Note: this is a complete rewrite of the original first chapter.

I would love to own Harry Potter, but alas, that belongs to J. K. Rowling.

Chapter One: What is This?

I stood in a room full of people. The room was a nice one with wood floors and neutral colored walls. On one side were some large windows. They didn't have blinds. There were no doors. No furniture. The people, in all honesty, looked really strange. They were all dressed in robes, and one woman had shocking purple hair.

What I really found strange, though, was that I recognized these people from descriptions in a book series. A series called Harry Potter. Why would I dream about them? Oh, stupid question. I was a really big fan of the series. But then, what about the people I didn't recognize? Like those two girls, one with strawberry blonde hair and brown eyes, and the other with dark brown hair and deep blue eyes. And then there was another girl, who had light brown hair and hazel eyes. For some reason, she looked oddly like Neville Longbottom.

My dreams were strange. That was the only way I could put it. It got even stranger when I heard a voice calling through my mind.

"Luna… Luna…"

The room and the people inside were fading. The voice was getting closer. Soon, it reached a shout.

I opened my eyes to the plain ceiling of my bedroom at home. I sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. What was with those dreams?

"Loony!"

The voice wrenched me from my thoughts. It was my cousin, Anita, shouting my name. She pounded on the door. I slid out of my bed and opened it so that the girl with dirty-blonde hair and pale blue eyes with a small hint of green behind the door pounded on air. She looked down at me.

"It's time for breakfast, Luna," Anita said in an irritated voice. It was seven, and she was always in a bad mood at seven in the morning. "Mom told me to come and get you."

"Okay," I said as I swept my some-what short and messy brown hair out of my equally as brown eyes.

I followed my cousin down the stairs of the house to the kitchen, where my aunt and uncle, Crystal and Tony, sat at the table. Nothing was on the table aside a vase of lilacs. I sighed and walked to the fridge. What am I going to cook? I asked myself. I opened the door. The things that stood out to me were the jug of milk, the carton of eggs, and the flour. Pancakes! I grabbed those ingredients from the fridge and set them on the counter. From the pantry, I grabbed the oil, salt, chocolate chips, and everything else that I needed.

Thirty minutes later, I set the plate of warm, chocolate chip pancakes on the table. Aunt Crystal had helped me by getting drinks for everyone and the silverware. I sat down and put two pancakes on my plate. After I prayed, I started eating.

I walked out of the house a couple of hours later and started down Webster Drive to my friend, Victoria's (or Tori, as she insisted everyone call her). As I went, I saw her step outside her house. She slammed the door behind her. I approached nervously. She had a murderous look on her face. What was going on here?

"Hey," I said as I approached her. Tori jumped.

"Oh, hey Luna." She still had a troubled look on her face. "So, let's go."

Every day during the summer, Tori and I would go into a little wooded area for what she called "adventures." What really happened is that we would avoid adventurous little kids, Tori would sit on a stump, and I would try to lift things with my mind.

Yes, I was telekinetic.

When I was seven, I found out that I could lift things with my mind, like someone from one of Anita's sci-fi shows. Uncle Tony never treated me the same since. After that, he ignored me, but he wasn't allowed to actually abuse me because he was a police officer. Ever since then, Anita would actually go out of her way to make fun of me, but she would never reveal my secret to anyone else.

Thank God.

I didn't think I could handle being the talk of Tupelo, Mississippi.

When we reached our clearing, I pulled my frizzy brown hair back in a ponytail and out of my brown eyes. I stared at the branch in front of me and pictured it lifting into the air. I felt a slight pressure on the left side of my forehead. The branch was surrounded by blue and purple sparks and was slowly lifted into the air.

The pressure started building up until it felt like daggers were stabbing me in the head. I let go. The branch fell. I bent over. I was so tired all of a sudden, almost as if I had run a marathon. The pain vanished.

"That was better," Tori said, "but can't you hold it a little bit longer?"

I rolled my eyes. "Next time, you try." I knew that she only wanted to help me, but sometimes she was annoying. I wondered if all friends were like that. I couldn't tell. I didn't have many friends. Tori was really my only true friend. Anita always spread lies about me. Even though she was a year older than me, she always found some way to make sure that no one was my friend.

"So, are you and your aunt gonna be able to see the new Harry Potter movie?" Tori asked me.

Excitement bubbled in me. The Half-Blood Prince was coming out in a few days! Aunt Crystal had promised to take Tori and myself to see it at the Tupelo mall soon after it was coming out. Uncle Tony and Anita didn't care for fantasy-type stuff. They were more into sci-fi.

"Definitely! Do your parents want to see it?"

Tori tensed a little. She never talked about her parents much. As a matter of fact, I had only met them once at an open house at school. Tori never invited me over to her house, either. I didn't even know their names.

"No, Mother and Father don't want to."

I knew that Tori never got along with her parents, even though she never said anything like that. I could tell by the way she talked about them – when she or other people did.

After another couple of hours, we finally called it quits. As we went our separate ways on Webster Drive, I noticed a woman on the sidewalk. She seemed to be an elderly woman, if her gray hair and lined face were any confirmation. She was wearing a knee-length calico skirt and a T-shirt. Why was she wearing clothes like that?

She also seemed to be lost. I walked up to her.

"Hey," I said. "Can I help you?"

"Yes. I am looking for 1057 Webster Drive." She had a very thick Scottish accent. 1057 was my house. I assumed that she would want to speak to Aunt Crystal or Uncle Tony.

"I live there," I explained. I started on the short walk to my house. The woman walked next to me. "What brings you to Tupelo?"

"I am looking for someone." She said nothing more. That was certainly odd.

We finally reached my house. I opened the door and let the woman in first. Anita was sitting on the couch watching one of her sci-fi shows. It was called "Doctor…" something-or-other. The character was holding a sliver thing with a green light at the end. She looked up at the pair of us.

"Loony, who's this?"

I winced at my nickname. "Actually, I'm not sure."

"Dad!" Anita called. Uncle Tony and Aunt Crystal walked in, confusion evident in their eyes.

"Luna, who's this?" Uncle Tony asked.

"Minerva McGonagall," the woman answered. I raised an eyebrow. McGonagall? No way. This was definitely a prank. I wondered whom Anita had decided to enlist this time.

Aunt Crystal seemed to think so as well. "Anita, sweetie, we talked about this. No pranking your cousin. Don't you remember what happened last time?"

Once, three years ago, Anita decided to prank me by saying that Hermione Granger had come to see me. In reality, it was Anita's math tutor, Kristen Finch, who looked like the actress that played Hermione Granger. Anita had filmed the moment when I opened the door to see "Hermione" there. I had been so excited, but then I was crushed when I discovered the truth. I had cried for hours.

"Mom, it wasn't me!" Anita protested. Obviously, she remembered it, too. And the punishment she had gotten for the prank: Three weeks without TV.

The imposter McGonagall stepped in. "I can assure you, this is not a joke or prank. I have come to take Miss Hopper to Hogwarts."

Okay… If I was going to Hogwarts (which I knew wasn't real), why didn't I get a letter? As a matter of fact, if this were real, wouldn't I go to an American school instead? And anyways, I knew that I couldn't be a witch if it were real. I never did anything weird! Well, asides from my telekinesis… I thought.

Anita snorted. "If you're really Minerva McGonagall, turn that lamp into a frog." She pointed to an ugly lamp in the corner. It was large and green with an old, yellow shade.

The imposter pulled a sliver of wood from a pocket inside her skirt. My heart thudded with anticipation. Was this a prank or not? Was I still dreaming? With a flick of her wrist, the lamp shrank and turned darker green. There stood a frog, mottled green and brown.

I stared at it. That's it, I decided. I'm dreaming. This is all a dream. I'm going to pinch myself, and I'm going to wake up.

I pinched my wrist.

Nothing happened.

No way.

No way!

I glanced at Aunt Crystal, who was staring at me. Slowly, I smiled. She walked up to me and hugged me. "I'm so happy for you, Luna." I hugged her back. This was definitely not a dream. This was real! I could feel her shaking. I didn't know if it was laughter or tears.

I was hoping for the former. I didn't like crying people.

Aunt Crystal pulled away. She smiled broadly, but there were tears in her eyes. This was joy. I laughed.

"It's real," I whispered.

Aunt Crystal and I walked up to my tiny bedroom and started packing. I packed up all of the non-pink clothes I could find; my shampoo, toothbrush, and toothpaste; and some books: The Harry Potter series, the Artemis Fowl series, my Percy Jackson books, and the Inheritance Cycle books.

Once I had everything packed, I levitated my stuff downstairs with my telekinesis. It was a little difficult, and that pain in my head was back, but Aunt Crystal helped a little. McGonagall lit a fire in our small fireplace once we were in the den.

She threw some powder in the fire, which immediately turned emerald green. "I assume you know what Floo powder is." I nodded. "We will be using the International System to travel to Hogwarts. I shall follow you with your luggage."

I nodded. My smile wouldn't disappear. I turned to Aunt Crystal and hugged her again. "I'll be sure to send you mail every chance I can." She nodded.

I turned to Anita and Uncle Tony. What could I say to them? Anita sighed. "Well, I guess this is good-bye. I might even miss you." I raised my brows. She would actually miss me?

Even Uncle Tony smiled a little. "Have a good year." That was it. That was actually nice for him. I returned his smile.

I stepped into the emerald fire. It felt like a hot breath on my bare skin. I waved at my family. "Hogwarts!" I cried.

It felt like I dropped. Soot rained down on me. I was spinning so much, I felt like I was going to be sick. I tucked in my elbows after something hit my right one. I closed my eyes. Maybe Floo travel wasn't the greatest. After what was felt like forever, it all slowed down. I finally slid out somewhere.

As I lay on my back, I opened my eyes. I was in a large, circular room, judging by the ceiling. I slowly got to my feet, trying not to get soot on the burgundy rug. There were several tables in this room, most of which were stacked high with papers. On one of them stood a stone basin. I couldn't see what was inside. Up four steps was a large, ornate desk. Behind it was a large, high-back chair. I glanced at the walls. Hundreds of portraits lined them. I could hear faint snoring coming from them.

Wait a second… snoring! One of the portrait's occupants shifted slightly.

Yes! I was really in Hogwarts! And hopefully, I wasn't dreaming.