A/N This is a series of letters between Hermione and her Australian pen friend.
1st August 1993
Dear Larkin,
My name is Hermione Granger. I'm 13 years old and a student at Hogwarts, Britain. I saw your add in the International Pen Friend section of the Daily Prophet. It's summer holidays here now. It would be winter in Australia now, right?
We have one month left. I honestly can't wait to get back to school. I'll be a third year. What year are you in? What is the Australian school called? Wait, I can look it up! (I'm at a wizarding library). Tembara School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, right? Your school's in a mine?! How fascinating!!
Hogwarts is a thousand year old castle…
I should probably tell you a bit about myself. I have two parents, both dentists, and both muggles.
We are holidaying in France at the moment. It's fantastic! The history of this region is absolutely fascinating. I've re-written my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out.
I don't have any brothers, sisters or pets. Yet. I want to get an owl soon though.
When I'm not at school, I live in a rather small village. Mum and Dad work in the next town over.
My hobbies are reading and, well reading! I also play the piano and cello, but haven't so much since I started at Hogwarts.
My birthday is 19th September, so I am one of the oldest in my year.
I found a wizarding post office this morning. I do wish I had've known about it earlier – it was one of my friends birthdays. Luckily Hedwig, his owl, turned up!
Hope to hear from you soon!
from Hermione A. Granger.
4th August 1993
Dear Hermione,
Thankyou very much for replying! How are you? I'll go through and answer your questions first. I hate it when people don't answer my questions! (hint, hehe)
Yep, it's winter here. No snow though, not here anyway. I'm 13 as well. Our system is a bit different from yours. We don't start at Tembara until we are about 12 years old, and we start with Year 7. I think that's equivalent to your 2nd year. We finish at Year 12. I'll be 18 then!
I'm year 8 now.
I would love to live in a castle! We seem to be a bit short of thousand year old castles here in Australia…
Not all the school is in the mine. It is pretty cool though.
Like you, I have two parents J, unlike you, I do have brothers and sisters and pets. Lots of them!
My mum is a witch, but Dad is a Muggle. he loves magic though. Can't get enough of it!
At home, we live on a farm in country Victoria.
Pets (big breath) we have 3 dogs; Arthur the mongrel who sits on his couch all day, Angus the Border collie and Horatio the kelpie. They both help Dad on the farm.
Four cats; Matilda, Duey, Pud and Tarzan. Heli, Germaine and Topaz are the budgies, Sabrina the rabbit, and about 12 guinea pigs! We initially only had two; Dasher and Spike. Thought they were both female, until Dasher started getting suspiciously round around the middle. Hello MR Spike!
Also, a magpie named Maggie (original, I know) and two pet highland cattle named Harley and Rose. I told you we had a lot!
I also have my own rat, Ratus P. Ratus. She's so cute!
Brothers and sisters - don't worry, not so many of them! I have a 15 year old brother, Nick, 11 year old sister, Jemimah (Jem) and an 8 year old sister Elspeth.
My hobbies are netball, Quidditch, reading and music. I play the piano too! And I just started learning the saxophone at school. How come you don't play much anymore? Music lessons are compulsory at Tembara…
My birthday is November 11th, so I am one of the younger ones. Our birthday cutoff is year to year, so if you were born in 1980 you'd be in Year 7 this year.
Our terms are different as well. Your school year starts in September doesn't it? Ours starts at the start of February and finishes in December.
France? Cool as!! I'm at school at the moment…
Ok, my turn to ask a few questions!
What houses do you have and what are you in? What classes do you take? What are your friends like? What do your parents think of you being a witch? What's your Quidditch team? Do you know any Aussie ones?
OK, that's all for now! hehe. Hope I haven't bored you too much!
Seeya! Please reply!
Love Larkin
22nd August 1993
Dear Larkin,
How are you? Thankyou for your letter! I think something must have happened because I only got your letter yesterday. Well, I am back from France! I love it there! Have you ever been overseas?
I'll go through your questions first too.
We have four houses here at Hogwarts, named after the four founders; Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. I'm in Gryffindor. What houses do you have? The classes I take are: Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, Study of Ancient Runes, Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Astronomy, History of Magic and Charms. The first 5 I am just starting this year.
I have two best friends, Harry and Ron. What are they like? Well, Ron is funny, tall, red-haired and has a bit of a temper. Tries not to show it, but is really quite a softy! He has a pet rat too, Scabbers.
Harry is short (like me) and skinny, wears glasses and is an only child. Excellent at Quidditch. He was the youngest Seeker to be picked for a house team in a century! He's quite amazing to watch.
Ginny, Ron's younger sister is probably my only real female friend. She's really nice, although seems to have inherited her brothers temper! She has the biggest crush on Harry…
Quidditch – to be honest, I don't really follow the sport but if I had to name a side, Id say Chudley Cannons. Ron would kill me if I said anyone else!
Sorry, I don't know any Australian teams. I'm sure Ron would know, but I wont see him for another week or so!
Wow, you have so many pets! The names are interesting…they don't really match. Am I right in guessing different people named them?
How big is Tembara? I haven't been able to find much information on it, although I don't really have the resources at the moment. Is it just for Australians or do you get other nationalities?
Did you hear Sirius Black escaped? I didn't know much about him, well I didn't know anything actually, but its been such big news here. I looked up about him. I can't believe he was a Gryffindor!
Oh, I missed one of your questions. Mum was rather pleased when we found out but Dad wasn't so keen though. He's great now.
I have to go and pack now. We're going to London tomorrow for the rest of the holidays and visiting family.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Yours,
Hermione
24/8
Hi Hermione,
I went to the library and found a copy of Hogwarts; A history, so I know all about your school now! It sounds so cool! Sounds like you have some pretty interesting ghosts! All we have are some convicts, miners and an old politician.
I think your house names are so much better than ours. Davies, Pimpernickel, Snapdragon and Greenwood. They were named after early teachers. I'm in Davies.
Tembara isn't very old at all. It was founded in 1900. Before then, most Australians went back to Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, or one of the other European or Asian schools, depending on their ancestry.
Don't you do maths, English or LOTE or anything like that? They are compulsory for us, along with a lot of the subjects you mentioned.
Ron, Harry and Ginny all sound very nice! I hang around in a group of 4 other people, Cat, Xander, Alex and Buraya. Or Catalina de Meurant, Alexander Wood, Alexandra Wood and Buraya Reken if you want to be proper…
Xander and Alex probably struck your attention, yeah? Well their first names anyway. They are cousins and were born on the same day. Once their parents had realized, they had already named them.
I sort of know British Quidditch. My cousins are British and they always talk about it!
Here in Oz, I barrack for the Wollongong Warriors. Ask Ron if he's heard of them!
At Tembara we get a fair few Pacific Islanders and PNG usually send over a few. A lot of them get home taught. New Zealand have their own school, but apparently it's tiny.
Buraya is from Kiribati. It's a Pacific island country.
Who's Sirius Black? I haven't read a newspaper for ages. Maybe I should…
Have fun in London!
Love Larkin
OK! A lot more of these to come! Please review and tell me what you think!