The owl arrives on a Thursday morning in late April. Hermione is in Dover with Harry and Ron when she sees the unfamiliar brown owl. The boys are bathing in the river near their campsite. She can hear them splashing and catches brief snorts of laughter occasionally. The laughter never lasts on. She doesn’t have to be with them to know that Harry looks guilty and Ron runs his fingers through his hair when they realize they’re laughing. She’s seen it often enough in the last nine months, after all.

When she sees the bird approach, she’s instantly on guard. They don’t receive communication in the traditional sense of the word now, not since their search began. There is a reason she spent most of last June studying advanced Charms texts to learn how to conceal them, to protect them, and to make them untraceable. The very fact that an owl has found them, somehow, worries her.

The bird gets closer and she points her wand at it, ready to strike if necessary. For a brief moment, she considers killing it just in case it’s a danger, but, in the end, she can’t bring herself to do so. It offers her its foot, and she sees her name written neatly across the scroll of parchment tied precisely with a small blue ribbon. Before she takes it, she casts several charms to ensure that it’s not cursed, hexed, or some sort of portkey.

Once she’s certain it’s safe, she takes the scroll and unrolls it to read. The letter is brief, the handwriting firm and leaning slightly to the right, and the signature shocking.

Miss Granger,

Please meet me in the gardens at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent, tonight at ten. Come alone and do not tell anyone about our meeting.

Cordially,

Percy I. Weasley

The very idea that Percy Weasley has sent her an owl is surprising enough, though she must admit that he’s one of the few who could probably manage to break the charms she’s cast, but the mention of a meeting and her going alone is ridiculously dramatic. It sounds as if he’s read too many spy novels, which she knows isn’t possible since he’s not the type. However, the fact that he spoke so sparsely and got straight to the point, something she doesn’t often associate with him, makes her take the owl more seriously.

Before she can analyze it much further, the boys return from their bath. She hears them on the path and quickly sends the owl on its way with a hastily scrawled ‘Yes’ on a corner of the parchment she received. The letter from Percy is rolled up and hidden before Harry and Ron reach her. By the time they stumble into the clearing, she has a map out and is going over their route for the day.