Part 1
I sat at home staring at the computer. The summer was almost over. It wouldn't be long before I had to start school again. School; I didn't want to go back. English, math, history, science and Spanish were dull. Sure in science you could work with fire and make things blow up, but most of the time we learned about Bohr models and different theories. The only reason I wanted to go back to school was my friends. I hadn't seen them most of the summer.
Across the house there was a loud pounding. My brother was running across the house. He ran into my half open door making it slam into the wall and bounce back, hitting him in the face. "Laura, Laura, Laura!" he screeched, "There is an owl outside!" He loved owls. Frankly, I couldn't care less.
"Leave me alone," I said.
"But Laura, It is an OWL! They aren't supposed to be outside right now, it is day. And it is sitting on our front porch railing, just sitting there staring at the door. You have to come see!" He then grabbed my arm and started pulling it out the door. Reluctantly, I came with him. He pulled me to the window and pointed. There it was. The owl was brown and in its beak was a letter.
"You're so stupid!" I yelled. How could he have not noticed the letter? I ran to the door and opened it as fast as I could. Owls with letters could only mean one thing: Hogwarts. I tried not to get my hopes up. "Harry Potter is fictional." I told my self over and over again. As I reached out the door the owl deposited its letter in my hand and flew off. I stood there dumbstruck.
"Laura! Why'd you make it go away?" My brother was still oblivious to the fact that it had carried a letter. The front of the letter had my name on it followed by my address. Where you would usually find a return address there was the Hogwarts symbol. I ran into my room and locked the door. I carefully opened the letter, making sure not to damage the cool Hogwarts symbol, or the perfect writing. I took out the letter slowly. There were two sheets of paper. I read the first one:
Dear Miss Jones:
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We ask you to be at the nearest subway station at 10:00 on September 1. Please bring with you the supplies that are listed. We look forward to seeing you at school.
Signed,
Professor McGonagall
And
Professor Dumbledore
So Harry Potter's world wasn't fictional. I was going to learn magic. I was going to be a witch. I felt so exited. On the next page was a long list of items I would need including spell books, a wand, robes, a cauldron, and much, much more. But a lot of this didn't match up. The Hogwarts Express went to Kings Cross Station not the nearest subway stop. And wasn't it supposed to come at 11 o'clock not ten? And I was thirteen not eleven. None of this was adding up right. But still, I was going to Hogwarts, even if everything wasn't the same.
I walked into the kitchen where my mom was making dinner. "Mom?" I said cautiously, I really wasn't sure how to put this. She turned around to look at me. "I got a letter today that you may want to look at." Then I pushed the letter into her hands. She looked disbelieving.
"I'm sure this is just a silly prank," she said nervously.
"It was delivered by an owl." We both stood there in silence. What was there to say? A letter from a magic school wasn't something you got every day. "Mom, I want to go."
"I can understand that. But it is a boarding school, and what about all the friends you have here?" I grimaced. It would be hard for me to just get up and leave all my friends and family. But magic isn't something you learn at a normal high school.
"I know Mom, but this is something really, really special."
"Ok. But where are we going to get your school books. We can't just go to London. There must be somewhere nearby." I took the letter back. At the bottom of the sheet it said this:
For new students near Boston go to Magic street. There will be a small pub. Inside you will be able to obtain directions to the shops.
"We have to go to Magic Street in Boston. Magic Street, what an original name," I said sarcastically.
oOo
My mom and I were walking down a small street in the middle of Boston. Around us were a bunch of apartment buildings. Where was the street? I looked at the map. There was building number fifty two and then supposedly there was Magic Street. I looked up. In front of me was building number fifty two I looked down the street. The next thing up the street was building number fifty four. Where was Magic Street? I walked down to building fifty four. Then I walked back. Then it was there. Why hadn't I been able to see it before? A tiny alleyway branched off from the street. I started walking towards it.
"Laura, where are you going?" My mom wasn't following me. She stood there looking as if I was crazy.
"Don't you see the street? It is right here." My mom shook her head. This was bad. How could she buy my supplies if she couldn't even see the street? There was a long pause before she spoke.
"How about I just give you some money and pick you up at six?" She sounded very hesitant, but who wouldn't be sending their daughter off into a brick wall that supposedly had a world behind it?
"That seems to be the only option," I said. She agreed and gave me a large amount of money, because neither of us knew how much this would cost, and reminded me to be back out here at six. I stepped into the ally and into the unknown that lay beyond.
oOo
Two and a half hours later I had finished with all my shopping. I was heavily laden with supplies. Over my shoulder was a large school bag filled with all the spell books, quills, ink, parchment and anything else I would need. In a large bag hanging around my wrist were the robes that I would wear while at school. In one hand I had a big black cauldron that I had filled with supplies for potion making. In the other hand I had a cage that contained a small black and white kitten, my pet. I was on my way to make my last stop: Ollivander's Wands.
I walked in the door and put down everything I was holding. The walls of the shop were covered with small boxes. Thousands of wands were in this store and somehow Ollivander would find the right one for me. I walked to the desk and rang the bell. Ollivander came out from the back room and said, "I suspect you'll need a wand. Going to Hogwarts this year?" but he didn't wait for an answer before continuing, "Yes, yes. I think… maybe..." He disappeared into the back room again looking at the many wands. "Aha!" came his voice, "I believe I have found it." He came out holding a wand. "If this doesn't work I'll be horribly mistaken. Give it a wave." I waved the wand and a light shone brightly from my wand and a box trembled then fell to the ground. "Aha! A perfect match! It isn't often that I get it right on the first try. Eleven inches, Hemlock with a core of Hippogriff feather. Nice long wand." I wondered how he knew what wand would fit me. He had only looked at me a second. He blathered on as I paid for the wand. He only shut up when I left. I had everything I needed. It was fifteen minutes to six. I needed to get back to Magic Street.
oOo
When I got home, I told my family about going shopping for magic supplies. "It was awesome," I told them, "they had everything you could imagine. In the book store they had books on anything you would want to do. There was one book on teaching your kitchen supplies to cook gourmet food. Then there was the pet shop. I thought about getting an owl but I decided that I like cats better." I petted the kitten in my lap. I was glad I had decided to take it. "But they had the weirdest pets. There was a toad with wings that could breathe fire and rats that could do tricks. Then I went into the candy shop. The majority of the candies weren't magical; most of them were just every flavor and really, really good. I brought back a Chocolate Frog for each of you and a package of Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans." I took the three chocolate frogs and the jelly beans out of the bag they were in and gave them to my family.
I went into my room. I had to call my friends and tell them that I was going to boarding school this year instead of going to the high school. I dialed the first number, not really knowing what I was getting into. I finished typing in the number and the phone started ringing. "Hello," a voice answered.
"Hi, this is Laura is Katherine there?"
"Yes, one minute." Then I heard the voice call for Katherine and then Katherine came to the phone.
"Hi, Laura," she said in a happy light tone. My stomach churned.
"Hi, Katherine," I paused but then decided it was best to do this now. "Umm… I called to tell you that… I'm… I'm going to a boarding school this year instead of the normal high school." Then there was a flurry of questions. Most of them I couldn't answer. I just told her that it was a school in London, my parents were making me go, and that I was coming back during Christmas and Easter and would love to meet up with everybody then. Finally we hung up. I had to still call a lot more people and this was not getting any easier. I called seven more people before being done. I knew I had made the right decision. But it was definitely not easy.
