Hey guys! I promise I will stop changing/deleting stories after this one. Pinky swear!

Chapter 1

I Find That I Can Do Magic Tricks

One sunny day in August, I, Katherine Amanda Maloon, got a letter. It was one of those old fashioned letters, with a yellowing envelope and a wax seal and it said, To Miss Katherine Maloon, 6 Windsam Court, San Francisco, California, United States of America.

I think I may have forgotten to mention it was delivered by an owl.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I got into Hogwarts!

"Mom!" I shrieked. "Mom Mom Mom Mom Mom!"

"What, Kat?" she called back.

"Mom, I got into Hogwarts!"

"And this is a surprise to you?" asked Elodie, my fourteen year old sister. She was going to be a fifth year. She also happened to be a snob. But she was right. It wasn't a surprise. Everyone in my family had gone to Hogwarts. A sudden realization dawned on me.

"But that means... I'll have to leave the Normal People." The Normal People was a group that consisted of me and my best friends, Ashley, Rachel, and Tanya. We had met in kindergarten when we did the craziest things, like the color the people in our coloring books purple and the dogs blue (le gasp!) and fought over who got to be the princess in dress up and who got to be the evil, ugly ogre (we all wanted to be the ogre). We had called ourselves The Normal People after we had done something crazy once and this one girl walked up to us and said sarcastically, "You guys are possibly the most normal people I've ever seen." And thus the Normal People was born.

"Hey guys," I said sadly, after I called them. They all replied in varying forms of depression: Rachel sounded like her teeth were chattering (that only happened when she was upset), Ashley sounded like she was going to puke, and Tanya sounded like she was laughing. It's what she sounds like when she's upset "I'm going to a private school."

"So am I," Rachel chattered. "It's all the way in England."

"Yeah, I am, too. It's also in England," Tanya giggled.

"Mine is in this rural place," Ashley moaned.

"Yeah, mine is too," the rest of us said together.

"Hogwarts is a pretty lonely place," I blurted. Dang it, I suck at keeping secrets.

"Hogwarts?" Ashley cried.

"That's where I'm going!" Tanya and Rachel said together.

"No. Freaking. Way," I gasped. "You're all witches!"

"Omigod!" they all shrieked.

"Wait, why don't you sound surprised?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, I was screaming my head off," Ashley agreed. "I think the neighbors might have called 911."

"Erm, I kinda knew. My whole family's been there."

They took it surprisingly well.

"Anyway, I'm going to Diagon Alley with my mom tomorrow. You can come to my house and we'll take you there You all want to come?"

They agreed, we said our Normal People good bye (I will not tell you it. Not yet) and I put the phone down.

Everyone came to my house the next day with suitcases and muggle money, just like I had told them.

"We're going to use floo powder to get there," my mother said. Tanya turned pink. I had texted her about floo powder last night, and she did not appreciate stepping into a fireplace. With a lit fire. I personally thought it sounded fun.

"So you just throw this powder into the fire," Mom was saying. "And think of where you want to go and then step into the fire. Ready? Katherine, you go first."

"So ready to sacrifice your own daughter, woman? How cruel," I retorted. She rolled her eyes, gave me the powder and pointed to the fireplace. I took a deep breath. Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley. I tossed the powder in and leaped into the fire.

It wasn't that bad. It just felt like I was being squished into a pancake, stretched until I was twice my height, pressed back together, and dumped onto a hard cobblestone floor. Nope, didn't hurt at all.

"Funny," I guy with an Irish accent drawled. "I thought Rachel was supposed to come through here."

I looked up. He was my age, with red-brown hair and green eyes, lanky but not taller than me. "Oh, she'll be here," I replied. "Right about- oomph!"

Rachel was suddenly on top of me. Her glasses went flying and she looked green. "I will never do that again," she moaned. "Oh, hi, Seamus!"

She stood up and I groaned. "What do you eat, rocks?" But I jumped up before Tanya or Ashley, who followed, could land on me. My mother came last, landing easily on her feet. Typical.

"Guys, this is my cousin, Seamus Finnigan," Rachel introduced. "He's a first year in Hogwarts, like us."

Ashley gave a tiny wave. "I'm Ashley Jordan."

Tanya had her hands deep in her pocket. "Tanya Evans."

Ashley looked at Seamus, tilting her head. Suddenly, she burst out with, "Shame on you, Seamus!"

Rachel, Tanya, and Ashley cackled like, well, witches at the clever rhyme. I rolled my eyes. "I'm Katherine Maloon. I'm also the most normal person here."

Tanya narrowed her eyes. "You're the one who pantsed Mr. Orley!"

"And you punched Jackson Livingson because you felt like it!"

"And you tried to convince us to go to a high school party!"

I sighed. "Almost worked, too."

Seamus laughed, and I relaxed. I hated people who didn't have a sense of humor. You could have money and smarts, but you can get everywhere with a good sense of humor.

"You don't mind if he joins us, do you, Mrs. Maloon?" Rachel asked Mom. Mom looked stricken at the thought of not just four but five eleven year olds following her (oh, the horror).

"Don't worry," Seamus said. "Me Mam's just over there." He pointed to a pretty lady looking at the displays at a bookstore. Mom visibly relaxed. "Oh, that's fine, then."

We then raided every store along the side until we reached a wand shop.

"Ollivander's Wands," Seamus' mother said. "Best wands around."

It had turned out that Seamus's mother was a witch, while Rachel's wasn't.

The problem with having five kids needing new wands is that we pretty much destroyed everything in Ollivander's shop. The man didn't seem upset, in fact, quite the opposite. "Enjoy your wands!" he called. I smiled, stroking my new wand (thirteen inches, yew, unicorn hair).

"I've always wanted a broom," Seamus said, nodding at the broom shop. "It's too bad first years can't have one. I'd try out for Quidditch team."

"So would I," I agreed, and we high fived.

And together, we all walked to some wizard inn.

"Hurry, guys, we'll be late!"

I grabbed my suitcase and looked at my mom. "You're sure?" I asked. "This isn't some joke?"

She smiled. "No it's not. Now go! You've got five minutes!"

"I am slamming into a waaaaaall," I whisper-yelled, and I ran straight for the wall in between platforms 9 and 10.

Luckily, I did not crash into the wall and get a concussion and die. Unluckily, I crashed into another trolley.

"Watch it!" the boy snapped.

"Sorry, sorry!"

I wasn't sorry. He looked like a bitch. I ran for the train, where the rest of the Normal People, along with Seamus and a guy named Dean were standing.

We finally found an empty car, and as the train started moving, I gasped. It was true. I was going to Hogwarts!

"Can I sit here?" A short girl would long, bushy, ginger hair was standing in front of the door. I ran my tongue over my braces to check that there was no food and assured, I smiled at her.

"Of course."

Seamus, flashing us one last smile, walked out, Dean following. The girl sat down. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"Tanya Evans."

"Katherine Maloon."

"Rachel McLeister."

"Ashley Jordan. We're all first years."

"I'm a first year, too," Hermione said. "Did you hear Harry Potter's on the train?"

I gasped and Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Who's that?"

"Only the Boy Who Lived." She dropped her voice. "Voldemort tried to kill him. But he survived."

"Who's Voldemort?"

I shook my head. "You know little, young one."

"Hey! I'm older than you!"

And we all settled in for a ride to a school of magic.

Sorry for the weird, unfunny chapter. I suck at beginnings! It'll be better and funnier later, just keep reading!