30 July, Friday, 2338 BST
Hermione had stood up to stretch as she waited in the ER waiting room when the familiar Eagle owl swiftly swooped in and out of the Muggle hospital. The few doctors and concerned visitors in the waiting room ducked as the bird flew quickly through the ER doors. Hermione was the only one that wasn't phased.
In fact, she inconspicuously caught the beige envelope that the owl had flicked her way. She, too, watched the bird fly out of the waiting area.
"Holy crap," Nurse Rodriguez exclaimed. "What the hell was that?"
"I think it was an owl," Hermione said, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.
"What the bloody hell kind of owl comes swooping into a building like that?" the nurse asked.
"I don't know," Hermione answered, tucking the envelope farther into the pocket of her doctor's coat. "I think I'm going to make my rounds."
Hermione blew out a breath as she headed down the hallway after excusing herself. She would wait another three hours before she would open the post.
o-o-o
31 July, Saturday, 0318 BST
She sat on one of the cots in the doctor's lounge to take her allotted one-hour nap. She took in a breath as she looked at the front of the envelope. She lay down on the cot as she stared at the return address: Professor Draco Malfoy, First Year Potions, Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Dungeons, United Kingdom.
She pulled the parchment paper out of the envelope and smiled. She read the note, running a finger over the handwriting:
Dear Hermione,
I hope this post finds you well. It's been a whirlwind of an experience so far. Headmistress McGonagall met me at Hogsmeade Station. We rode the carriage into campus.
Professor Snape showed me to my Potions classroom, an adjacent room to our old one, if you can remember that. You know, the old professor's actually pretty brilliant and not as cynical as we thought he was when we were students.
Neville Longbottom's starting his second year as part of Professor Sprout's crew. He was on campus early as well. We actually hung out, if you can imagine that. We took a walk around the grounds.
The handful of us faculty that were here, had a nice dinner together in the Great Hall. The Head Table is amazing.
I finally got a chance to retire. The sleeping quarters are quite comfortable. I thought our Heads' rooms were quite nice. The teachers' quarters are just as cozy.
It's a quarter after eleven. My eyes are drooping. Thank Merlin that Professor Snape is allowing me the weekend to explore on my own before we continue with my orientation for the next month or so before the students come on campus. I think this is going to be an amazing experience.
Well, I'll let you get some rest. Hope my owl didn't scare you or put you in a precarious situation what with the division of Muggle and Wizarding Worlds. I already miss our evening talks on your days off. Goodnight, Hermione.
Your friend,
Draco
Hermione smiled as she yawned. She folded the letter and replaced it into the envelope. She took a deep breath as she held the envelope to her chest, shutting her eyes giving way to a catnap.
o-o-o
31 July, Saturday, 0830 BST
Hermione had grabbed one of the lined pads with the hospital's crest on it and quickly started putting pen to paper as she ate the spoonful of Honey Nut Cheerios she had gotten from the vending machine. She was surprised that she had gotten a letter from him that soon.
"Hey," Dr. Stacey Pazcer said as she entered the lounge heading for the coffee machine. "What are you doing?"
"Writing a letter to a friend," Hermione said as she continued to write.
"Wow, that's old school," the other doctor said as she took a sip from her cup. "There is such a thing as technology, Hermione; wireless, email, texting, Skype."
Hermione laughed as she wrote her closing to the letter. "Let's just say that my friend doesn't have access to tech."
"Is he stuck in the jungle or something?" the other doctor laughed.
"You could say that," Hermione said shrugging as she sealed the envelope and placed it in her coat, ready to be sent off. She placed her disposable bowl and spoon in the trash as they both heard the P.A. system call for Emergency Room personnel to head to the ER. They both shrugged as they exited the lounge.
o-o-o
31 July, Saturday, 1130 BST
In the "test" letter she had received from her parents during her first year at Hogwarts, they explained to her how the Muggle-Wizarding postal system worked or at least how it was explained to the room full of Muggle parents and guardians. The Muggle would place enough postage for a first class mailing (obviously because it was to be mailed within country; that is to say Hogwarts was still considered within British boundaries) and send it off through regular snail mail at the Muggle post office.
Then the Muggle and Wizarding postal liaisons would get to work. It would be sorted at the depot into the Wizarding pile on the Muggle side of the operation. These parcels were then handed over to the Wizarding side where they would be distributed by hundreds of postal owls that knew their destinations as soon as one placed a parcel into their possession.
So Hermione stood in the queue two persons deep at the Muggle post office two blocks from the hospital on her lunch break. As she got to the unmarked counter, she smiled at the postal worker who raised an eyebrow for a moment. He shrugged his shoulders and placed the envelope onto the stack of other parcels soon to be sent to Wizarding destinations.
o-o-o
Their correspondence would continue like this for the next couple of months. Hermione enjoyed hearing about the rigorous orientation Professor Snape had run him through even before the new batch of students arrived on campus. Once the school year began, she liked hearing about the new generation of Hogwarts students, the make up of the staff, and how his classes were progressing.
Once or twice, Hermione had the notion of telling him about the latest prognosis of her condition but thought better of it. 'It wasn't his problem, right,' she thought to herself.
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