Ron walked up the steps to Harry's front door. He knocked twice. Ginny answered it.

"Hi, Ron," she said, resting James on her hip. "What's up?"
"I need to talk to you guys about Hermione's birthday next week."
She let him in and Ron told her and Harry about his plan to go to Australia to find Hermione's parents. "But...you have no idea where they are! Or if they're still there! This is a near impossible goal, Ron." Said Harry. "And you can't ask Hermione for help. She'll know something's up." Ginny reminded him. "I can do it. I know I can. We can ask Bill and Fluer to help us. And Percy. I'm sure George and Angelia will want to help as well. I really want I do this. For Hermione." Ron said. The room was silent as Ginny and Harry considered Ron's idea. Ron spoke up again. "Harry, finding people is our job. You're the head of the auror office! Finding two unsuspecting muggles can't be harder than finding a dark wizard who knows we're coming."
Harry nodded, his brow furrowed.
"Alright," he said finally. "I'll go. But, Ginny, I want you to stay here with James. He's not old enough to go an he's deffinently not old enough to be left with someone."
Ginny looked frustrated at being denied the opportunity to go with Ron and Harry, but silently nodded. "So," said Harry, "When are we leaving?"

... ... ... ... ...

It was pouring again.
The rain was plunking down onto Hermione's bedroom window loudly.

Hermione sat up, stretched and yawned. She wiped her sleepy eyes and looked out at the storm before plopping back down into the bed.

She found it harder to get up when it was storming outside. She smiled to herself when she remembered that it was Saturday.
Hermione rested for a couple hours longer until she couldn't ignore the loud rain any longer. So, she pulled herself out of bed.

Yawning again, she walked over to her dresser to look at herself in the mirror. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair was a mess.
She sighed, and then turned around to leave her room.

Just then, she tripped over a shoe on the floor. She landed on the hard wood floor with a thud. Her left arm, which she had landed on painfully, was throbbing.

Hermione walked over to her bed and sat down. All of a sudden, she heard a strange thump coming from her closet. It sounded as if something had fallen. She stood up to see what it was.

Hermione's closet was usually spotless. Everything was in it's place, exept for a book now lay on the floor. Her scrapbook.

Hermione reached down to pick it up. She opened it .

It was full if pictures of Hermione and her parents. All the way from when Hermione had been a baby. Tears stung her eyes as she looked at her parent's happy faces smiling up at her. When they knew they had a daughter.

Hermione buried her head in her hands, sobbing. The book slipped out of her hands onto the floor.

'I'm such a coward,' she thought.
'A true Gryfindor would have gone back. If I really was brave, I would've gone back to save my parents. Not run away scared.'

'I was too stubborn to do it. I could've saved them. My fear of magic got in the way. I'm so disappointed in myself.' Hermione thought to herself as she cried.

She had thought about her parents several times since she left. She'd tried to make enough money to fly out to Australia, but couldn't manage it.

By the time a year had passed since she left, she knew it was too late. She was still short on money, and even if she had enough, and she used magic, she wouldn't be able to preform the reversal spell to restore their memories. It had been too long since she used magic.

So, even though it hurt, she forgot about them. Even though she hated herself everyday for leaving her parents alone in Australia,
She moved on with her life.

But, every once in a while, Hermione came upon that little scrapbook and the whole thing was again fresh in her mind and she usually spent hours crying in her room, putting herself down for being such a coward. 'What's done is done.' She thought. That made her sob harder.

At around noon, Hermione came out of her room, her eyes bloodshot and her face tear-stained. She made herself a cup if tea and sat down on her couch, trying to forget her parents all over again.

... ... ... ... ...

They left with a pop.
Harry, Ron, and George appeared on a field not far from a small city.
"Is that it?" Said George, squinting in the bright sunlight. Ron nodded.
"Yep, that's Darwin. That's where Hermione sent 'em." Harry started walking forward. "Let's go," he said. "We've got no idea where they are. Or even if they're still in Darwin." Ron and George followed.

Darwin was a very nice little town. It seemed like the kind of place a Granger would live. They wandered the streets for a bit, trying to find somewhere to start.
"What do we do?" Said George. Both George and Harry looked at Ron who simply said, "We've got to start somewhere." And with that, he walked up to an old man with a limp who was shuffling down the road with his cane. "Excuse me, sir?" Said Ron, tapping the man on the shoulder. "Do you happen to know, um...Wendell and Monica Wilkins?" Ron said. The old man said, in a small, raspy voice, "I've never heard of 'Pencil Harmonica Kittens'. Is that a new band you kids listen to these days?" He mumbled something to himself as he continued to slowly walk down the street.

Ron sighed and headed back to George and Harry. He shook his head. "No luck," he said. "Just some loony old man." They tried 5 other people in the area. No one knew who Wendell and Monica Wilkins were. "Let's try another part of town," said George, pointing to a bus stop a few feet away. They all silently agreed that taking the bus would be a better idea than aparating in a muggle-filled town.

They rode the bus down a few blocks. Again, they split up and started asking random civilians if they had any idea who or where Wendell and Monica Wilkins were.

"Cherry Avenue," whispered George to himself as he walked down the street. There was a park on the corner of Cherry Avenue and Selwin Road.

He walked into the park, shivering
slightly at the chilly wind. He sat down on a bench next to a young women. "Hello," she said, looking at George curiously. "Hi," he said awkwardly. He waited a few seconds before asking, "Do you happen to know Wendell and Monica Wilkins?" The women thought for a while before answering. "I...I think so. I vaguely remember meeting them the day they moved into the house a few doors down from mine. They had a girl with them, about 16 or 17, but I haven't seen her since. Nice folks, they were." George looked confused. "Were?" He repeated.
The woman nodded. "They moved about a year ago. Don't know where." George nodded. "Where was their old house?" The woman pulled a slip of paper out of her bag. She scribbled their address on it in red colored pencil and handed it to George. George looked at it. '2601 McIntyre Street, Darwin.'
"Thanks. Thank you," he said to the woman before he turned to leave.

"Harry! Ron!" George yelled. "I found something!" Harry and Ron were both on Selwin road, and they had just finished asking a young man if he knew the Wilkins. (No luck.) Both Harry and Ron ran up to meet George. George told them what the woman in the park had told him about the Wilkins. He showed them the address. Ron looked up. "It's going to be dark soon. We'll go in the morning."

... ... ... ... ...

Dear Mum,

I know you want to write Hermione. But your going to have to learn how to use a telephone first. Or muggle post. Remember what happened when you tried to send her an invitation to my wedding?

Well, Hermione's birthday is in ten days. Ron, Harry and George went to Australia to look for Hermione's parents for her birthday. I really hope they can find them. It would help Hermione a lot.

Remember Mum, if you contact Hermione, try to avoid magic. If you can. Just catch up with each other and just act as if she went on a three-year vacation or something.

James is doing well. We'll see you on Sunday!

Love,
Ginny

... ... ... ... ... ...

Harry, Ron and George woke up at the crack of dawn. They had pitched a tent on the edge of town. They took the bus to McIntyre Street. "Number...2601." Said Harry. They stopped in front of a small house on the corner of the street. Ron climbed up the front steps and knocked on the door.
A middle-aged man answered the door. "Hello?" He said, looking at Ron. "Uh..." Said Ron, "Do you know where...um...Wendell and Monica Wilkins are?" The man snorted. "Oh, them? Yeah, they moved out a while go. Said they were going to...Townsville, I think. It's south of here. It's far, though. You'll have to take a plane."
"Ok. Thank you." The man waved and closed the door. "Harry," asked Ron. "What's a 'plane?'"

The three aparated to Townsville as soon as possible. It was a slightly larger city, right on the coast. Once they arrived, they walked around until they found a small neighborhood of houses. "Maybe they live in here." Said Ron. "I dunno," said Harry. "Townsville is a bit bigger than Darwin. This is going to be harder." They tried knocking on a few doors there, not gaining any progress. They walked up and down the streets of town for hours, trying to get any information they could on Wendell and Monica Wilkins. "Let's try here," said Ron, pointing to a neighborhood of small houses about a block away from them.

They walked up and down the streets for a while, looking for...well, they didn't know what, but something.
"Uugh..." Groaned Ron. "That's it." He sped-walked up to the nearest house and knocked.
The door swung open almost immediately. A teenage girl stood in the doorway, chewing her gum loudly and twirling her hair in her fingers. "Yeah?" She said.
"Um," said Ron, distracted by the girl's Cotton candy-blue hair. "I...uh, do you know Wendell and Monica Wilkins?"
The girl sighed.
"Yeah. We get such weirdos around here. There's some loony girl who lives down the street. Her names Loola...Luka...or something. Anyway, yeah, The Wilkins live right down there on Bertrum Lane. Number 372. Bye!" She slammed the door.

They couldn't believe their luck.
"This is great!" Ron said, exitedly. He started running towards King's lane with an eager and anxious look on his face. "C'mon!" He yelled back at the other two.

Ron stopped abruptly right as he was about to knock on number 372. "Wait," he said. "They're muggles. They don't know us. What do we do? How do we get them to follow us?"
"Uh..." George said, confused. "Just stun them, and we'll aparate out of there...?" He said, unsure of his idea. "We'll go with George's plan. C'mon, guys." Said Ron. They tip-toed up to the front porch.

"Harry? Ron?" Said a girl's voice from behind them. Harry swung around to look at who had spoken.
His jaw dropped.