Disclaimer - The usual. I don't own Harry Potter.
Author's Note - He He He! We find out Harry's fiancee and meet the ANZAC... And, I don't have anything else written and will be away camping...Therefore, this will be the last chapter I will be posting until next week. So, unless you (for some crazy reason) actually like what I've written and read it, then I'm sorry. For everyone else, this probably won't affect you in any way, but I hope you enjoy it regardless!
Chapter sixteen.
"Oh, okay, will do." Hermione said to McGonagall as she entered her common room that evening, leaving her outside. She turned around to find Harry accosting her and waving a letter around.
"They've finally told me my fiancée and I don't know her! 'Mione, what am I gonna do?" he raced around the room frantically. Draco gracefully extracted himself from the couch.
"Well, now that you're here Granger, I can now successfully go to bed with out having to worry about the Boy Wonder doing himself in. Good night."
Hermione nodded back absentmindedly as she watched Harry go around in circles, blathering and on the verge of tears.
"Merlin Harry! Your reaction is worst than mine, and I have to marry Malfoy!"
This stopped him and he turned to her sheepishly and collapsed on the couch with sad puppy dog eyes.
"I'm sorry 'Mione."
She sighed, feeling guilty that she had exploded at him like that. The boy had been raised with no love in his life and had a very poor example of how a family was supposed to live like and love. He was just beginning to enjoy life and discover the wonders he had risked his neck to save and now he was going to be forced into a marriage. Not only that, but from his upbringing he had no idea of how to treat a woman like a wife without living in fear that he'd become his Uncle Dursley.
"No, Harry, I'm sorry. You wanna talk 'bout it?"
He shook his head dejectedly and Hermione sighed.
"You know I'll always be here for you and if you have any doubts or don't know what to do, come to me."
He smiled, "That's why you're my best man."
She smiled back at him, "Yeah. Now, tell me about her."
He looked guiltily at her, "Um…I only now her name…"
"So, read the letter!"
"Oh yeah!" He glanced down and read the pages, stopped, frowned, then read the pages again.
Harry looked at Hermione, confusion written all over his features.
"Apparently, she's like, 2 years older than me and is…here?"
Hermione looked startled, "Here? Where 'here'?"
"Um…' Harry glanced down at the letter from the Ministry in front of him, 'the hospital wing."
His eyes widened and were almost comical, if it wasn't for the concern for the stranger Hermione saw in there, and was sure were echoed in her eyes too.
"The hospital wing?"
"I-I should probably check on her…"
"Well, look on the bright side, at least it isn't Pansy Parkinson or Ginny!"
Harry shifted uncomfortably.
"Oh my Gosh! Is she?"
"NO! but, she is a complete stranger, I've never heard her name before…ever."
"Just because you're Harry Potter, doesn't mean that you know everyone."
"No…But she is a Pureblood and it says she's from one of the Ancient Families, but… I've never come across the name in any of the social circles."
Hermione frowned, "Well, lets check on her first, who knows what's happened."
Harry hesitated and then nodded before following her out of the portrait door.
"Now, where did I- Oh, yeah! But, that means that that isn't there…So where did I…?"
A thick lilting Australian (or was it New Zealand…) accent came through the thick doors leading into the hospital wing and Harry looked surprised at Hermione.
Hermione looked startled too, for a moment, before recovering and leaned in to whisper in Harry's ear, "I think that's the new nurse, apparently she's an ANZAC and came over to help fight, if your fiancée is in there, she may know what's happened."
Harry's eyebrows rose at this knowledge and he pushed the door open slightly and peeked in. He gasped, brought his head back in quickly and slammed the door shut, before leaning against it and groaning, the sound muffled by her soft humming and rustling of things.
"It's her! That gorgeous girl that I've had a crush on for years without knowing her name is the new nurse! And now I have to marry someone else!"
Hermione gasped and squealed softly, grinning, "Really? Oh! I can't wait to meet her!" Hermione's hand reached for the door and Harry grabbed it, panic in his eyes.
She rolled hers. "Honestly Harry, I'm going to meet her sooner or later."
Harry had the decency to blush and he let go of her hand. Hermione opened the hospital wing doors to find… no-one in there.
"Hello?"
"Oh! Hang on a tick! I'll be right with ya!" the Australian's (or New Zealander's) voice rang out from the far end of the room. She emerged from behind a screen, covered in multiple layers of colourful jumpers, highlighting her alabaster white skin. She looked to be a couple of years younger than them, with an air of sweet naivety, she had bright blonde hair and her eyes were a soft, muted green, going on an almost gold-ish colour, unlike Harry's piercing emerald ones, but held the same dancing spirit and looked like nothing could get past her. She saw them and immediately relaxed.
"Whew! I was worried for a minute that you guys were my fiancé and his mates!"
Harry frowned, "And seeing your fiancé is bad because…?"
"Well, it's bad if you've never met him before! I got caught up in this stupid Marriage Law too… That stupid Minister of yours decided to exert all the power he had and demand that the Commonwealth countries have the same law put in place. And from what I can tell, my fiancé is a big wig around here, probably in the Wizengamot, or something…So, not looking forward to meeting him!" She finished with an annoyed look on her face.
Hermione snorted, "I know what you mean! I have to marry Draco bloody Malfoy, an absolute pain in the arse!"
"He's not that bad."
"Ugh, trust you to say that, Harry! Of all people you had to forgive and become best mates with!"
"So, what can I help you with?"
"Oh, We're here to see Harry's fiancée, apparently she's been placed in here."
The Healer shook her head slowly, "No… no-one's been booked in here, not even the students, I've just been re-arranging my things."
Harry looked exasperated, "Then where's my fiancée?"
"Well, what does she look like?"
"I don't know! I've never even heard of her!"
"Well, what's her name then?" the witch asked, annoyed that they weren't getting anywhere, her hands on her hips as she glared at Harry, who glared right back. Hermione looked on, amused, she, of course, already knew who Harry's fiancée was, but was enjoying the argument too much.
"Alice Fletcher!"
The Healer looked surprised, before frowning in concentration. She looked up, eyes narrowed.
"Did you say your name was Harry?' suddenly asked the Australian witch (or New Zealand…hell, maybe even South African! Harry could never get which accent came from where, those three accents all sounded the same to him and the majority of the world, but if you ask an Aussie if they're a Kiwi or vice versa, they'd be hell to pay!), her face paled and her hands fell to her sides, 'as in Harry Potter?"
Harry felt his heart drop, seems like she's just another rabid fan girl too, he glared at her and nodded tightly.
The witch groaned, "Bloody Hell! So you're the one I have to marry! So, how important are you that I get dragged from Australia to live with you and 'improve relations' between our countries?"
Hermione and Harry looked startled, "You mean, you don't know who I am?" he asked, disbelieving.
"I know your name's Harry Potter, you're tall and have black hair. You wear glasses, trained as an…Auror, probably, and were raised by muggles. But that's it." She said quickly, her eyes running critically over him. Hermione smiled. She liked this girl.
"If you know all that, then you must know who I am."
She looked at him strangely, "No…that's called observation. You said your name was Harry Potter, you're standing in front of me, so the tall, black hair and glasses are a no-brainer and so is the job of an Auror, only a couple of professions require top physique and the fact that your wand was in a standard holster was a dead give away."
Hermione looked at her curiously, "What about the raised by muggles part?"
"Apart from the fact that I'm a Pureblood and he obviously has to be a Half-blood or a Muggleborn? The fact that he… well, neither of you, asked me what the Commonwealth was."
The two looked at her strangely. "What? And you never answered my question, who the hell are you and why are you so bloody brilliant?"
Harry blushed and cleared his throat, "I've survived the killing curse, about two times now…"
The Australian witch…well, Alice, snorted, "That's it?"
Hermione gaped at her, "What do you mean 'That's it?' That's never happened before!"
Alice smiled sheepishly, "It's just… I've heard so many stories of people who've claimed to have survived the killing curse, that… its kinda old news and harder to believe than if you've never heard of it before…Know what I mean?"
"What do you do in Australia?"
"Not much. Keep going, sorry I interrupted you."
"And I'm the one who defeated Voldemort and am currently one of the wealthiest people in the world."
"Huh, so that's why that girl fainted when I said you were my fiancé. Interesting." Alice mused, before she turned towards the nearest window and opened it, letting in a blast of cold night air.
Harry glared at her, "Are you crazy?"
She glared back defensively, "No, I'm just used to having all the windows open, that's all. Fresh air 'll do you no harm."
He narrowed his eyes at her and flicked his wand at the offending window, causing it to close and he smiled at her triumphantly.
Alice's left eye twitched and she breathed deeply in and out, muttered an incantation that neither Harry nor Hermione had heard before, but seemed to be a type of full body binding spell. Harry completely froze, and as he didn't know the spell, he didn't know the reversal either, so he – The-Boy-Who-Lived and The-Man-Who-Defeated – was stuck. Alice smirked at him and then opened the window again. Hermione beamed, "That was amazing! I've never seen another person take down Harry except for me! Oh, and old Voldy, well, not really Voldemort, seeing as he's dead…Okay, just me."
The Australian beamed back, "He wasn't expecting it and he didn't know the spell, so I think it worked in a clear favour to me."
"I'll say! How many other spells do you know?"
Alice raised an eyebrow and looked at her disbelieving, "…If I asked you that, what would you say?"
Hermione blushed, "I meant, spells that we obviously don't know."
"Well-" the two witches walked through a door charmed to look like a wall and into the back room, leaving a frozen Harry Potter in a freezing room.