Third Letter

May 11th 1998, Melbourne

My dear Draco,

I promised you a letter from Australia, so now I'm writing it.

I arrived here soundly the day before yesterday. It's a long flight from London to Australia, so as soon as I had checked into my hotel I feel asleep on the horrible bed, but I was way too exhausted to even notice the hardness of the mattress. When I woke up I discovered an almost unbearable ache in my back, but luckily I know a little charm to take care of that. So it didn't really bother me all that much.

Breakfast wasn't the most amazing thing, just a piece of dry bread and a little butter. The breakfast at St. Mungo's is much better. After breakfast I had to go find my parents. To tell you the truth they could be anywhere in this big city. When I charmed them I never told them where in Melbourne they were going to live. Luckily I had both their real and their fake names. Their fake names could help if I wanted to find them the Muggle way. I don't know if you know what a phone is? Well, it's what Muggles use to talk to each other through when they are far apart. The great thing about phones is that everyone has their own number and then there is this big book with all numbers in it. So you just find the person's name and their phone number is right next to it. And voila, you know how to find them! But of course that's way too much trouble for a witch. Instead I used a tracking spell. And this is where their real names came in handy. I spoke the incantation and a thin silver line that only I would be able to see appeared and let me straight to my parents.

It was a good thing I did it the Wizard way since they weren't even at home with their phone. The silver line brought me to the Carlton Gardens. I don't know if you have ever been there or even heard of it, but let me tell you something about the place anyway. And don't worry I'll try not to sound too much like a know-it-all.

The Carlton Gardens are a UNESCO World Heritance Site, so that should give you some inkling as to how beautiful it is. If you haven't ever seen this place I promise that when you wake up I will take you here, of course if you want to. It park was reserved in 1839 when the city was growing larger. The style is clearly Victorian with various European and Australian plants. There are trees of every name all around, tall and green, and under the trees large beds of flowers stretch in all colours for the eye to devour. In the park there is also the building for the Melbourne International Exhibition. The building was finished in 1880 and is an impressing large, white building with a dome. It was surrounded by all this beauty that I found my parents.

They were standing close together my father's arm around my mother's waist. Their heads were close together and they looked like they were whispering happily to one another as I approached them from behind. When I cast the spell on them I told them that they didn't have any children. So of course they wouldn't remember me. They looked so happy like newlyweds, and I seriously considered not lifting the spell. My mind was screaming at me that I had nothing more than create trouble for them. It was clear that they were happy here, happy not knowing that they had a daughter who loved them. Perhaps I should just leave them be and let them have their own lives. I had almost made up my mind to do so when they turned around and I saw their faces looking at me. I have always looked mostly like my mom but there is a large part of my dad in me as well, my hair for one. When they looked at me I couldn't stop a little tear from running down my cheek and a sob from itching its way through my chest. My mother, who clearly didn't recognise me, looked at me with pity. I almost just shouted 'mom' and ran to her, but I kept the cream within me and started turning to leave. But that was when her soft voice was carried to me by the wind.

"What's the matter darling?" she asked with concern in her voice.

She sounded so much like my mother, granted she was still my mother then but she didn't know that, that I abandoned all thoughts of leaving them. Perhaps I'm incredibly selfish but I simply couldn't image living in a world without my parents. Sure Mrs. Weasley would be fast to adopt me and offer me a room in the Burrow, and Harry would probably give me my own floor at Grimmauld Place, but neither of those places would ever feel like home if my parents couldn't be there once in a while. So I chickened out of what was probably the right thing to do. I lifted the spell with the one word I was sure they were never going to hear by accident in Melbourne, "Horcrux". Perhaps not the most creative word, but when I cast the spell that was what was on my mind and I knew, that there were only a handful of very powerful wizard who knew anything about Horcruxes. And they would never, ever speak publicly about them.

As soon as I had said the words, with tears rolling down my cheeks, my parents blinked and looked at me with new eyes. First they were confused but when they really saw me, they ran to me with open arms and hugged me tight. It had been a while since I last felt so safe and new tears of happiness joined the others. Also my parents were crying, while they were laughing and hugging me.

After that they took me back to where they had been living for the last year. It was a cosy little apartment just right for a newlywed couple. They gave me the tour before we settled down in the living room. There I had to devote a lot of time to tell my parents about all that had been going on in the last year.

We have moved all my stuff from the hotel and to their apartment so I am staying here in Melbourne till Friday. Then I'm going home to England and my parents will follow as soon as they can sell the apartment and quit their jobs.

Right now I'm sitting in the living room on the couch that will be my bed for the next three days. My parents don't know that I'm writing to you. They think this is a letter for Neville. I have already finished letters for Ron and Harry, so when my parents saw the envelope for this letter, addressed to St. Mungo's, they asked me who the letter was for. I don't know why I didn't tell them that the letter was for you. But for some reason I didn't feel that they would approve. I haven't exactly told them the best things about you, and I regret that now. But what is done is done and I told them that the letter was for Neville.

I'm very much looking forward to coming home. I look forward to see all my friends again – and I look forward to seeing you again.

Yours sincerely – even in Australia

Hermione

I want to thank all my reviewers, you made me believe in this story so much that I'm set on finishing it.

But even then, please tell me what you're thinking :D