Coldness: it was the only thing thriving on the planet now. That, and panic.

"HELP US, DOCTOR!" the slitheen cried. "SAVE US!"

The Slitheen government Headquarters were situated ten thousand feet below the planet's crust. The walls were constructed out of eight-feet thick Pinch-Rock and the whole vicinity was just a mile away from the scorching molten core of the planet. All this, and the walls, floors and ceiling were frosting over. The shaky, terrified breaths of the Slitheen came out in thick fog clouds. They all shivered violently.

"PLEASE, DOCTOR! WE MADE AMENS CENTURIES AGO!" the Leader cried.

The doctor bounded around from screen to screen, pulling at his own hair in frustration. The low temperatures did not affect him, but the suffering of millions did. It had all been down to a lively encounter with one Donna Noble, of course, that brought his hearts to life again. For that, he was grateful. But this was no time for sentiment...

"I can't see what's causing it..." the Doctor muttered to himself. His eyes darted around at the multitude of screens that showed graphs and stats of the planet's main stats and demographics.

"D-D-Doctor..." shuddered a female voice. Rose staggered up beside him, clutching her arms tight around herself. She was very, very pale... "Wh-wh-what's going on?"

"I... I have no idea how this is happening..." the chill was starting to bite at the Doctor now. Still, he was safe from the painful cold that these Slitheen ... and Rose... were feeling.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!" their leader cried through his shivers. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"

The Doctor's eyes locked onto a screen. The answers were there, clear as day.

"This... this is impossible..." he sprinted across to the other side of the room to where a huge projection of the Raxocoricophalapatorious sky line was being shown. He glared at it. He was astonished, baffled, horrified, confused...

"D-D-Doctor, p-please, d-d-do something!"

"It's Earth," exclaimed the Doctor finally. "Planet Earth's doing this..."

The Slitheen leader was too cold to be outraged, but he might've declared a war on humans there and then.

"There's some kind of tractor beam moving the entire planet..."

How were they doing this?! By his calculations, Earth should be in its 1995th year of vague civilisation. They'd barely just set foot on the mood, for crying out loud... how were they doing this?!

"Give us five seconds," said the Doctor abruptly to the Slitheen leader. He rushed back across the room towards the TARDIS. "I'll trace the tractor beam. I'll put a stop to this. Rose, come on."

The Doctor grabbed Rose's stone-called, trembling hand and ran with her into the TARDIS. Even he, who was not dying from the cold, could feel the immense relief that the TARDIS' heat provided. Once the doors were shut, he was at the console immediately.

"Oh it's so warm in here..." breathed Rose, collapsing against the closed doors. The colour in her lips started to return. At the console, The Doctor didn't show any signs of slowing. He jabbed every button and pulled every leaver that he could, staring worriedly into the screen.

"Doctor, are you sure it's Earth that's doing this? I had no idea that they could-"

"Of course it is! Their data says it is, my data says it is... oh, andguess which city it's coming from..."

He twisted a dial to the right. He slammed the main leaver downwards and with a sharp jolt, they were soaring through space, all the way down to London, Earth, 1995...

oOo

When the TARDIS landed, The Doctor launched himself towards the doors. Rose squirmed on the floor, breathing heavily through the pain in her arm.

"Doctor... Doctor, I think I've broken my... Doctor?!"

He'd gone. Rose winced as she pulled herself up to a standing position at the railing. She cradled her arm as she approached the ajar doors. It was night-time... or they hadn't landed on Earth.

Rose stepped through the doors, pushing them open, and found herself standing in the corner of a small, square walled garden. The Doctor was standing very still in front of her.

"Doctor, will you take a look at my-"

"Shhh!" he hissed.

She came to stand beside him, ready to argue, but saw that his eyes were fixed firmly on something ahead of them. She followed his gaze.

Over by the young cherry-blossom tree in the middle of garden was a little girl. She lay on her back in her pyjamas and dressing gown and was pointing up at the sky, making swirling patters with her finger.

"Doctor, is she doing this?!" Rose whispered. The Doctor nodded.

"Well, then... let's stop her!" Rose took a step towards the girl before The Doctor grabbed her wrist.

"ARGH!" Rose shrieked, snatching her wrist back and examining it. It had gone very swollen. "That hurt!"

"We cannot go storming over there without a background story, she'll scream!"

"Doctor, the Slitheen are dying. Whatever she's doing-"

"Time is relative, Rose, we can always-"

"No, not always!"

"Look, we need to come up with a-"

"Since when do you-!"

"Excuse me..." said a snooty voice. The Doctor and Rose both froze, staring wide-eyed at each other. After a long second of panic, they turned slowly towards the little frizzy-haired girl that was now staring at them with curiosity.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked, looking at Rose. "Only, you sounded hurt just a moment ago..."

Rose and The Doctor continued to stare. She really wasn't phased...

"Is your arm broken?" she asked calmly.

"Nah," said The Doctor, finally breaking out of his trance. "She just banged it on the journey down here. She'll be fine. We'll bandage it up, make some camomile tea. She'll be right as rain in no time."

"It looks broken," said the girl defiantly. Then, she stooped down and picked something up off the floor. She picked up a long brown wooden object that was way too intricately-carved to be a common garden twig. She sauntered up to Rose, who looked a little nervous. The girl pointed the stick at Rose's wrist.

"Reparo."

"ARGH!"

With a sickening 'snap' sound, the pain in Rose's arm vanished. She held her arm up and twisted her hand around, examining it.

"That's amazing... how did you do that?!"

"Magic!" the girl beamed. Rose smiled back awkwardly before looking to The Doctor. They shared a similar expression of masked alarm. The Doctor looked back at the girl.

"Magic, eh?" he said softly, bending down to her level. "Can you do magic, then?"

"Of course!" said the girl, looking delighted to be speaking of it. "... isn't that why you're here?"

Rose furrowed her eyebrows. "What d'you mean?"

"You're... you're from Hogwarts, aren't you? Or the Ministry..." the girl's eyed widened. "Oh heavens, are you from the Ministry?! Did I do something wrong?!"

"Calm down, calm down..." soothed The Doctor, holding his hands up in defence from her panic. She waited, looking a little scared, for his explanation. Behind him, Rose was staring wide-eyed in shock once again. Hogwarts... reparo...

"You're right. We're from the Ministry. But we're not here to tell you off..." he quickly rummaged around in the inside pocket of his suit jacket and flashed her his psychic paper without conviction. He doubted that she'd even managed to look at it properly. "We... we came to ask a favour of you."

"Oh... okay. What is it?"

The Doctor looked back at Rose, then back to the girl.

"...when we arrived, you were pointing up there," he nodded in the direction of the night sky. "What were you doing that for?"

The girl smiled. "I was moving the stars."

"...moving the stars?"

"Yes! Is... is that allowed? It's just, that star up there," she pointed directly above her, "was too bright. It made the other stars look funny. So, I moved it further back a bit."

The Doctor looked up. Sure enough, there was a small clustering of stars that looked sufficiently normal and even. He looked back at her.

"Brilliant," he grinned. "Absolutely brilliant. How old are you?"

"Eleven."

"Eleven years old, and you're already re-arranging the Universe..."

The girl stared at him blankly. "I'm sorry?"

The Doctor blinked back into the realism of the situation. "Oh, yeah, um... we need you to move the star back again,"

"...why?"

"Because you've... you've frozen a solar system."

"Oh!"

Instantly, the girl looked up at the sky again and raised her hand, pointing just above them. The Doctor and Rose watched with victorious grins as the star in the centre of the cluster began shining brighter than the others around it. It twinkled beautifully.

"There. Is that better?"

"Much. Thank you... er... what's your name?"

"Hermione. Hermione Granger."

The Doctor glanced up at Rose who looked ready to faint.

"Sir..." began Hermione. "I'm sorry about the star. You won't tell Dumbledore about this, will you? I'm terrified of starting at Hogwarts as it is. I'd rather not have the headmaster hate me before I've even been sorted into my house..."

"Ah, Dumbledore..." sighed The Doctor, smiling nostalgically. "Great man, is Old Dumbles... good at ping-pong, makes an excellent plum cake... should never be allowed near a microphone..."

"Ahem," coughed Rose behind him. It was then that she stepped forward and crouched down beside The Doctor, looking seriously at Hermione.

"You're worried about Hogwarts?" she repeated.

Hermione nodded. "What if I don't make any friends? What if I get lost and end up in the Forbidden Forest? What if... ugh, what if I'm sorted into Slytherin? I've heard they're all..."

"Ah, there's nothing wrong with Slytherin!" said Rose jovially. She slapped The Doctor on the back. "The Doctor here was one, weren't you?"

"Er... yeah! Yeah, it was... er... great fun."

He glanced narrowly at Rose, who wore a satisfied grin on her face. She then remembered something else Hermione had asked, and turned back to her.

"You'll make friends," she vowed in a low voice. "Trust me. You'll see."

Hermione watched Rose's face for any signs of mockery or uncertainty. To her pleasure, there was none. She smiled gratefully.

"Well, we'd better be off," said Rose finally. She got up and wiped the mud from the knees of her jeans. It was a feeble attempt. Hermione pointed her wand at her jeans.

"Scougify," she muttered. Rose's jeans were instantly mud-free.

"Thanks!" she smiled. "Doctor, we should go."

"Ah, yes... The Slitheen will want an explanation..."

The Doctor stood up. Hermione watched the strange night-time visitors walk away towards the shadowy area in the corner of her garden. Rose vanished into the shadows. The Doctor paused mid-step and turned back round.

"I wouldn't worry about Hogwarts, Hermione," he said. "If anyone gives you grief, you've got enough magic in you to hex them into next Tuesday."

Hermione giggled. Her eyes shone brightly in the darkness of the night, reminding The Doctor of a rare sense of awe and wonderment that he'd experienced many times in his childhood. With Hermione here, his childhood seemed very far away... he looked up at the stars again and chuckled.

"Hermione Granger," he grinned. "The girl who made the stars move..."

Hermione tilted her head in intrigue. It was an odd moment of phrasing, yet bizarrely pleasant to hear.

"Are you going to come back?" she blurted out, adrenaline suddenly pulsing around her as he took a step towards the shadows... or wherever Rose had vanished to.

"Ah, you'll see me again!" he promised. "Though I won't say when exactly... I've never been good with deadlines..."

The Doctor turned round and trudged across the muddy lawn and into the shadows, out of sight. Hermione watched tentatively for something to happen. Perhaps they'd zoom up into the sky on broomsticks... although she hadn't seen them arrive that way.

Within seconds of watching The Doctor disappear, a low rumbling shook the ground. A whirring sound began, and a light that Hermione was positive had not been there before started whirling around itself, pulsing light around the garden like a lighthouse. Not long later, the peculiar noises and lights stopped. Hermione was definitely alone now. Alone, but not quite so lonely.

A/N: I'll be sure to post the next chapter soon. In the meantime, please review.