien life, conduct medical scans. And it can open doors. The thing is, it just doesn't work on wooden doors. I don't know what it is, maybe it's a malfunction. I tried to fix it, but it's unfixable. It is what it is."

Hermione took a step closer to the door. "Well, I suppose we could always try the doorknob." She turned the knob to the right and pushed. The door opened immediately. Without looking over her shoulder, she walked into the hall of the gentlemen's club. It was dark inside, but thanks to the light coming from the dooropening she could make out the size of the hall. It was huge. It was even bigger than her entire apartment.

"Yeah, I should've known. You can open doors by hand as well. Right." Hermione heard behind her. "If you don't feel comfortable, you can leave." The words had not even left his mouth yet and a cold air filled the atmosphere in the hall. The door closed behind them with a slam and they were left with no light. The Doctor held out his sonic screwdriver and tried to turn on the chandelier he had seen hanging from the ceiling just moments ago. However, nothing happened.

Hermione had not felt this in a very long time. The feeling that something was extremely off. The sense of danger. Without thinking about the consequences she reached for her wand and called out "Lumos!". From where she was standing she could she the Doctor right beside her and a few faint figures about 20 feet away from them. They did not look tall, but they did look big. She could not distinguish any arms or legs. It was just a blob. Surprisingly, the Doctor did not react to Hermione casting a spell. He was too busy watching out for the creatures that he barely seemed to even notice.

A small blue creature emerged from the darkness of the back of the room. Small yellow bulbs were bursting out of his skin, making a soft hissing sound every time the liquid out of the bulbs hit the ground. As soon as it saw the two people it quickly disappeared again. "Go away," it growled. "You are unwanted here."

Hermione had seen many creatures during her stay at Hogwarts, but never anything like this. "What was that?" she whispered and narrowed her eyes so she could see better.

"I'm not sure," the Doctor answered. He didn't think they looked dangerous at all. A bit like spiders. They're more afraid of you than you are of them. He decided he would bring them back to where they came from. Could be that they came here by accident.

"Well, can't you use your thingy?" Hermione asked.

"What thingy?"

"That thing that makes buzzing noises. You know, that flashlight stick you wave around with," Hermione said. She couldn't recall what the Doctor had called it. It hadn't interested her much, mainly because she didn't believe such thing could do those 'magic' tricks without using magic at all. Wands could open doors, cast lights and summon objects. What could a muggle like the Doctor do with a wand? Nothing.

The Doctor held his sonic screwdriver up. "I told you! It's my sonic screwdriver. I just don't think it's working properly anymore. Tried to light up the chandelier, but it doesn't do anything," he said. He tried to scan the alien life anyways, but once again nothing happened. The Doctor knew this was useless if his sonic wasn't working.

"The only way I can find out what they are is by using my sonic. I can scan them with it and I will be able to see what species they are and where they are from. And more importantly, I can find out if they're aggressive or not," the Doctor said and put his sonic screwdriver back into the pocket of his coat.

Hermione and the Doctor were so focused on the sonic screwdriver that they hadn't noticed one of the creatures had come closer. The creature wrapped one of his tentacles around Hermione's ankle and dragged her down. Hermione fell to the floor and was dragged to the other side of the room by the creature. It had caught her by surprise. Thankfully, Hermione was still holding her wand. "Diminuendo," she cried out while pointing her wand at the creature. Immediately the creature shrunk to the size of a mouse and couldn't hold onto Hermione's leg any longer.

She was about to get up when another creatures grabbed her. This time the creature didn't hold onto her leg, but it grabbed her arm. As a result of the strong grip, Hermione dropped her wand on the floor. She wasn't able to pick it back up, because she was already being dragged away further from the Doctor and from her wand. With all her might she started kicking the creature, but the more she did so, the more fluid came out of the bulbs on their skin.

"You're upsetting it more by kicking it, stop it!" The Doctor called out to Hermione as he ran over to her. She did not listen to his advice and kept on kicking and trying to get free from the grip. "Well, don't just stand there! Throw me my wand!" she cried back at him.

The Doctor knew that there was no way she was going to catch her wand if he threw it to her. She was moving too much and the alien kept dragging her away from him. He would have to fix his sonic screwdriver, there was no other option. Going with her and the creatures without any sort of weapon was a very bad idea. These were definitely not the kind of creatures one could fight by hand.

The Doctor shook his sonic screwdriver and slammed it softly into the palm of his free hand several times. "Oh, that must be it," the Doctor mumbled suddenly and smirked. "That's so stupid, why didn't I think of that before?"

He pressed the only button on his sonic in a few times in some sort of pattern. That was the trick. The sonic was up and running again. Immediately, the Doctor closed the distance between him and the creatures. He aimed his sonic at the chandelier he saw hanging earlier and it fell down with a crash. The alien was startled and let go of Hermione's leg.

Hermione quickly got up and walked towards the Doctor. "How did you get it to work again? What did you do?" she asked him.

The Doctor replied with a laugh and shook his head quickly.

"Why are you laughing, what is it?" Hermione asked. It was obvious she did not approve the way he was acting. How could he act so weird while they were in danger. It was a dead serious situation.

"I had it on child lock mode. Lent it out to a young boy this morning and couldn't risk him damaging anything, so I enabled the child lock. Hah, funny," he said and played around with the sonic screwdriver. "So, d'you reckon you can shrink all of them? That way it'll be much easier to bring them all to the TARDIS."

The brunette decided she would not ask anything about the TARDIS. His plan sounded alright and she wanted to get this all over with as soon as possible. Before putting the shrinking charm on the creatures, she made them immobile by using immobulus, the freezing charm. Now they were all very small and unable to move.

"So, where is that TARDIS you were speaking of?" Hermione asked once she was finished with the charms.

"Right outside the building on the right side. Let's pick them up and leave." The Doctor started grabbing the now small creatures one by one. Some he put into the pockets of his long coat, others he held in his hands. The fluids from the bulbs could not harm him now that the creatures were frozen. It was brilliant.

Once outside, the Doctor walked quickly to the police box, opened the door and rushed inside. "A police box, really? That's the TARDIS or whatever that is?" Hermione called after him.

When she did not hear a response, she decided to follow. What on earth could one possibly do in an old police box? This had to be some kind of joke.

But once Hermione stepped inside, all of that doubt disappeared. She saw a golden, bronze circular room with in the centre some sort of panel with all sorts of handles, buttons and levers. The double doors of the TARDIS closed behind her and she could hear a bleeping sound coming from the tube in the centre of the panel. "What is all this?" she asked.

"It's my TARDIS! Time and Relative Dimension in Space! Isn't she just lovely?" the Doctor said and stroke a part of the panel. "Oh here, there's a box right next to you. Just put the little blobs, or whatever they are, in there."

She did what the Doctor told her to and walked towards the centre of the room. "She?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at him. It was a police box which was way bigger on the inside and now the Doctor called it a 'she'?

The Doctor laughed and nodded his head. "Yes, she is most definitely a she and she's brilliant. She can take me anywhere, anytime."

Hermione still had the confused look on her face, but decided not to ask any further about the gender of the TARDIS. "So, she is a spaceship then, if I understood you correctly?"

"Yes, yes, you're right!" The Doctor exclaimed happily. He enjoyed questions about the TARDIS, about his name and about who he was very much, but it was refreshing to meet someone who didn't ask questions about everything. Someone who just accepted the situation and went along with it. Plus, she was a witch and that was exciting to him as well.

"So, what I got here," the Doctor said as he held up a portable device with small mirror attached to it, "is my species matcher. I will let the mirror see one of those blobby, stinking, weird-looking fellas and the mirror will show me what species they are and where they are from. Then we're going to bring them home. Agreed?"

Hermione nodded and picked up one of creatures from the cardboard box next to the door. "We're going to bring them back to Mars then, yes?" she said as she gave the small alien to the Doctor.

A somewhat frustrated look appeared on the Doctor's face. "No, I told you, Hermione. Aliens are not from mars. The only species that live there are the ice warriors. There are no martians."

"I know, I was just teasing you," Hermione said with a chuckle. She read what the mirror said and confidently read out loud what she saw. "They're Varemenons and they're from the City of Khareeva. What planet is that on?"

"Actually, they're called Varemenons, not Varemenons and they're from the planet Skarch. You earthlings won't discover it until the 32nd century, though." the Doctor replied and turned off the species matcher. He started typing in the location on the mainboard of the TARDIS.

Hermione could not believe that she had just been corrected by him. This had never happened to her before and she did not like it for one bit. "Right, yes," she said quietly and felt her cheeks were turning red. She wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment or out of anger.

"Let's get them back home now," the Doctor said and pulled the biggest lever on the panel. The TARDIS started making wooshing and creaking noises and the entire room started to shake a bit. Hermione quickly held on to the railing near the door so she wouldn't fall. Before she knew it, the shaking stopped and the TARDIS was stable again.

The Doctor picked up the box with the Varemenons and walked out of the TARDIS. Hermione didn't follow him immediately as she was still holding on to the railing. Had they really just flown through space? She was about to ask him, but when she saw the view once she turned to face the doors she didn't need an answer anymore.

Nature had taken over this entire planet. All around her were brightly coloured trees and flowers. She could hear water running so a river must be nearby. She tried to discover the river while standing on her tippy-toes. After a few seconds she saw it, but it looked nothing like she had imagined. The water was bright purple and there were gigantic flowers on the surface of the water. The looked like big lilies.

The Doctor snapped her out of her amazement. "C'mon, let's unfreeze them now. But keep them small, that way they'll be harmless to us," he said.

As Hermione turned around to face him she said: "Sure, great plan. It would be easier to do so if I had my wand." She stretched out her arm and opened her hand.

"Right, yeah, of course." He handed the wand back to her.

Within a second the charm was undone and the Varemenons were crawling out of the box one by one. They actually looked pretty cute when they were downsized, Hermione thought.

The Doctor grabbed Hermione by her arm and started walking back to the TARDIS. "Time to bring you home, now."

"Wait, what? Sorry, what did you just say?" Hermione objected and jerked her arm free from his grip. "No, no, no, Doctor. You are not going to take me back to London. Not after what I've just seen."

The Doctor sighed. He didn't know what he was going to tell her. I'm sorry, just forget about all this and go back to your normal life? That wouldn't work and he knew it. She couldn't become his companion. Not after.. Not after Rose. It had been eight months since he lost Rose. Eight months when you used the human way of tracking time. He felt like it was still too soon to have someone travelling with him.

"I was going to ask you, actually," the Doctor finally said after thinking for some seconds. "Why do you live like a muggle? It's obvious you're a witch, but I met you in muggle London. It's not out of the ordinary for a witch to visit muggle London, but you've been there for a long time. I can tell. Why is that?"

As the doors of the TARDIS closed behind the Doctor and Hermione, Hermione let out a sigh. "You travel through time and space. You've mentioned wizards and witches and apparently you've heard of the term 'muggle' before. So, I'm pretty sure you know of the Wizarding Wars. My friends and I had a big role in defeating Voldemort. And, well, once you've been declared a war hero, everyone recognises you. It bothered me that I didn't have privacy any-"

"Wait, what?" the Doctor interrupted her all of the sudden. "No, no, no, I know about the wizarding world, of course I do, I'm the Doctor. But Voldemort? Did he..? Second? There was a Second Wizarding War?"

Hermione almost let out a chuckle at the sight of his confusion. "Yes, there was indeed a Second Wizarding War. It started in 1995 and ended three years later at the Battle of Hogwarts."

The Doctor ran his hands through his hair and shook his head furiously. "No. Hermione. Voldemort couldn't have come back. He was gone, he was dead. I remember a big celebration at the time, a feast because Voldemort had been defeated."

Hermione looked down at the tips of her shoes. After all those years, she still felt uneasy talking about the War. Thinking or talking about it just made her recall all the losses they had endured, the danger they had been in. There had been too many sacrifices.

"Well, he did return. Long story," she decided to tell the Doctor.

The Doctor had years of experience with people in pain. He had become an expert when it came to recognising fear, pain and discomfort. He always felt a bit awkward and he never knew how to respond correctly. He tried, though. It was obvious that Hermione didn't feel like talking about the subject any longer, so the Doctor decided that he would drop it for now.

"20th of July 1969, Moon? How does that sound right now?" the Doctor said.

Hermione looked up from her shoes and raised an eyebrow. Why would he be talking about the Moon landing right now? "What about the moon landing?" she asked.

"Let's go there! Take a little snack with us, something to drink. The Moon has a great view, Earth looks wonderful from up there," the Doctor said and noticed a smile playing on Hermione's mouth. "See! That's not a bad idea, is it?"

She shook her head. It actually did sound like a pretty good idea. "So it wasn't a hoax then? The Moon landing really did happen?"

The Doctor started to type on a small keyboard and rushed over to a small screen attached to the motherboard. He pushed buttons and pulled levers until the familiair sound of the TARDIS materialising reached his ears. The Doctor was about to walk to the doors so he could show Hermione that they had landed on the moon.

However, on his way the TARDIS started shaking more than usually. This caused both Hermione and the Doctor to grab a hold of the railing near the door. The materialising sound abruptly changed into an alarming, harsh sound. The shaking stopped for a few seconds, but was immediately replaced by far more jolting movements.

"Doctor, what is happening?" Hermione called out.

The Doctor looked at the motherboard. Lights were flickering everywhere and the screen went black. "We're crashing! Hold on tight!" he screamed back at her.

Hermione looked around her. The panels seemed to have a life on their own. Levers were being pulled by themselves and buttons seemed to get pushed. Merlin, why did she have to follow the strange looking man? She could've easily avoided this, but oh, no, her Gryffindor courage and her curiosity had gotten in the way again. And now she was going to die in a spaceship crash.

The TARDIS abruptly came to a hold with a loud bang. Hermione and the Doctor flew through the air to the other side of the console room because of the sudden stop. Her head was hurting and she could hear a high pitched sound reverberating around the room.

"You okay?" the Doctor asked and looked at her with a concerned look in his eye. What had just happened? Crashes like these were very rare. When the destination was physically far away or far away in time, crashes were more likely to happen, but this… This was a relatively close location and it was only 33 years away.

"I'm fine," she mumbled. Hermione took the hand the Doctor was holding out for her and stood up straight. "What happened?"

The Doctor quickly walked to the exit of the TARDIS, completely ignoring her question, and swept the doors open. This revealed a huge castle on the top of a mountain. It was beautiful outside. The mountain was covered in tall trees and greens and not a cloud was visible in the sky. The Doctor was about to call out to Hermione that she should come and see when he heard screaming in a distance. It was not the kind of screaming from a damsel in distress, it was the type of screaming that was heard in battles and in fights and it was coming closer and closer.

The Doctor stepped outside and noticed a large group of men and women standing 30 feet away from him and the TARDIS. "Witch!" one of the men in front of the group called out and pointed his finger towards the Doctor. It was then when he realised that Hermione had gotten out of the TARDIS with him.

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of A Fear to Beat. The next chapter will be uploaded soon. Please let me know what you think of the story so far in the comments!