Chapter nineteen.

Hermione awoke the next morning to a freezing cold breeze… Alice's charm seemed to have worn off over the night and in the bed next to hers lay the Australian, belly down and snoring her head off. Her hair was wet as well, so it seemed like she had gotten up to have a shower as well, but had collapsed, asleep, on her bed as soon as she got back; she had yet to get dressed for the day and was instead under the layers of colourful jumpers that she had worn the other day, as well as various sizes and knits of socks and track pants.

She sighed and got up, stretching before reaching over to shake her, "Come on, we have to get ready now," she said feeling slightly ridiculous to be saying that to another fully grown woman and not as a teenager still at school.

Alice waved a hand and burrowed even deeper into her pillow, "Can't. It's night. Have to sleep." She mumbled and Hermione frowned.

"No, its morning, which means you have to get up and help the unfortunate students of Hogwarts who decide it's a great idea to not listen during class and end up with a tea kettle for a head!"

"SLEEP!" she moaned.

"I'll get Potter and Malfoy in here to wake you up!"

"UGH! You're like a nagging mother sometimes Granger… You know that right?"

"I have heard that on a frequent basis, Fletcher, as a matter of fact."
"Not frequent enough," muttered Alice.

"What was that?"

"Nuthin'"

The two witches silently dressed for the day, Hermione in the bathroom after a shower and Alice in their shared room.

Hermione knocked on the door to signify her presence before coming in. She walked through the door and raised an eyebrow, "Don't you have a nurses uniform?"

Alice blushed, "They told me they didn't have anything available, so to just wear the uniform I had at my other job. That job was a medic in the Australian Air Force; Magical Division, so… this is it."

Alice was wearing some warm blue slacks and a crisp light blue, short-sleeved blouse with rank slides, showing the National Coat of Arms, and some badges, shaped like guns, presumably to show her proficiency. Her black shoes had a high shine to them and over the top she was hauling a black jacket. She only had to put on some aviators to complete the image of an Air Force Officer, Hermione thought.

"I didn't realise that there was a Magical Division in any Armed Forces, anywhere."

"I'm one of those…I think you call them Unspeakables here… Anyway, we have to protect our homelands and the Commonwealth(1). We're like a specialised part of the Government, a point of mixture between Muggles and Wizards."

Hermione looked amazed, "I never realised there was a place in the world where that could happen! You know, apart from the work links between the Muggle Prime Minister and the Minister of Magic."

Alice shrugged uneasily, "It has to, there is only a small wizarding community in our part of the world, in fact, there are only two communities; one in Wellington and another in the Chinatown of Sydney. Overall, for all of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the surrounding islands like Vanuatu, there is only one Magic school; The Australian School of Magic. And as there aren't many jobs you can get as a witch or wizard Down Under, we get jobs in relations with muggles, or move overseas." She grinned cheekily.

"As a matter of fact, that's how I became a part of the Air Force, a group of us decided to sneak out one Friday night and we came across the cadets recruiting and decided to join for a couple of laughs. When we got back, the teachers had already discovered where we'd gone and what we'd done, as you can tell, we hadn't quite mastered the art of sneakiness yet,'

Hermione hid a grin as she remembered all the times she, Ron and Harry had snuck around under the invisibility cloak,

'And they decided that we were to continue doing that as an extra-curriculum thing.' She shrugged, 'They then signed up the whole Knoking teams as well so we could discover how muggles flew without brooms!"

"What on Earth is Knoking?"

Alice looked shocked "You…you don't have Knoking? Oh!' she gasped, 'I forgot! You call it something like Quid-ditching – Quidditik - "

"Quidditch?"

"That's the one!"

"So, being raised in Australia-"

"I wasn't raised in Australia."

"But-"

"How many Irish and Scottish did you know who went here?"

"Well, there isn't an Irish or Scottish School of Magic!"

"And there isn't a New Zealand School of Magic either. Besides! The Australian and New Zealand accents are completely different! Like-like the difference between a British accent and a Scottish one! COMPLETELY different! I honestly don't see how people get them mixed up!"

"But, you said you worked in Australia!"

"Yeah, but I belong to the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. The Anzacs. Which means both Australia and New Zealand. I just happen to be based in Australia at the moment."

"So… You're not Australian?"

Alice blushed as she turned around and started grabbing the things she'd bring to the hospital wing. "That's not strictly true, I'm half Australian. My dad was an Aussie and so my grandma got me an Aussie citizenship, even though I don't need one, being a kiwi an' all. I – I think that's why they want me to marry the 'Great Harry Potter'."

Hermione frowned as she too, began getting the things she'd need during the day, "What – What do you mean?"

"Well, everyone else is partnered due to compatibility and when the letter is opened, a spell is put on them to induce an increased attraction at every time of contact. With me… I'm one of the few people who are both New Zealand and Australian, and out of the few, am one of the females.

'So they did that so Britain's hero would be equally joined to the two countries, morally and thus strengthen the relations, socially, between Mother England and her southern colonies. And out of the three half Australian and half New Zealand girls, the one was in a serious relationships that resulted in marriage, even before the Marriage Law and the other was a muggle-born, meaning she had to marry a Pureblood.

'So, I was left. They didn't even bother to see if we were compatible, they were as behind schedule as it was. They just… packed me up and sent me here. For everyone else, it's not a business arrangement and they are set up with the best partner they could ask for. For me… It's an arranged marriage."

1 The Commonwealth of Nations, often called just the Commonwealth, is an association of 53 independent nations, all but one of which are former British colonies or related dependencies, aiming to promote peace, democracy and development. There are substantial economic ties and a shared history. These include Australia, New Zealand and Canada.