Luna Lovegood was nine when she first encountered the man in the blue box.

Specifically, she was still wearing the black dress from her mother's funeral. That wasn't much of a time marker, though; she wore the dress for quite a while, just as a reminder. She did tend to forget the most important things...And it was always unpleasant when she remembered again...

But more to the point, on this particular evening, she was barefoot, sitting on an abnormally large derigible plum and imagining that the sun was really a creature that was devouring everything on the horizon. She was tracing its path with her fingers when the Thing dropped from the sky, landing only a hillside away.

Stunned and excited by the new occurance, Luna ran nearer the thing. It was when the hill peaked under her that she saw that the Thing from the sky was a blue Police Box.

How delightfully odd.

She skipped closer to the Police Box, attempting to open the door (Perhaps it could be explored.), but it was locked rather tightly. Then there was a sound behind her- almost a buzzing -and a clipped metallic voice shouted at her, "EXTERMINATE!"

Luna turned and fixed her large eyes on a sort of salt-shaker-shaped hulk of metal, complete with a light just in front and what looked an awful lot like a weapon pointed directly at her face.

"Sorry," she said cordially. "I didn't quite catch that."

"EXTERMINATE!" the creature or object repeated eagerly.

"Oh, goodie," Luna droned, hoping to buy time. She was effectively pinned between the Police Box door and the unfriendly metal thing. "Who are we exterminating?"

"YOU! WILL! BE! EXTERRRRRRMINATED!"

Luna cocked her head sideways, feeling threatened and immediately endangered but not particularly afraid. "Well, you haven't done it yet," she pointed out. "And anyway, we've hardly gotten to know each other."

The light on the metal thing moved a bit, vertically, and the motion caused Luna to wonder whether this was how the creature looked her up and down. "MOVE! AWAY! FROM THE! TARRRRDIS!" the tinny voice ordered.

"And then I get to be exterminated?" she asked, feigning alacrity.

"YOU! WILL! BE! EXTERRRRMINATED!" the thing- she decided to call it a Snorcack -confirmed.

That's when the blue door to the blue box opened, and a hand attached to an arm yanked Luna in and shut the door behind her. The man attached to the arm attached to the hand sighed in relief, and Luna looked past him to see that the blue box was attached to a much larger inside.

"Extension Charm," she observed.

The man looked down at her incredulously. He had an odd sort of face, almost like a cartoon rabbit, with a wide-ish nose and a prominent-ish chin. His hair was grown out and dark, and he seemed young, but in an old sort of way. His eyes were old.

Without warning, the blue box man began waving a sort of wand at her. It made whirring noises and lit up and looked...well, not very wandlike at all.

"Yes. Human," he said. "Definitely human. Who are you?"

"Luna Lovegood," the small girl answered, tucking back her dirty blond hair and holding out her hand to shake.

The man chose, instead, to grab her hand and examine it. "Still definitely human. Did you just stall a Dalek?"

Luna considered that. "Possibly. Did you just save my life?"

"Probably. No. Scratch that: Definitely. You were definitely going to die. Oh...Is that rude to say? I can never tell..."

"So let's have tea, then, yeah? My dad's home...He's made pudding."

"He-" The man stopped himself by smacking a hand to his head. "Alright. Rewind:I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor? That's an odd sort of name. That's like a Muggle Healer. Are you a Muggle?" She looked around the Tardis control room and shook her head at the thought. "Odd sort of Muggle."

"I'm not-...Alright. Rewind again. There is a Dalek outside, and..." The TARDIS shook with a sudden blast that sent Luna and the Doctor to the floor. Instantly, the Doctor was back on his feet and running to the controls. "Scratch that," he murmured. "There are many Daleks outside." He started up darting restlessly from lever to lever to switch to screen. Definitely an odd sort of wizard, if he was one.

"Don't you know any spells?" Luna asked conversationally.

"Don't you?" the Doctor deflected back. "You're a witch, aren't you? That's a thing in this universe."

"I haven't got a wand yet," Luna pointed out. "You have."

"I...No, it's not a wand. It's a sonic screwdriver."

"Well, that doesn't sound nearly as useful. Where's your wand?"

"I haven't got one."

"So you are a Muggle."

"No...I mean...Look, I just..."

The Doctor rambled on incoherently like that, but Luna was dazzled by a sudden wonderful thought: "Are you a time lord?"

The Doctor paused at the TARDIS controls and looked back at her, peculiarly. "How do you know about time lords?"

"My mum knew about them. She was an expert."

"Was? So she's dead now?"

Luna nodded blankly.

The Doctor looked as though he were on the verge of saying something, but then the TARDIS controls made a strange noise, and his expression turned to utter exasperation. "Oh, not now..." he murmured almost feverishly.

"What?" Luna asked, approaching him.

"So, your dad," the Doctor said, regaining his energy, "is he cool? Like, really, really...cool?"

Luna just stared at him.

The Doctor rushed on, and Luna observed that he seemed uncomfortable keeping still. "Like, would he mind if-?...Oh, blast it." He pulled a lever to his right, and the TARDIS gave a lurch, almost sending Luna to the ground again, but this time, the Doctor caught her arm.

"What's happening?" she asked, almost to quietly to be heard over the whirring engine.

"We're escaping. No choice. Surrounded by Daleks...I daresay this sort of thing happens to me much too often."