Beth looked down at her half-eaten plate of spaghetti and tried to hold back her tears. She could feel Auntie Em's eyes on her as she watched her across the dinner table, gauging her reaction to the news. She twirled her fork in her noodles and wished that Auntie Em would stop rapidly bouncing her leg as she always did when she was nervous or excited.

"I know this would be a huge change," Auntie Em began, but Beth's tears began to spill down her cheeks, and she set her fork onto her plate with a clatter and bolted from the table.

"Beth!" Auntie Em called after her, rising from her own chair.

Beth ran up the stairs to her bedroom and slammed the door behind her. Once inside, she leapt onto her unmade bed and slid under the blankets. Once the comforter was safely pulled over her head, she sobbed silently, hoping her aunt wouldn't hear her on the other side of the door.

Auntie Em's soft footsteps came closer as she walked up the stairs and stopped in front of Beth's door on the landing. She knocked hesitantly, but Beth only burrowed deeper under the covers. She felt a fuzzy lump next to her, reached out to grab it, and clutched the stuffed Eeyore to her chest.

"Beth, please come out," her aunt pleaded.

"Go away!" she shouted, her voice muffled by the blankets and a fresh onset of sobs.

She heard Auntie Em sigh, followed by the sound of her footsteps fading away from her door and down the stairs. This only made Beth feel more abandoned, and she sobbed until she had no tears left. Exhausted, she had almost drifted into a restless sleep when she heard the front door open and the low murmur of Auntie Em's voice downstairs. She crawled out from under her covers and sat up straight, straining her ears to hear more. Auntie Em thanked someone, the front door closed again, and all was silent. Beth swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood quietly, still clutching Eeyore to her side. Suddenly she felt childish and set him back on her bed before walking carefully to the door and turning the knob slowly so as not to make any noise. Beth cracked the door open and, when she saw that the coast was clear, she slipped outside and crept to the top of the landing.

Auntie Em sat in the recliner in the living room, her head in her hands. As Beth watched, she sighed and stood, then sat again and reached for the telephone on the coffee table in front of her. She cradled it between her shoulder and her ear as she dialed, twirling the cord with her fingers.

"Hey, Maggie," she said, her voice tired. "Can you talk right now?" She paused, and Beth sat on the top stair and slid down two more, wondering how close she could get before her aunt realized that she was there.

"Yeah, I told her," Auntie Em continued. "I'm not sure I made the right decision," she said, pressing the palm of her free hand against her forehead and continuing to wind and unwind the cord around her index finger. "I…" She stopped, and Beth froze, having just ventured down two more stairs. Her aunt turned and saw her, now almost halfway down the staircase, and spoke quickly into the telephone. "Maggie, I'm sorry, I'll have to call you back." She hung up and un-twirled her finger from the cord.

"Hey, Beth," she said, and Beth sat still, not sure whether to race back to her room or to face her aunt. "Want some hot chocolate? I want some hot chocolate," Auntie Em said, and she got up from her chair and went to the kitchen. "I know hot chocolate won't actually make it better," she called as though sensing Beth's thoughts, "but I need some right now, and I'll bet you do, too." Beth heard the refrigerator open and shut, a spoon clank as Auntie Em stirred the chocolate mix into the milk, and the microwave buzz for about a minute before her aunt emerged from the kitchen with two steaming mugs.

"Here," she said, and, seeing that Beth had not moved from her position, climbed the stairs to sit next to her before handing her the drink in her favorite mug.

Beth took it by the handle and sipped. She tasted peppermint, just as she liked it, and she mustered a watery smile. Auntie Em put an arm around her shoulders comfortingly, and Beth leaned against her chest.

"I don't want to move to England," she said, her voice muffled.

"I know," Auntie Em sighed as she stroked her hair. "I know."

"Isn't this great? Oh, I've missed this!" Auntie Em exclaimed excitedly as she opened the door to their new apartment, or "flat," as Auntie Em said the British called it. Beth yawned as she dragged her suitcase behind her, and Auntie Em flitted from room to room. "This one's yours!" she called from around the corner, and Beth followed her voice to a small, nearly empty bedroom. "It'll feel just like home as soon as we get all your things in here," she said in response to Beth's hesitant expression.

She sat down on her suitcase and looked around the room as Auntie Em continued to buzz around the flat. There was a window above the bed that lay against one wall, and a tall wardrobe rested against the wall to the right.

"I wish my wardrobe was a magic door," Beth thought, and impulsively she hopped up and ran to open it, just in case, but the wardrobe was empty, and the back was not a door, as she had hoped. Disappointed, and feeling somewhat silly for being disappointed, she jumped onto the bed and stared out the window, resting her chin on the windowsill. She wished she could see her old neighborhood outside instead of the foreign one that was in front of her. She hugged her Eeyore to her chest, but he only made her feel more homesick, and she set him on the windowsill next to her. As she looked out the window, she saw a plump figure dressed entirely in mustard yellow and wearing an oddly pointed hat over her curly gray hair walking down the street past her window. Curious, she craned her neck to see as far as she could out of her window, but the woman had disappeared from view. Moments later, someone knocked on the door, and Beth ran to see if it was the woman whom she had seen from her window.

She opened the door breathlessly, and the woman beamed at her.

"Why, hello, dear! Are you Elisabeth Pierce?" she asked.

Beth nodded, her eyes wide.

"Oh, good! I have something for you," she said, and she reached into the billowy sleeve of her dress and retrieved an envelope. "Have you heard of Hogwarts, my dear?" she asked kindly as she handed the letter to Beth.

Beth shook her head. "Hogwarts" sounded strange even for England, but she was excited that someone had sent her a letter before she had even been there for a whole day. She tore the envelope eagerly and opened the folded piece of paper inside. It read as follows:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Miss Pierce,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted

at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of

all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1.

We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

"I can go to a magic school?" she asked excitedly once she had read it.

"Can and should!" the woman answered.

"Beth, who are you talking to?" Auntie Em asked as she rounded the corner. "Professor Sprout!" she exclaimed, and much to Beth's confusion, she rushed to the strange woman, and the two embraced. "Come in, come in!" She ushered Professor Sprout inside. "I'd offer you a cup of tea, but as you can see, we haven't quite settled in yet."

"Quite all right," Professor Sprout said. "I was just telling young Elisabeth here about Hogwarts," she continued, once again smiling at Beth kindly.

"Hogwarts? Beth? Oh my god!" Auntie Em exclaimed. Comprehension dawned as she looked back and forth between Professor Sprout and the letter that Beth held in her hand, and she rushed to Beth and hugged her.

"Does...does that mean I can go? Beth said cautiously when Auntie Em released her. She had been preparing to shout or pout her way to permission, and had not at all expected an instantaneous "yes."

"Of course you can go! Your Uncle Eddie was a wizard. He went to Hogwarts, too. But Pomona, I didn't think...we just moved here...how…?" She turned back to Professor Sprout.

"She was on the list for Ilvermorny when we got the news that you were coming back to England and bringing her with you," Professor Sprout answered.

"Oh, Beth, I'm so happy for you!" Auntie Em hugged her again, but Beth wiggled her way out of the embrace.

"I didn't know Uncle Eddie was a wizard! Tell me about Hogwarts! And what's Ilvermorny?" she asked excitedly.

"Ilvermorny is the American version of Hogwarts, and Hogwarts is one of the top wizarding schools in the world," Professor Sprout said. "There you will take classes like Charms, Potions, Herbology (my personal favorite), Transfiguration, and many more. You will learn to fly on a broom, if you wish, and once you turn seventeen you will be able to Apparate. In short, you will learn the ways of magic and the magical world, and you will become an excellent witch someday," she finished.

"But what does…" Beth began hesitantly, feeling silly for not understanding what most of those things meant, but Auntie Em caught her eye and mouthed, "I'll explain everything," so she nodded.

Professor Sprout continued. "Soon, you should go to Diagon Alley and purchase your school supplies. There should be a list in there," she said, pointing to the envelope that Beth had dropped to the floor in her excitement, and Beth picked it up and took out a piece of paper that she had noticed in her initial hurry to see the letter. "You'll have a new list of books to buy every year, but you'll only have to get your wand once, assuming nothing happens to it, and...well, you'll have to ask your aunt about your owl." She and Beth both looked to Auntie Em, who laughed.

"We'll deal with that when we get to Diagon Alley," she said.

"Well, then, I think I'll let your aunt explain the rest. And I trust Eddie showed you the way to Diagon Alley?" Professor Sprout asked, and Auntie Em nodded.

"If we have any trouble, I'll let you know," she said. "Do you have many more kids to visit today?"

Professor Sprout nodded. "I had to see you the moment I knew your niece had been accepted and that she was on my list of Muggleborns to visit," she said, "but I had best be off. Goodbye, Em, it was so good to see you!"

"You too!" Auntie Em said, embracing her quickly once more.

Professor Sprout smiled, and with that, she bustled out the door, looked around to make sure that no one was watching, spun on her heel, and vanished with a crack.

"And that, Beth, is how you Apparate. I so wish I could do that," Auntie Em sighed.

"What's Diagon Alley? I get a wand? And an owl? And what were those classes? Did you go to Hogwarts, too?" Beth asked. Her excitement had not stopped growing since she had heard the word "magic," and everything that Professor Sprout had said had only prompted a flurry of more questions in her mind.

Auntie Em laughed. "Yes, you get a wand, and maybe an owl. Our landlord might frown upon that. Diagon Alley is where you'll get both those things, along with your books. No, I didn't go to Hogwarts, but your Uncle Eddie told me all about it. As far as I understand, those classes…"

They spent the rest of the day unpacking as much as they could, with Beth asking questions and Auntie Em answering them as best she could. Beth went to bed that night exhausted but happy, and she stared at the ceiling for a long time before going to sleep.

"I'm going to Hogwarts. I'm going to learn magic," she thought happily, hugging her Eeyore to her. Maybe moving wasn't so bad after all.

*Note: I've tried and tried, but no matter what I do, the formatting is all wonky. Apologies!