Oh...uhm...you can read in a second! but I just wanted to say that I would do all kinds of cool fonts with the letters but I'm not sure if you guys have them, so that's why it looks so boringly the same. The personalities are different, though! *brightens*
Dear Jill,
Hi ... you won't BELIEVE where I'm going to school now!! Seriously, though, I am *so* not making this up. I am now attending ... the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stop shaking your head, or raising your eyebrow, or whatever!! Trust me on this one. I'm not lying!! *sigh* WELL ... you can think that if you want, but I'm just going to tell you about it because I haven't written you in *so* long and I want *this* to break the silence. I'm going to break it up into sections ... because it's far too much to tell in one letter! And you better believe me.
1. Acceptance Letter
An OWL flies to your house - yes, an OWL! - and gives you this letter from Hogwarts, which has - well, I'm just going to copy it and put it in here.
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 Ms. Jones-Sieski,
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
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
First-year students shall require:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags
COURSE BOOKS
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
OTHER EQUIPMENT
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS
SEE? Now, does that look fake????? :) I'm so excited!!
2. Diagon Alley
Oh GOSH ... maybe I should leave this one for the next letter! There's so much to tell! Okay, well, that wouldn't be fair ... so where do I start?? Well, first, it's a like a *HUUUUUGE* shopping mall, only outside ... and it's got all these wizard shops, like Quality Quidditch Supplies and Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and Eeylops Owl Emporium and Ollivander's Wands - that's where I got my wand! Willow, ten inches, dragon heartstring - cool, huh? *grin*
Well ... more later, because Mom's yelling at me from downstairs. One more week, and I'll be GONE!!
much love from 54 Laurel Lane,
Sandria *smilies*
Dear Sandria,
Well, sorry my reply was so late ... I'm hoping that your mom or someone will forward this to you because you never told me where to write to you at Hogwarts! Which, by the way, must be the most wonderful school - I can't believe I'll be sitting here with my boring old life while you're over there casting spells and things. It's depressing.
However, that doesn't change the fact that I'm still going to Elfleaf Oak Junior High ... sounds so exciting, doesn't it? Heh. Well anyway, most of the people you knew from Redhollow are going there - will you miss anybody? - like, um, Andrea and John and Taylor and Chris and Ellie and Meagan. Martin and Tara aren't coming back, though. Martin's moving to Los Angeles and Tara's - I think she's spending a year in Mexico or something.
First day is tomorrow, I'll write you about it when that happens! Write me about Hogwarts - oh dear, I really wish I could go there.
friends forevah,
Jillio the Jumping Bean
Dear Sandria,
First day at Elfleaf Oak wasn't so bad - there are some new kids, too. One of them, Maura, came up to me today really shyly and sat with me at lunch. Turns out she's in my math class, my french class, and my creative writing class! Which is pretty neat; I kinda like her. And all the Redhollow kids are generally pretty great, but John's now hooked with all these ninth graders and is acting like he's *so* superior, which is disgusting. Poor Andrea, I found out they'd been going out ...
This is getting to be an extremely boring letter. Well, anyways, for teacher's we're not so well off - AHH! I just found out my little sister is now very obsessive about tennis tournaments. She'll sit in front of the T.V. all day to watch tennis. Tennis. Tennis. Help! And she's only 7. - because we seem to have a bunch of people that couldn't get a job anywhere else.
Mr. Dulcin eats sunflower seeds all day, but Taylor says she saw him smoking in his car (a huge, huge, huge pickup truck) as he left. And Mrs. Santorino, our English teacher, is very ... odd. She dressed in a bright yellow dress and wore glasses shaped like stars. Now where did she get those?? But our creative writing teacher is at least pretty fun, Mrs. Elton, she's got a daughter in our grade, Jane - although I haven't seen her around yet. Wonder what it's like to have your mother teaching you. That would make ME switch schools!
More later, once I find my way around this massive building ... yikes ...
friends forevah,
Jillio the Jumping Bean
Dear - um, Jillio the Jumping Bean, *laughs* - Jill,
Elfleaf Oak sounds so fun! I miss you all ... Hogwarts doesn't seem to be what it's cracked up to be, so far. It's *HUGE* ... and all of the other kids seem to know exactly what they're doing. It's so confusing - the stairs change sizes, the doors tease you, and there are even poltergeists and ghosts! The worst is Peeves - I think he's taken a special liking for me WHICH IS A **BAD** THING!!!! He comes up behind me in hallways - at least, they were hallways the last time I checked! - and grabs my hair, and pulls my bag down, and throws pencils at me. He's horrible.
The Sorting was really full of nerves ... UGH!! ... but I guess I should start with the Hogwarts Express - you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you? I'm sorry. It's a lot to take in at once, I guess.
3. The Train ... aka the Hogwarts Express!
You get through the station (right after Mum and Dad dropped me off, they wanted to stay and see me off but they had a brunch with friends or something) ... and there's all these Muggles (that's the wizard word for nonmagic people, I think) around - and I had *NO* idea how to get onto the platform, but then I caught sight of these two magical-looking kids (don't ask how I spotted them in the crowd! luck, I guess ...) heading toward Platform Nine (the Hogwarts platform number was Nine and Three-Quarters ... can you IMAGINE trying to look for that?? I didn't dare ask; I'd seem like such a stupid little child!!), so I crept up behind them and eavesdropped ... and they just walked towards the barrier between Nine and Ten. So I decided I'd try my luck because I *still* didn't want to ask! I walked towards the platform, calmly, just like they did, trailing my trunk full of STUFF behind me ... and suddenly, I was THERE! I was right in front of the Hogwarts Express!!!! It was *SO* cool, like something out of a book!!
The train was *really* awesome ... I met this girl, Lucilla, or Luci for short, who came into my compartment, and there was a witch coming around with all this weird candy! Chocolate Frogs - I'll send you a box, I think you'd love those - and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans - yes, maybe a small jar of those, too, if I have enough - OOH! That REMINDS me!! I never told you about wizard money!!
4. Wizard Money
You can get it at Gringotts Goblin Bank - yes, *goblin*, and don't ever come near one if you don't have to, they're so scary!! - and there's - um, let me think - I think twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle and seventeen Sickles to a Galleon - or something like that! The Knuts are bronze, the Sickles are Silver, and the Galleons are gold! Isn't that awesome?? I'm having so much fun managing my money now!!
Right now, with the money Mum and Dad gave me for this term, I have ... let me check and count and all ... ten Galleons, forty Sickles, and twenty Knuts!! I spent ten Knuts on the candy - maybe going a bit overboard, but, oh well! They did give me a *lot*, considering. Hope there's someplace I can spend it! I still don't really know my way around here.
Yeeps, this letter really went long! I'll tell you about the Sorting and my classes and all in the next letter, okay?? (And hopefully I'll be including Chocolate Frogs too! *grin*)
much love from HOGWARTS! (ah, maybe it isn't so bad after all ...)
Sandria the ... the Smiler!
P.S. How to send me letters: um, it involves buying an owl ... maybe you'd better keep letting my parents forward it to you. Then I'll get you an owl for a birthday present or something. *smile* Okay? Thanks, Jill[io]!!
Hey Smiler,
Nice name ... I like it. Fits you very well - we always did used to say you laughed too much, didn't we? Well ... haha, I just reread your letter and it's so funny when you look at it! At the beginning you're like, "I hate Hogwarts it's so awful and mean and horrible and I MISS YOU!!" and at the end it's like, "Hogwarts is the BEST place in the ENTIRE world!" It's just funny - you're funny. I miss you. I don't laugh as much without you here; I'm the kind of person that only laughs when my best friend is laughing. That's you.
Well what a nice depressing start we got off to! I'm really not as sad as it seems in my letters, I'm just not as - as excited as you. Plus it's a little weird to be writing each other instead of seeing each other every day. Also, I hate that summer's over, even though back-to-school is always fun!
Hogwarts sounds incredible ... yes, you're right, I think Chocolate Frogs sound soooo cool! And I like the idea of wizard money too. You're right, it is like something in a book! Must be strange, though - it's like how you've always wanted to really live in a fantasy world and now you've been "accepted" into one! I can't help but wish I was there - do they take Muggle visitors? (Keep Peeves away from me. Shouldn't there be a spell to ward off poltergeists? Won't the principal or whatever take care of it? Who is s/he, anyway?)
Tell me about Luci ... all you mentioned was her name! Is she in the same grade as you? Are you taking the same classes, or don't you choose your schedules?
School here ... pretty much the same. I'm getting to be better friends with Maura, who is a really sweet girl!, and I met Jane Elton - remember? the daughter of Mrs. Elton the creative writing teacher? the good one? - who is pretty neat, I guess. She can be a snob at times, but I guess that's just her reaction to all the freebies she gets from the school for being a teacher's daughter. Ugh. Or maybe it's just my reaction to it!
Chris and Andrea and I were the first ones into science today ... and we saw Mr. Banton, red-faced, looking like his eyes were about to pop out and staring at his computer in a fit of rage! It was so weird and even a little scary. We just sort of tiptoed out, but when Julia Miller went in he screamed and shrieked and yelled, then suddenly seemed to remember he had a class and left to mop his face off. Should we report him or something? I don't know. The "headmistress," Dr. Delaney, doesn't look like she could handle much. She couldn't even quiet us down at First Day Assembly.
friends forevah
Jillio the Jumping Bean
P.S. The Jumping Bean thing is getting kind of old. Any ideas for a new nickname that I could use? Make it spiffy. That's your specialty.
Dear Jillibean,
That's your new nickname - *IF* you'd like to keep the Bean theme running. *laughs* If not - you liked gryffins once, remember? You could be Jillia the Gryffinlady!! *grin* Actually, that sounds pretty cool. But just tell me if you need another one ...
School sounds so fun back there! I know it sounds to *YOU* like here is better - but I think we're both leading great lives. (Tell that to your depressed self.) Dr. Delaney ... haha, I just got an image of what she must look like!!!!!! If you can, send me a picture and I'll see if I'm right. Hee hee!!!!!!!!!! *chuckles*
This letter's going to be looooong ... because I am SO behind and I feel like I want to tell you *EVERYTHING* but it's impossible!! Every day there's more stuff to experience ... it's pretty overwhelming, actually.
5. The Sorting
You try on this huge but battered wizard's hat, which sang a really clever poem that I *wish* I could remember and if I ever get it from anyone I'll copy for you, but anyways, it tells you what House you should belong in after poking around in your head ... which is kind of fun *grin* ...
6. Houses
Gryffindor (red) - brave, daring, nice, cool, funny, generally seen as the best house in the school
Ravenclaw (blue) - the clever brainy geniuses. also a pretty good one!
Hufflepuff (yellow ... I think) - the gossipers and the duffers. yuck! I'd hate to be in this house.
Slytherin (green) - the EEEEVIL people. hateful, hurtful, nasty, malicious ... you name it! *shudders*
You can earn points when you do something the teachers like, and lose points when you break a rule ... whichever house has the most points wins! Cool, huh? I can tell you're dying to see which house I got Sorted into. *evil smile* Maybe I should keep up the suspense and NOT tell you.
Nahhh...that'd be too Slytherin-ish!! AGGHHH!! Okay, well, I put on the hat and it said ... (among other things) ... "GRYFFINDOR!"
Kind of funny in my opinion because, did I ever seem very brave or daring or wonderful to you? *hmmms*
7. Classes ...
I might miss a few (OH! By the way, the Headmaster of the school is Albus Dumbledore - he's the most *AMAZING* person I've *EVER* seen, met, heard of, WHATEVER. There's this evil wizard, You-Know-Who (well, that's not REALLY his name, but we're not allowed to say the real one!), who took over the world once but everybody says this guy Harry Potter - who's ALIVE now and a seventh year!!!! - took his powers away and also Albus Dumbledore was the *ONLY* one You-Know-Who was afraid of (he didn't know Harry could do that yet ...)!!!! And I SAW Harry!! I sat three people away from him at the Gryffindor table!! And I sat near him in the common room (a kind of secret room guarded from all the other houses with a special door and a password and everything)!!!! But I think Dumbledore (this is about what you said about Peeves and couldn't they get rid of him) doesn't want us to live a completely sheltered life here, you know what I mean?? He wants us to learn how to survive - I KNOW that sounds *REALLY* dumb and tacky and corny and cheesy and whatever, but really - I bet if Dumbledore wanted to, he could make the school really easy to get around and let there be no obstacles or anything, but I really think he wants to teach us that Life. Is. Hard. And. That. Is. That.)
Wow. LOOOONG parentheses!! *laughs* Sorry. Well, anyways, I might miss a few (OH! I just remembered something else - the Chocolate Frogs and the candy and the owl and buying stuff ... I am *SO* swamped with schoolwork *ALREADY* that I barely found the time to write you this letter! ... but this fourth year, Amy Cooper, is *really* nice and she said she'd get a pack of candy for you - and for me! - if I gave her the money because third years and up get to go to Hogsmeade - a WIZARD TOWN!! - so on Halloween - the first trip - I'll send you a box or two, okay?? Thanks!! This is really exciting now that I'm learning "the ropes!" and making friends!!!! (But nobody could replace you, darling, don't *ever* worry about *that*!!)).
NOW! Okay ... I might miss a few, but (OH! I just ... gotcha! *laughs*) I think I'm getting all my classes here ...
Potions (the teacher for this, Snape, is *really* nasty. he's head of Slytherin house, GO FIGURE!!)
Astronomy
Flying (yes, FLYING! with BROOMSTICKS and everything! there's even a SPORT ... I'll tell you about that later. *grin*)
History of Magic (*snooze* taught by a GHOST ...)
Defense Against the Dark Arts
Herbology (this is AWESOME! definitely one of my favorites ... I love the plants)
Charms (*incredibly* fun!)
Oh, and about DADA ... they get a new teacher *every* year because the job is cursed!! This year's is Professor Idipid, he's - a little disturbing. For some reason he's *OBSESSED* with blood - wait, now that I put it down on paper ... he's a VAMPIRE! Ugh. Can't believe I didn't realize that before! Oh, now I feel stupid.
Yikes ... long letter ... and Professor McGonagall, very strict, head of our house, just - oops! I forgot Transfiguration, that's her class! - came in to warn us all to go to bed. Darn.
Well ... I can't believe it! :) That's all I can say.
much love from HOGWARTS!
**Sandria** the ~Smiler~
Wow. Wrote this one faaast ... I really hope you were sorry to see it end!! *hopes hopes hopes HOPES* I LOVED writing this, personally - hope you felt the same way about reading it! And don't worry, I *am* going to introduce a plot ... that is, if I get enough reviews to do a sequel ...
Dedicated to (who else???) Meagan, for all the great letters I've gotten from YOU! (and don't worry, I'm going to develop the character that's named after you ... *grin*) and the wonderful, LOVELY friend I found in you!! Love quite aplenty, to ALL of you!, from Ninamazing =)