-1The sound of laughter rang through the hot summer air, drifting over the still lake. The four girls collapsed in a tangle of limbs, sweat, and grass.

"Oh. My. God." the blonde panted for breath, brushing back her short fringe, knocking loose some grass which had gotten tangled there. "We have to do that again!"

"What, go and roll down that huge, big, grassy hill, squash each other and almost roll into the lake?" asked the ever sensible one. "I'm up for it! This time I'm aiming for the lake!" she leapt to her feet and dashed off, tripping over her own feet.

"Klutz!" one yelled after her jokingly. "Ah yes, cousin Klutz." she giggled, brushing back blue highlighted hair. "Lara wait up!" she yelled, chasing after her cousin.

The two left lying down got to their feet slowly, dusting themselves off, only to be knocked down once more by two rolling eleven year olds tumbling down the hill once more, covered in grass…and

SPLASH!

…ice cold lake water.

Lara leapt out the water like a cat who had been thrown in a bath, squealing madly and shivering. "NATALIE!" she screeched. She spun around in horror as she heard;

"THERES A LAKE MONSTER ON MY LEG!!! IT'S EATING MEEEEE!"

"That's me you loon!"

"Oh…"

"It's actually my hair, Vivi, but still…"

"Your hair is weird."

"I happen to like my red and black hair."

The pointless discussion continued while the two climbed out of the cold lake. That left three standing on the bank…one still missing.

"Cairis!" Lara looked around, frowning. "Where is she?"

"Lake!" Vivi shrieked and ran towards the water, Lara and Natalie hot on her tail.

Without pausing, Vivi dived into the water, and disappeared sight.

After a few tense moments of silence, nothing but the sound of water dripping off the two girls gripping hands, and onto the grass, a voice behind them said. "What cha doing?"

They spun around to see Cairis standing there with her lop sided hair cut, dry as a bone. Or a whistle.

"CAIRIS!!" Lara squealed and glomped her friend delighted to find her safe.

"What about Vivi?!" Natalie turned back to the lake and searched the surface, as if by glaring at it she could reveal her friend..

Just then Vivi surfaced. "I CAN'T FIND HER!" she sobbed, chocking beck tears. She swam to the edge and crawled out.

"Vivi…"

"I can still hear her voice in my head…" she sniffed.

"Vivi, I'm right here."

"I miss her so MUCH!" she howled. "I can still see her standing in the sun!"

"That's because I AM!!"

Vivi blinked. "Oh…OH!" She ran over and glomped the presumably 'drowned' friend.

"I th-think we should go home right about now. We're all wet-"

"I ain't!" Cairis waved from the ground, under Vivi's glomps.

"All but her." Lara gave her a dark look for making them all panic. "I would like very much to get dry."

"Agreed." the other two chimed in.

"Good. See ya'll later then!" Vivi jumped to her feet and dashed off to her house leaving the other three to say their goodbyes and head home.

The next morning, Vivi woke up, and slammed her fist down on the alarm clock at her bedside table and tugged the covers over her head, groaning.

Her mother pushed open the door. "MAIL CALL!" she roared, throwing a letter at her daughter's vague lump before slamming the door shut again.

Vivi gave a half-hearted grouching moan before sitting up, dragging the covers over her tousled hair and picking up the letter.

It was a yellow-ish parchment envelope, with the address written in hand on the front. Frowning, she flipped it over and saw a curious coat of arms; a lion set against red, a snake against green, a raven set against blue and a badger set against yellow, with a flowing banner at the bottom with Latin script, and a rather large 'H' splashed across the middle.

"That's cool." Vivi commented blearily before tossing it to one side and going to get some toast.

Else where that very same morning, Lara was sleeping in when her mother opened the door. The mum snuck up to her daughter's side and shook her gently. "Lara, wake up."

"What are you talking about? I don't have a cake!" she groaned, stirring from her dreams. "Sausages and bread please. And some glue."

Her mother ignored the nonsense, well used to it. "Lara I will burn your books if you don't get up now."

Lara shrieked and rolled off the bed, getting tangled in the covers.

"NOT THE BOOKS!" she screamed from her prison of purple fairy covered…covers "NOT MY BOOKS!"

"The books are safe now get me a cup of tea, and get the mail." she yawned and went off to the living room.

"Morning Wiya!" a childs voice came from the door.

"Morning Kyle." she sighed at the mispronunciation of her name, well used to it by now but it still irritated her. Poor thing had a speech impediment. Rather cute though. "I want a hug!" she demanded.

Kyle grinned and toddled over to hug his older sister happily and left her a little drool present.

"…Lovely." she sighed and stripped, throwing on a random assortment of clothes and went downstairs for the mail.

"Junk. Junk. Mum. Mum. Me. Mu-what?" she blinked. "Homg…I GOT MAIL!!!" she cheered and danced in the hallway. She ran past the living room, threw the other mail at her mum and dived onto her bed to read the mail - which caused the bed to tip to the side she'd landed on and the whole thing to come crashing down on top of her.

"…Mum? Mum! MUM! THE BED FELL ON ME AGAIN!"

A heavy sigh came from the living room and the newly awakened mother got up and made the long, arduous trek to her daughters room to save her.

After the bed was saved from Lara - no wait, I mean - After Lara was saved from the bed - yes that sounds about right now - her mum handed her a letter. "Give that to your sleeping cousin." she muttered.

Lara nodded and stretched grabbing her own letter and skipped off to Natalie's room skipping right throu- BANG! - no, sorry, INTO the door. "Ow…" she clutched at her nose and scrambled to open the door, in her excitement jumping onto Natalie's bed and yelling. "WE GOT MAIL!"

At that, Natalie sat blot upright and head butted Lara's nose. Lara yelped and fell sideways onto the floor, clutching the bloody nose. "NATALIE!" she squealed.

"Oh crap sorry Lara." she muttered sleepily.

Lara hissed, growled and threw the letter at her cousin, before collapsing on the floor and whimpering.

Natalie tore open the letter, not even glancing at the crest and started to read it, a confused look on her face. Lara left the room to wash away the blood from her nose checking it wasn't broken. After that she went through her own room to read her letter in peace and quiet.

Cairis held the letter about an inch from her face, glaring at the writing on the slim parchment. She couldn't identify the writing, but she had a sneaking suspicion her friends had set the whole thing up, as payback for making them all think she'd been drowned. This, of course, was entirely plausible. She sighed, re-reading the letter and eventually just throwing it to the side and rolling her eyes. "Hogwarts School…please! Lara couldn't have come up with that! It's too stupid! I mean, a pig with warts?" she shook her head and went off to have a shower before finding clean clothes, and going to confront her friends…

Lara and Natalie sat on the dry, half dead grass near the lake, away from the large slope they had played on the day before. They clutched their letters and were speaking in hushed voices. They didn't know how they would tell their friends they would not be at school that year, they would be elsewhere…

"Hey guys…" Vivi plonked herself down beside them, yelping when she sat on a patch of nettles. Rubbing her butt, she moved away and sat down again. "Got something to tell you..." She sounded strained, but that may have been her butt speaking.

"We have something to say as well…" Natalie admitted. "We got letters this morning…"

Vivi blinked. "Really? Me too!"

Lara pulled out her letter, with the crest.

Vivi gasped. "That's it! Lara that's the letter I got!" she squealed and glomped her two friends, delighted they wouldn't be separated.

"Wait…what about Cairis?" asked Natalie, frowning already. Lara frowned at Natalie's frowning. That girl was going to get some serious frown lines when she was older.

"What is this? Was this meant to be a prank to get me back for yesterday?" Cairis asked, popping up behind Lara, who yelped and face planted.

Vivi pulled her upright and pulled grass out her hair while asking, "What prank? What are you on about Kes?"

Cairis pulled out the letter. "This!" she threw it on the ground. "It's a really weird prank you lot."

"We Didn't pull a prank!" Natalie growled, pulling out her own letter and pointing at Lara's as well. "We all got letters, not one of them are fake."

Cairis sat down slowly narrowly avoiding the same patch of nettles Vivi had sat on earlier and stared at the ground. "So…then its real? Magic is real?"

"I never had a doubt." Lara grinned. "Mind you, it's all those fantasy books. Gotta love em…Gotta love em al! Fan-Ta-Sey!"

Vivi laughed at that, and it brought a small smile to the others faces.

"So, I guess this means we get to do magic."

"I guess this means we get to go shopping…"

"Not just shopping Lals…Shopping with Granny!"

All four cheered at the prospect of shopping with Granny Netta, the shopping addict who let you buy anything.