The first letter of the envalope said that term starts at the first of September, but the more important was always the other. And it read,
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Second years will require the following
BOOKS
Standard Book of Spells (Grade 2) by Bathilda Bagshot
Herbology Doubled by F.W. Creigg
Denfensive Arts by Hubert Hoskim
Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp
From Fairies to Dragons by Dan Elliot
The Ability of Transformation by F.W. Creigg
Albus ran it to his mother as did James. And there was only one place to go to to find this. With the knoledge that dark wizards are trying floo powder and apparation all the time to get to Hogwarts, Albus's mother and father thought it only wise for Albus, James, and their father to go. So at the end of July (which Albus could not hear any more thoughts) they went to Diagon Alley the only way that they could. By portkey. Albus, James, and their father stood around a rusty frying pan.
They each layed a finger at least on the pan and they were out of the Gryffindor common room where they stood before. It felt as if a hook just behind his navel had been suddenly jerked irresistibly foward. His feet left the ground and his brother and father's shoulders have been bumping into his own. There was much wind and color rushing by, his hand stuck to the pan. His feet slammed suddenly on the ground. And there they were, on a dusty street right next to a sign that had a witch and a couldren that had a leak in it. The Leaky Cauldren.
They walked inside the empty pub except for a really old man. He didn't speak, and the three passed to the other side where a little corrner was, Albus's father took out his wand and tapped the stone wall in seperate bricks. Then, the long narrow alley fulll of color came into view. Diagon Alley.
Tons of stores lay on the street. All Albus need to go to was Gringots the wizard bank, and Flourish and Blotts. But, now that Albus was twelve, he was allowed to go to his Uncle George's Weasley Wizard Wheezes. The most fun shop in the whole alley.
They went to the very end of the street, and a snowy white marble building came into view, the three went through and to the Potter family vault where they got the money they needed through the long cart ride with a goblin. The ride made most people get sick.
So, Albus and James rushed to get their books, at Flourish and Blotts, and ran to Weasley's Wizard's Wheezes. The shop was filled with laughter, as about the only other store that had people laughing was Quality Quidditch Supplies. So, Albus bought a mini Hungarian Horntail dragon that Albus's own father had given to Uncle George or Fred. And Jmes bought a cloak of invisibility that would be good until April, then you would look translucent, and by the end of next July, there wouldn't be any use for it ecept for a small blanket.
But Invisibility Cloaks were soft and silky. So, it could work in Summer. Maybe. Albus also bought a Fever Fudge package, six a Galleon. And they went back through a portkey, up to the train station. Professor Grey, the Quidditch teacher, was there behind a gate to the grounds of Hogwarts. The three walked up and on a carige that looked like it was self-pulled, but he was told that thestrals did it, they are invisible to the eye that hasn't seen eyes. Which Albus's father has, unlike he and James. They had to wait outside for six hours just in case it wasn't them in Polyjuice Potion, the potion that you took to look like another, and if made professionaly, sound like the person. It was alreay about eleven when they were inside the school.
They stopped at Hagrid's house and Albus and James left long before their father did, and at the castle, Albus and James sat on the tables in the fourth floor corridor, a week later, a ravenclaw fourth year chalenged James to a wizard's duel. They went outside to the staircase, Albus watching. They started, it went really fast, flashes of red and blue ran across the stairs, albus looked around sometimes to see if anyone was coming, and in less than a minute, James had made a powerful hurling spell and it pushed him into an open doorway.
There was a flash of orange light, and the boy sat there, dead, but breathing. They tried waking him up, then ran to the nearest professor, Professor Longbottem, the Herbology teacher and head of Gryffindor house. James explained which would've lost him at least twenty house points, but Albus and James both argued that it wasn't school, yet so they couldn't lose points for dueling.
And on the day, September the first, Albus and James waited at the carriges at nine, which they came at sometime before ten. But, almost ten. James rushed off, but Albus waited at a carrige and greeted Rose Weasley, Jacob and Michael Bendag, the twins, and Aaron Zeskey, warmly. Rose, like all Weasleys, was a Gryffindor, just as Aaron. But, Jacob was a ravenclaw and Micheal, a Hufflepuff. ohe ride, Albus told them about the duel, which got them wondering, and then Albus remembered from last year, just as he was being saved from stopping Silsbury from sending Albus to Azkaban for doing something that Silsbury did, he said "Quietus Nex" Which had an orange flash and Albus fell asleep.
"Who knows?" Rose asked. Albus hadn't told anyone except Professor Longbottem, who probebly told the headmistress, which probebly got onto the Daily Prophet, but Albus hadn't got one since before then. And that wasn't his. So Albus told, and to everyone's amazement, Aaron remembered a book on dark arts that just came out five days ago, he said he could read it tomorrow at the breakfast or lunch. It was a spell made by one of Silsbury's followers. The Sleeping Death spell.
And later on, they got to the school. All ready to eat, but the golden plates remained empty, and Professor Griffiths opened the large oak double doors to the Great Hall followed by about fourty first years. One of them looked exactly like Aaron. And when he was the last person to be sorted by the old battered Sorting Hat, he was identified as "Zeskey, Maximus!" who was sitting on the four-legged stool and the Sorting Hat on his head. He sat there for a minute or two and finally the hat yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!" And Aaron clapped loudly as the boy ran to sit next to him.
McGonagall made a speech before the meal that everyone listened to closely. "And now we have eaten, I want you to know before you eat, there will be no dueling in the corridors, and the Forbidden Forrest is forbidden. I also want you to know, over the Summer, I have gotten a letter from Professor Longbottem that said that two young foolish students weredueling in the corridors, and one of them had a spell that he cast upon the other which knocked him into a corridor on the fourth floor, this corridor will be out of order for the time being until we know what happens. This story will probebly be in the news tomorrow, now eat up."
And the plates were suddenly filled with the delicious smell and looks of all sorts of food. When that was done, they went straight to bed, the prefect guiding them, the password through the seventh floor painting of a fat lady with a silky pink dress was, "Journ Forlon" And they found themselves back inside the nice warm common room, where tons of people were asking who did it, but James swore not to tell anyone. And Albus and Rose started playing a small game of wizard's chess. Until they were all told to bed and Albus went up higher than he had in the Summer and last year, the four posters labeled SECOND YEARS. And before anyone knew it, everyone in the Gryffindor Tower had fallen asleep.