"Mr. Bennet!" his wife cried, "You must keep Jane at home! Mr. Bingley is sure to propose any day now, and once he does, what will she need an education for? She'll have 500,000 pounds a year and as many house elves as the minister of magic!"

Mr. Bennet did not look up from his book on Muggle studies as he answered, "My dear, you have been forseeing this engagement between our Jane and Mr. Bingley all summer, and yet it still has not happened. Either your divination powers are waning or your tea leaves have been lying to you."

"Ah! The leaves have foretold a great many ominous events," Mrs. Bingley said fanning herself, "it's wreaking havoc on my nerves. I suffer so."

"Is it the leaves that trouble you, my dear, or the death of our Lydia?"

Mrs. Bingley sank onto her couch, fanning herself and covering her eyes with her free hand.

"Oh Lydia, poor little Lydia. Such a terrible accident."

"Yes, it was, and we shall miss her dearly. Though I thought Dumbledore delivered a very proper eulogy."

"It was that horrible professors fault!" Mrs. Bingley cried. "Mr. Wilka, or Wonky, was it?"

"It was her potions professor, Mr. Willy Wonka, and in fairness to the man he did warn all the children very sternly not to eat the everlasting gobstoppers they created.

Mrs. Bennet moaned, "To Lydia, might as well have been an invitation. She never took well to being told she couldn't eat something. She'd just grab handfuls of whatever it was and shove it in her mouth, gobbling it down as fast as she could," Mrs. Bingley said fondly. "She was such an innocent, child-like girl."

"She was certainly something," Mr. Bennet agreed dryly. "But I am sure the rest of our girls will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts this year."

Meanwhile upstairs Jane, Elizabeth, Mary and Kitty were in their own ways preparing for the journey to London and from there, on to Hogwarts.

"Kitty!" Elizabeth cried, "You've barely begun to pack!"

"Lydia always did these sorts of things for me," Kitty pouted, sitting on the floor in front of a nearly bare suitcase.

"I'll help, here, hand me that sweater," Jane said lifting the suitcase onto the bed.

Mary sat on top of her suitcase reading " Professor Larry Losgold's Magical Life Lessons."

"According to Professor Losgold, preparedness is wizardliness."

Elizabeth tried with difficulty not to roll her eyes. Instead she put a hand on her older sister's shoulder and said quietly, "Do not worry over him Jane. If Mr. Bingley is such a fool as to let you return to Hogwarts without 'putting a ring on it', then he's a fool."

"If he liked it, then he shoulda put a ring on it," Jane agreed sadly.

Elizabeth comforted her sister, while inwardly cursing Mr. Bingley's sullen friend Mr. Darcy. She was sure, somehow or other he was behind this. They had both graduated the year before, but Bingley's younger sister Louisa was a 7th year like Jane.

"At least I'll have Louisa to remind me of him, she has been so kind."

Again, Elizabeth tried not to roll her eyes.

Soon the girls were packed and their mother and father drove them to London, set them upon Platform 9 ¾ and off they were on the Hogwarts Express. Kitty, giddy with excitement, dashed off at once to gossip with her friends Padma and Parvati Patil, only returning once to borrow money from her older sisters for chocolate frogs, as she'd already spent all of her own. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's best friend, Luke Skywalker, joined them.

"Ugh," he said, watching Kitty leave, "That girl needs to slow down on the chocolate frogs or pretty soon she's gonna be Kitty the Hutt, am I right?"

He received nothing but blank stares.

"Guuurrrlllls, you need to travel more." He snapped his fingers sassily and they all laughed heartily. Except for Mary, who never laughed.

Elizabeth enjoyed the welcome feast as usual and meeting up with all of the friends she hadn't seen all summer. The only hitch in an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable evening was running into her rival, Hermione Granger. As they passed each other at the Gryffindor table they glared in mutual dislike.

Down the table a bit from Elizabeth, Hermione grumbled to her friends Harry and Ron, "That Lizzy- she's such a know- it- all."

Ron and Harry exchanged looks but wisely stayed silent.

Just as Elizabeth was diving happily into her chocolate plum pudding and third butter beer, chatting and laughing with Jane, Luke, and their other good friends, Luke elbowed her, and nodded.

"Hmmm…will you look at that manly slice of pumpkin pastie! I'd like to San Francisco light saber fight with him, if you know what I mean."

"Luke!" Lizzy, admonished, but looked up and for a moment, was startled into breathless, speechless wonder at the most attractive man she'd ever seen.

"Too bad he's a Slytherin…" Luke said, absentmindedly using the Force to crush his butterbeer can.