APPLICATION OF CURIOSITY

This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.

A/N: Spoilers. Thanks to all my reviewers. This is now officially AU since HBP but I plan to continue with sporadic updates. My opinions of one character have not changed and I think JK was merely setting us up for another startling reversal just as she did in PoA.

Hermione straightened her shoulders and pursed her mouth.

"We still haven't checked that it's really from him." Not that either of them doubted it somehow; the language was as characteristic as the handwriting but an authenticity check couldn't hurt.

"How can we?" Ginny asked without thinking. Then she reminded herself that this was Hermione. Hermione always knew a way.

"There's a spell. It's not on the syllabus but I found it in 'Challenging Checking Charms and Chicanery for Cheeky Choosy Charmers' last year after I asked Professor Flitwick for further reading."

Of course there was a spell. Despite herself Ginny's eyes brightened. One of the best perks of being Hermione's friend was the chance to learn unusual and indispensable spells for every occasion. Harry and Ron were too thoughtless to take advantage of their opportunities but Ginny, last of a large family, had early learned the value of knowledge. The disadvantage of youthfulness could be overcome by the application of curiosity, study and secret practice.

The older girl hesitated. She really didn't want to touch the letter again but it was necessary. Reluctantly she drew it out of the book then out of the envelope and opened it to lie face-up in front of her. Ginny leaned closer.

"Ostendo scriptor," Hermione commanded, tapping the letter once with her wand then drawing a circle around it with the tip just touching the paper.

As she removed her wand a smoky tendril curled up from the centre slowly forming into a familiar lean figure, black eyes and hair and robe, face and hands even paler than usual, but the whole no more than twelve inches high.

Two sets of eyes widened. Two throats gasped and two heads, one crowned with red, one with brown, bent close to watch.

The smoke-creature sat as if at a desk though neither chair nor desk was visible. His shoulders slumped and he buried his face in his hands for a long moment before he picked up a quill, invisible likewise till it appeared in the tiny hand, and began.

As one the two girls watched him write her name and then pause again for a long time with bowed head and closed eyes. They watched the tiny Adam's apple move, the chest rise and fall with long tense breaths.

Dear ever-dearest Hermione,

The first sentence came fluently then. They watched the simulacrum hesitate on his apologies, pausing long over the word "intrusion" and almost as long over the next six words. He sighed and cocked his head then with a sharp nod bent once more to his work.

I wish this salutation could bring you comfort rather than distress. I apologise for the intrusion as for all our past interactions. Circumstances have forced me to treat you with a disdain as undeserved as it was unfelt.

"Disdain" seemed to give him almost as much trouble as "intrusion" but he continued till the end of the sentence easily enough. Then another long pause as tiny lips tightened and black eyes blinked away brightness. The watchers bit their lips. Hermione gulped and Ginny sighed.

At last the hand began its work anew. One quick fluent sentence, then a halting hesitant continuation. Only the signature remained and then it would be done.

If this has been sent, my expectations of disaster have proved true. I could not refuse myself this one opportunity to wish you happiness.

So thought the watchers but they were wrong. After adding his initial the smoke-man let go the quill, which disappeared as he released it, and with his forefinger traced softly, reverently, the beloved name. He folded the paper, kissed it and faded away.

There was a long fraught silence. Two pairs of cheeks flushed; two pairs of eyes turned away equally from the letter and from each other to study the wall. Ginny's hands clasped and her mouth set tight. Hermione cleared her throat.

"He shouldn't have written it if he didn't want us to see," she defended, her voice a low rasp.

Ginny reflected that if he'd known her friend at all he must have expected her both to know and to use this spell. She nodded.

"He shouldn't have written," Hermione insisted again.

The younger girl shook her head as if to clear it of cloying sentimentality. Time to be practical.

"What will you tell everyone?" she asked.

"Do I have to tell them anything?"

Ginny gave her a pitying look. She scowled back. They'd drive her mad with questions if she didn't.

"Fine, I'll just say it was from him and he couldn't resist prophesying that I was still an insufferable know-it-all. They'll believe that." Both that he would have been hateful enough to send it and that she would have run out of the room in tears upon reading it.

Ginny's mouth twisted to one side but it wasn't as if she had a better idea. Well, maybe slightly better.

"I'll tell them," she said firmly. "You just glower and refuse to talk about it at all. Or offer to hex anyone who mentions it again, that'll quiet them for good."

A/N I used an on-line Latin-English translator to generate the spell. Yes, I know JK doesn't use real Latin but sometimes a little inspiration plugs a gap in the imagination.