I always loved the summer holidays and, like most kids, I never wanted them to end. But, on the year of my eleventh birthday, I wished the holidays would last forever. My parents weren't the richest and, consequently, I had been enrolled in one of the cheaper, smaller, local schools since the age of four. However, my primary school days were over, and, after the summer, I was to go to a comprehensive high school not far from our town. I had only ever been in St. Augustine's once in my life, and the first impressions hadn't been great. The classrooms were big, but they will still crowded with furniture, the corridors were covered in graffiti nobody could be bothered to clean and I didn't dare look in the bathrooms for fear of what could be lurking there.
With just over a month before the start of term, fear was beginning to ruin my holidays.
"You'll be fine, Anna; you'll make friends." Mum would say as she combed her fingers through my dark auburn hair. I didn't believe her, even though I wished with all my heart that she was right.
On the morning of the 21st of July, I woke up early and rushed into our small living room and jumped straight into Daddy's arms.
"Happy Birthday, Baby." He kissed my nose which never failed to make me giggle. Mum beamed as she carried a plate of warm bacon rolls through the door and balanced them on the small oak coffee table which was already littered with colourfully wrapped boxes and parcels.
"You can open them now if your want." Daddy chuckled as I eyed the presents hungrily.
The first box I ripped to shreds was a stationary kit, (boring,) but my grandparents had given me a pretty little jewellery box, my cousins had sent me a novel and a bracelet, and several of my friends had sent some DVDs. But my favourite present, by far, was the last I opened; the gift from my parents. It was a small, delicate silver necklace with a little silver teddy bear hanging from the chain.
"It's so beautiful," I whispered as I stroked the tiny teddy gently with my finger.
"Come here." Mum smiled as she expertly fastened the chain around my neck.
Happiness bubbled in my chest like an over-excited dog and the window blew open in a non-existent wind, causing the curtains to dance madly.
"I love you." I kissed my parents on the cheek in turn, pretending not to notice the magical phenomenon, before running to the door at the sound of the mail hitting the doormat.
"Thank you, Mr Postman!" I shouted through the letterbox.
"You're welcome, Anna!" he called back.
As I gathered the collection of brightly coloured envelopes up off the floor, I swear I heard the hoot of an owl, but I must have imagined it, as owls only came out at night.
I easily separated the birthday cards from the boring letters by picking out the plain white envelopes and handing them to Mum when I went back to the living room.
"Anna," Mum smiled, "You missed one." She put one of the letters onto the coffee table with the rest of my cards. I stared at the emerald green writing on the envelope until curiosity got the better of me. It had been sealed the old fashioned way; with wax, and the papers inside the envelope felt more like parchment. I pulled out the letter and read it aloud to my equally curious parents.
"Dear Miss West,
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."
I glanced up at Mum and Dad quickly in disbelief before continuing.
"Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31."
I skimmed back through the letter and read the last sentence.
"As your parents are Muggles, a member of the Ministry of Magic should be arriving shortly to explain the situation."
"What's a Muggle?" Daddy whispered as I pulled out the second sheet of parchment. It was a list of all the equipment I, apparently, needed.
A cauldron, three sets of robes, a cloak, a wand; was this some kind of joke? And what was the Ministry of Magic? I'd never even heard of such a thing.
My parents told me to forget about it for the time being, but, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't and, I could tell, that neither could they. Still, I went back to my room and got dressed and pretended that nothing unusual had happened. But it became increasing difficult to ignore the presence of the letter when, while I was pulling on my favourite red hoodie, my Mum yelped in shock and the apology of a man I didn't know drifted through my bedroom door.
"I am terribly sorry, but I couldn't get here any other way." The man stood in the middle of the living room wearing an official looking suit. He was an older man with balding ginger hair and a kind smile.
"My name is Arthur Weasley," the man shook my parents hands in turn, "I'm a representative from the Ministry of Magic and I understand your daughter has recently received her Hogwarts letter."
Mum and Dad nodded silently as they sank into the sofa while Mr Weasley began his explanation. I wasn't paying much attention to the conversation, for, at one point, Mr Weasley had taken a wand out of his pocket and flicked it at the mess of wrapping papers left on the coffee table and made them fly into the bin. It wasn't until he spoke directly to me that I snapped out of my bewildered trance.
"My granddaughter, Lily, is starting this year too. I promised her mother I'd take her and the boys shopping sometime in August, would you all like to come?"
My parents still looked a little shocked but nodded gratefully.
"And of course, my wife and I would be more than happy to see Anna safely to the station on September the first."
Mr Weasley smiled at me warmly before he stepped through the fireplace and disappeared in a flash of green flames.
I woke up the following morning believing it was all a dream and was surprisingly disappointed, but then I noticed the letter from Hogwarts lying innocently on my desk. Dad acted as if yesterday had been nothing but a very vivid dream, but Mum seemed more dazed and confused. Nobody said anything about Hogwarts or magic for weeks and, eventually, even I forgot about it at times. It wasn't until one quiet Tuesday morning in early August that my parents were forced to accept that what had happened on my birthday was no hallucination when I opened the front door to Mr Weasley's beaming smile.
"Hello Anna, are you and your parents ready?"
"Sorry, Mr Weasley," I smiled back at him awkwardly, "We forgot, but it won't take long to sort ourselves out." I stepped on the side and invited him in. To my relief, my parents greeted Mr Weasley like an old friend and before I knew it, I was sitting in the unusually spacious backseat of a car Mr Weasley said he'd hired for the Ministry.
"Molly's meeting us with the kids at the Leaky Cauldron." He explained as the car sped dangerously fast along the road to London.
"Can't they see us?" I questioned when the driver of a car we almost collided with failed to look panicked.
Mr Weasley chuckled, "No, they can't; this car's got a shielding enchantment on it."
I soon guessed that the car was enchanted with much more than a single shielding charm when we arrived in London a lot earlier than we'd expected. Mr Weasley led the way through a dark pub full of people in pointy hats and robes and into a slightly brighter bed-and-breakfast style cafe. A dumpy woman with greying ginger hair waddled over with three children at her heels and introduced herself as Molly Weasley to my parents. The two boys behind her both looked older than me. Both boys seemed irritated and tired and their messy, jet-black hair couldn't have been combed properly that morning. The girl was almost the exact opposite of her brothers; she had long, fiery orange hair that she'd tied back into a loose ponytail. Her bright brown eyes sparkled with excitement as she rushed forward to introduce herself.
"Hi, I'm Lily." She smiled and her whole face glowed with joy.
"I'm Anna." I smiled back.
"And that's my brothers, Albus and James," Lily explained, "Albus is thirteen and James is fourteen," she pointed at the two boys in turn, "And I'm eleven."
"Me too."
I giggled with Lily as James received a stern glare from his grandmother for yawning too loudly.
"Okay kids," Mr Weasley patted me gently on the back as he spoke, "let's go shopping."
"James!" Mrs Weasley warned as the older boy aimed a kick at Albus. Lily stifled another giggle as our little party worked its way to a blank wall at the back of the pub.
Mr Weasley pulled out his wand and tapped random bricks until they moved, by themselves, into an arch.
"Welcome to Diagon Alley, Anna." Lily whispered.