As our beat-up Volkswagen turned into the driveway, my mother looked up at the unlit streetlamps. "That's odd," she commented, "I didn't think the blackout would reach this far away."
As she unlocked the door, my father's voice carried through the hallway. "Honey," he said, "There's someone here to see our daughter…" He sounded confused, unsure of something.
I walked into the den, about as sure of what was happening as my father was. Sitting in on the sofa in as dignified a manner as possible, was an old woman in an emerald cloak and pointed hat. Spectacles were perched on her nose, and her face lacked any sign of emotion. I wondered if she was a representative of my school, coming to tell me that I wouldn't qualify for any financial aid at the prestigious private school that I currently had a scholarship for. But the school board usually wore suits, not clothes that looked like they might have been in style centuries ago.
"Hello, Miss Everett," the woman said, with a distinct British accent, "I'm sure you will be pleased to know that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Professor McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts." I was sure that my hearing was messed up due to shock.
"Um, hello," I stuttered, "I am Janet, um, did you say witchcraft?" She nodded. "Okay. You're serious?" She nodded again. This lady was obviously insane. Either that or I was hallucinating "Yeah," I said, trying to think of the best way to get rid of this crazy woman. "Uh…Prove it." I didn't think she'd be able to.
"Very well," she said, and promptly turned into a cat. My eyes bugged out and my jaw dropped. Before my very eyes the cat turned into an old lady again. Then she swished a stick she was carrying in her pocket and I was floating in midair. I struggled to get back on the ground. The woman pointed the stick and I was carried in that direction. I tried to reach the ground, but I was merely able to flail around in the air. I tried to come up with a logical explanation. I couldn't find any, and by the time she put me down, I was convinced.
"So, witchcraft, is it?" I asked, thankful to be on solid ground again, "And a school for witchcraft? You want me to learn magic?"
She nodded. "Your name has been on the list of applicants for the school since your birth. As headmistress, I formally invite you to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Britain. Of course, if you'd prefer going to one of the schools of magic in America I can hardly stop you." She handed me a blank sheet of paper. Words wrote themselves in emerald ink.
"Dear Ms. Everett, you have been invited to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…" I read aloud. "This is for real?" I asked, hardly daring to believe it. I mean, I was always attracted to the idea of magic, but to do it in reality was beyond remarkable. Somehow, I wasn't too skeptical about the whole idea of magic. It was like, deep down, I had always known magic was real, and I finally had proof about it. But what would happen if I wasn't any good at it? I remembered what happened at the party, which was too convenient to be a coincidence. Maybe I would be good at magic, after all. "Mom, Dad, can I go? Please?"
My parents had sat on the couch staring at the conservation with a mixture of shock and horror. "I don't know, honey. Britain is very far…and magic seems…" my mother tried to protest, but the look that Mrs. McGonagall gave her was enough to silence any complaints.
My father, always practical, said, "We don't have the money to send her to boarding school."
"Hogwarts will pay for everything, I assure you," she answered without missing a beat.
Mom looked at Dad. "Oh…All right," Mom sighed, defeated. Mrs. McGonagall had an air of authority about her, one that did not allow any argument from anyone, even my parents.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I shouted, throwing myself into my parents' arms. Mrs. McGonagall, meanwhile, threw something on the fire and disappeared.
-----
A week later a man in a long cloak emerged from the fireplace. "Hello," he told my father, who was in the middle of watching a football game, "I am Professor Aurelian. I am here to take your daughter to Diagon Alley to pick up her school supplies."
"Of course," my father said, still not used to people in robes arriving at our house via fireplace, "Where is this…um…Diagonally place?"
"It's in Britain," Professor Aurelian replied, "You see, they don't sell the proper spellbooks in America, and the apothecaries use different sets of ingredients entirely. And dragon-skin gloves have been banned in America by the Endangered Species Act of Ninety-Two. McGonagall thought it would be easier to just pick everything up in Diagon Alley, so…"
I could tell that the only part of that my dad actually understood was "Britain". "So," he said cautiously, "You'll be flying there? Now?"
"Oh, heavens no!" Professor Aurelian exclaimed. My dad breathed a sigh of relief. "Have you ever tried to ride a broomstick over the Atlantic? Impossible! No, we'll be taking the Floo Network—through the fireplace, that is." My dad looked frightened again. "Here you go, young lady," he said to me, "Now, step into the fireplace, throw some of this onto it-" She handed me some powdery stuff. "-and say 'Diagon Alley'. Remember to enunciate!"
I stepped into the fireplace, threw down the powder, tried desperately not to cough. "Diagon Alley!" I yelled. Everything seemed to explode in green flames. Then it stopped. I rubbed my eyes free of soot and found myself in a kitchen. I walked out of the fireplace just as it burst into flames again and Professor Aurelian stepped out.
"This is the Leaky Cauldron," he explained, "It leads to Diagon Alley." I nodded. We walked into a back room, where he tapped on the wall a brick a few times, and an entryway appeared.
"Whoa!" If I had any doubts about the existence of magic, they were gone now. There were broomsticks, and owls, and wands, and cauldrons…the whole scene was overwhelming.
"Here's your money." The professor handed me a sack. "The Galleons are the gold ones, Sickles are silver, and Knuts are bronze."
"Um, professor, this bag is empty," I told him.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. He laughed nervously. "I, er, put them in my pocket for…safekeeping." He pulled a great deal of coins from his pocket.
"Uh-huh." After a little while of awkward silence, I asked, "So…what class do you teach?"
"Transfiguration," he told me, "You know, changing one thing to another."
"I know what Transfiguration means," I informed him, "People tell me I have an excellent vocabulary."
"Well, let's see…let's pick up your Potions items first." He walked into the first store on the street.
-----
Shopping for supplies was hectic, and when we were done, I just wanted to take a nap. I had to buy a set of robes, a cloak, a hat, a cauldron, scales, potions ingredients, a telescope, dragon-skin gloves, phials, a mountain of textbooks, and a wand, among other assorted items. I liked my wand the best of everything I got. It was "mahogany, ten inches, with a phoenix tail-feather, springy" to quote Mr. Ollivander. That was pretty much all he said, actually, except for some mumbo-jumbo about "the wand chooses the wizard". At first I thought he was some kind of Zen monk, but when I held it, it seemed kind of different than the other wands. Almost like a friend.
At the end of the day, I even had a little money left over that Professor Aurelian tried to gamble away from me. I didn't really trust that guy, but if Mrs. McGonagall trusted him, then he must have been all right.
-----
It was 3:30 in the morning, on the day that Mrs. McGonagall—Professor McGonagall, I reminded myself—came to pick me up for Hogwarts. I hadn't gotten any sleep all night. I was just so excited…and a little nervous. I was leaving for a school an ocean away, where I'd be expected to learn a whole new curriculum of magic and spell casting, a school where nobody knew who I was…a school where nobody knew who I was. A grin spread across my face. Nobody knew me there; no one knew my name, my past, or my life. I could make a new me at Hogwarts, have a fresh start. I wouldn't be dorky Janet at this new school. I'd be Lianne. I'd be pretty, charismatic, and popular. I smiled at the prospect of my new life, then yawned and went to sleep.
-----
It was time to go to Hogwarts. Mom and Dad had already said goodbye; they were at work now, probably worried sick about me leaving for England. I had managed to put my hair into a ponytail that looked passable, if not particularly neat. I wore my best outfit and had been scrubbing at my zit all morning, and I'm sure I managed to make it a little bit smaller. I was ready to become glamorous Lianne once and for all.
I stared intently at the fireplace, counting the seconds as I waited. Suddenly it flared up with deep green fire. Professor McGonagall stepped out. "Come along, Ms. Everett," she said without any ado, "Now, you already know how to Floo." She handed me some Floo powder. "To get to the Hogwarts Express, say 'King's Cross'. Then simply go to Platform Nine and Three Quarters—that's right between Platforms Nine and Ten—and go through the barrier to reach the Hogwarts Express. Have you got all that?" I nodded.
I stepped into the fireplace, and tried not to spill powder all over my good outfit. "King's Cross!" I cried as I threw the powder down in a cloud of smoke. The world disappeared behind an emerald blaze. I emerged to find myself in a train station's ticket booth. My bags followed in another flash of green. I looked outside at the King's Cross station. I grabbed my bags, shoved them in a cart, then ran out hurriedly, heading to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. I did not want to miss that train, and though her instructions seemed cryptic, I was sure that Professor McGonagall knew what she was doing.
I was less sure of this when I found nothing between Platforms Nine and Ten except a wall. I looked around to see if maybe it were somewhere I hadn't looked. It wasn't "This stinks," I said through gritted teeth as I shoved my cart into the wall in a rage. But instead of slamming against the bricks, it passed right through like the wall was made of water. I walked up cautiously and touched a finger to it. Sure enough, it slipped through the wall. I walked through the wall with confidence, collected my cart, and boarded the train.