Hermione Down Under

Chapter 2 Domestic Arrangements

The bellboy showed them to the hotel room, confused by how little luggage they had – most of their belongings were in Hermione's Bottomless Handbag. When they finally were in the room and had some privacy, Hermione started to "Accio" Ron's things out.

"Don't put your wand down near anything electric," she advised. "Electricity and magic don't mix. I found that out on my first summer holidays."

Ron looked around at the electric lamps, the phone, the television. "So much weird Muggle stuff in here. I wish we could have found a place like the Leaky Cauldron to stay."

"I don't think Australia HAS places like the Leaky Cauldron. I checked old Ministry records – few wizards have ever emigrated to Australia, or to the States for that matter. They preferred to stay put in their little British towns, where they could protect each other. Of course there could be wizards and witches among the aboriginal population-"

Ron put up his hands. "OK, OK, I didn't mean anything complicated. I just have to get used to it." He stared at the television as if he was afraid it was going to bite.

Hermione finished with Ron's things, putting them on one of the beds. There were two large beds in the room, and she took it for granted that she would claim one and Ron would have the other. She and Harry had shared a bed once in their tent - and that had had some consequences that she definitely didn't want to think of now.

"I'd like to take a shower," she said. "Do you need to use the loo first?"

"Yeah, thanks."

She summoned her pyjamas out of the handbag and waited, wondering exactly how much distance to keep between herself and Ron. They had pretended to be husband and wife while registering – they were just old enough to bring that off – and if the hotel staff was suspicious, they probably thought Hermione and Ron were lovers. Were they?

Hermione shook her head. The wondering was hurting her brain.

There was a time, the crucial day of the Battle of Hogwarts, when she and Ron had finally expressed their feelings for each other. When Voldemort was defeated, Hermione had looked forward to excited romance without a cloud over their love. But she and Harry had felt honour-bound to reveal that they had –

"All right. I'm done," announced Ron, interrupting her thoughts.

"Thank you."

She went into the loo and undressed. Before hopping into the shower, she looked at herself in the mirror, and tried to imagine how sexy she would look to a boy, something she usually didn't worry about. Definitely she was no Fleur Delacour Weasley, but then Fleur was supposed to be part Veela or something. Did it matter? Hermione believed that being clever was better than being pretty, and there was something else more important than both, for which she didn't have a word. The quality in Lupin that had won Tonks' love, inspiring her to look beyond his poor health, social isolation, and the whole werewolf business.

Why kid yourself, Hermione? If Ron is being standoffish, it has nothing to do with whether or not you look sexy. You know perfectly well why.

There had been a night, during Ron's absence, when Hermione and Harry were trapped alone in the tent by a snowstorm, and had to huddle together in one of the beds to stay warm. The proximity, on top of other things – terror of being captured, frustration at how their quest was going, sheer lack of contact with any other human being, adolescent hormones, and sexual curiosity – had been too much for them, and they had -. On the morning after, they realized what a mistake they had made. Hermione loved Harry, but in the way that she would have loved a brother, and it had felt like incest. They never tried it again.

When Ron came back, they had to pretend that nothing happened. They had a locket containing part of Voldemort's soul, and it had tried to arouse hostility among the three of them. It wasn't until after Voldemort was dead that Harry and Hermione could confess the truth to Ron and Ginny.

The Weasley siblings had taken it remarkably well. Ginny forgave Harry outright, and Ron stayed friends with Harry and Hermione. But their tentative romance had been ruined.

Later that evening, Hermione looked over at Ron from her bed. At least he had been willing to come on the trip with her, and to share a room as they had during the quest. Maybe they could get together again, but it would be slow, and Hermione had to concentrate on the bigger problem now, of finding and rescuing her parents.

The next morning, the pair caught a taxi through the streets of Sydney to the offices of Newcomers Limited. Ron insisted that Hermione handle the "Muggle money" and pay the cabbie – which was silly, because Australian dollars were as foreign to Hermione as they were to Ron. But she kept her mouth shut about that trivial complaint.

Hermione walked up to the counter of the agency. "Hello, my name is Hermione Granger. I'm looking for Mrs. Wendell Wilkins."

"What is your connection to the couple?" said the lady clerk. She had what Hermione considered a Cockney accent. Most wizards at Hogwarts, except for Hagrid and a few students like Seamus from Ireland, talked or acquired RP British.

She couldn't very well say that she was their daughter. "I'm a, ah, cousin." Hermione did not lie very well.

"We promise our clients some confidentiality. Can you prove the relationship?"

Hermione muttered something about having left the documents at home, and retreated back to stand with Ron. "Damn, I didn't anticipate this. What'll I do?" Harry had mentioned a trick Dumbledore used once, showing a blank piece of paper and hexing the Muggle into reading things into it. He had learned the trick from somebody who called himself The Doctor. But Harry was in the British Isles, Dumbledore was dead, and Hermione had no idea how to find Doctor Who-ever.

Ron had been thinking along different lines. "I suppose we'll do what we always did at Hogwarts. Wait until nightfall, and break into the files."

Hermione had to suppress a chuckle at Ron's bluntness. "I suppose so. We better scout out the place first, then."

She looked around the room, trying not to seem too curious. Her attention was drawn to a tall blonde woman who was staring back at them. Her hair was drawn into two large buns.

Hermione turned to her companion. "Ron," she whispered, "do you see the lady with the Princess Leia hairdo?"

"The what?"

"The two things at the side of her head." Hermione had to remember that Ron didn't get most Muggle references. Maybe when this was all done with, she'd persuade him to go to the cinema with her.

"Oh, yeah. Why?"

"Two things. First, no Muggle woman would be caught dead in a hairdo like that. It's like some of the weird getups wizards use to pass themselves off as Muggles."

"But you said there weren't many wizards in Australia."

"Exactly, that's why I'm suspicious. Number two, she was staring at us."

"And number three," said Ron, "she's running away."

Hermione turned to see the woman disappear through the office's entry door. She dashed after the suspicious woman – and found herself in an empty hallway. The woman was nowhere in sight.

Had she slipped very quickly through another door? Or, if she was a witch, had she teleported out? And had she heard Ron's remark about breaking in?

This was getting to be a lot more complicated than Hermione anticipated.

TO BE CONTINUED

(Author's Note: the story about Harry and Hermione giving in to sexual temptation during the quest is from a previous story of mine, ALL ALONE IN THE WORLD. The magic blank document was used in HALF-BLOOD PRINCE but was originally invented on DOCTOR WHO, where it is known as the "Psychic Paper". And I'm using that idea without permission, too)