CHAPTER SEVEN
Dear Hermione,
So how are you? Hedwig has been getting restless lately and is missing you so I decided to let her out for a while and drop by with a note. I see that you're pretty busy since you haven't written in quite some time. Although, I have found out that you weren't too busy to send a quick note to Luna and Ron. I'm a bit miffed about that but I'm willing to overlook the slight. Anyway, I have a bit of good news and bad news. I was going to ask you which one you'd have first but you won't be able to answer anyhow so here goes. Bad news first, I broke up with Ginny. It was inevitable. I guess like what you did with Ron, I was just grasping at straws hoping that I'd feel less alone. She's dating Dean now. I haven't been actually out to meet anyone. Too tired lately and couldn't care less. Don't have the heart for it because… well I'm not sure really why. Wish you were here though. I really really miss you. Good news is that Ron and Luna are going to be parents. Found out about it first-hand this afternoon. Ron has decided to have a serious tete-a-tete about my dating status. Who knew that I'd be taking relationship advise from Ron?! It's bizarre. Anyway, don't tell them that I told you about Luna being pregnant. It's actually their news so they might want to tell you first so just pretend that you haven't heard it.
Anyway, please write back soon or I'm going to fly out to Kenya and bring you forcibly back to England. I'm a bit worried. Ron has this strange idea that you may just have met someone there. Don't you think that that's just hilarious? Well not that it's strange because you're beautiful. But I just can't imagine you being with anyone else.
Harry
I read the letter three times before rolling it up and tying it to Hedwig's legs. I contemplated telling her about the chest pains that I've gotten since she moved away but I didn't want to worry her. Besides, it could just be heart burn. The healers at St. Mungo's will just give me some antidote and I'll be fine and dandy.
Hedwig wasn't getting any younger and so I only send her to long haul flights when I have to write Hermione. The last time I wrote Hermione and used another owl, the letter ended up being printed in the Witches' Quarterly. Ginny and I had quite a row about that after. I was bitterly disappointed that Hermione didn't reply immediately. May be I should have put in my chest pains there. She would probably write back sooner but then I wanted her to write back because she wanted to instead of having some misguided sisterly concern push her to send me something. A note on tissue paper or whatever. Anything to sort of remind me that I'm still a part of her life.
I stayed out of Ron and Luna's way for 3 weeks since they were busy and Luna was often feeling ill. Besides, every time I went around, it threw in sharp contrast the life I've had. Damn Ron for putting those thoughts into my head! 3 weeks and counting and still no word from Hermione. At first I was worried. Something must have happened to her. Then I was angry because I found out that she has written Ron and Luna. Again. I mean why isn't she writing to me? So I try to recall anything I've done to make her angry at me. I was halfway between anger and self-pity when I heard a soft tapping at my window and find an exhausted Hedwig outside.
I carry her in and give her some food before I settle on the couch in front of the fire. Hermione has written back. Finally!
Dear Harry,
I got a picture of you, Ron and Luna at their wedding. I must say you were looking a bit dapper. Well, I'm sorry for not having written sooner. I wanted to write you too but have been busy. We keep on moving from one place to another because there has been some terrible rioting between the older orphans and the orphanage adminstrators that we were giving services to so the foundation decided that it wasn't safe for us at all to stay there. Much as they needed it and so we had to leave and find some other place. It broke my heart to leave all the orphans behind. I had to take care of the pediatrics ward and the children have taken to calling me "Momma Hermy" and this other muggle doctor, "Daddy John". I think I cried bitterly for an entire week and wanted to go back home but there are other children who need me here. I look at the orphans and it was clear that they wanted to be part of some stable family unit and that they were hungry for love. Reminded me of someone I know actually. For awhile they had a taste of that having me as their surrogate mother and John as their father. So it was really difficult leaving them behind but I couldn't take any of them. I remember that the night we had to evacuate the center, John had to come and drag me by the arm because the rebels were coming and they were going to burn all the visitors because they thought that we were siding with the other tribe. Until now I couldn't sleep without hearing the children scream for me. It was horrible and I wanted to save them. Yet again, I couldn't. It would have been so easy to save them with magic and whisk them away to somewhere safe like Grimmauld Place. I know we could take care of them and that you wouldn't mind watching over them for a while but how am I going to explain all that to the foundation people, I wonder?
Anyway, I'm a bit tired. I have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. just to get water from the village well. Sometimes, John does that or Clark. They're sweet that way and they're Americans. I wonder why in the television they always stereotype Americans to be these loud boors which not all of them are. Haven't had time to go out on dates. I normally spend the entire day with the other doctors – although the volunteer nurses are running a pool about me and John. They think I don't know but I do and I think they're off their rockers. He's sweet and a bit melancholy just like you but I'm not ready yet. It's not to say that I'll say no if he asks me out on a date, it's just that if it didn't work out between us, it would just be really awkward.
So that's it for now. This is a longer letter than the one I wrote Ron and Luna so I hope you're not pissed at me anymore. Give them all my love and I'm sorry about you and Ginny.
Hermione
JOHN! Who the hell is John? Sure she writes to me but she mentions this John character 5 times. Not that I'm counting but I just don't like this at all. So I wake up Hedwig from her sleep which she didn't really like as far as I could tell because she has bitten my finger and looked at me reproachfully. I bring her to this large world map hanging in the library and made her point out where she found Hermione in Kenya because I'm going to go there next thing tomorrow after I go to St. Mungo's.