Dear Laine,

This place is great! It's like living with real wizards and witches! Their "magic" tricks are sooooo realistic! There's this really cute guy I have a crush on here (I know, I know!) and my new friends are showing me how to use a love potion to get him to fall for me! And speaking of cute guys, Robert Pattinson used to work here!!!!! Isn't that exciting?!!!! Funny, nobody here seems to care though. Obviously British people don't read "Twilight"!

Luv,

Stacey

When Claud and I found out that Robert Pattison used to work at the Hogwarts Theme Park, we could hardly contain our excitement. We tried to pry information from the other students, but they seemed to have no clue what we were talking about. You'd think they could get out of character at least once in a while!

However, Robert Pattinson was totally out of question for a boyfriend, being a huge Hollywood star and all, and I still had my eyes on that sexy redhead named Ron Weasley. His hair was so...red! And his accent was so....British! Lavender and Parvati were nice enough to show Claud and me how to concoct a love potion to get Ron to fall for me.

"Now you have to understand," Lavender told us as we sneaked into Professor Snape's lab, "the potion Parvati and I know how to make only lasts a few hours, so use them to your advantage." She giggled.

"Do you think you could make one for me, too?" asked Claud.

"Who do you like?" Parvati asked. "Harry? Seamus? Dean? Though I think he has his eyes on Ginny, if you ask me."

"None of the above," Claud replied as we crowded around a boiling cauldron. "Those are boys. Immature boys."

"Uh, they are older than you," Lavender pointed out.

"Well, I like real men," Claud said. "And I think your potion's teacher is the sexiest man I have ever seen in my life! After Robert Pattinson, of course."

Lavender and Parvati looked at each other and shrieked.

"Ewww, you think Snape is sexy?" Lavender could barely get the sentence out.

"What, you don't? Claud asked, aghast.

"It's Snape!" Parvati cried. "He's so mean!"

"He's so greasy!" added Lavender. "And old!" She shuddered.

"Well, you obviously don't know eye candy when you see it!" Claudia told them.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to make you a love potion to give to Snape," Lavender said. "That's disgusting. Besides, do you know how many points he would take away from Gryffindor if he found out somebody had drugged him to fall for a Muggle teenager? Not to mention all the detentions we would get. We would get into sooo much trouble!"

"Okay, what do we need in this potion?" I asked impatiently, ready to get on with it.

"Right," Lavender said. "Okay, we'll need two Ashwinder eggs, four toadstools, a pinch of hazelnut, the kidneys of a spider monkey, three shucked oysters, and half a bottle of pumpkin juice. Oh, and your DNA, so give me a strand of your hair or a fingernail."

"You have all that stuff here?" I asked as a plucked a strand of hair from my head.

"Oh, sure," she replied as she and Parvati went around the room gathering the ingredients. As they added them to the cauldron, a pungent smell filled the room.

"That smells awful!" I exclaimed as Claudia and I pinched our noses. "How are we going to get Ron to drink that?"

"Oh, that's where this comes in," Parvati said holding up the bottle of pumpkin juice. (Which didn't sound that great to me, but apparently they love it here).

"So, are we suppose to chant something?" Claudia asked as we watched the potion bubble.

Lavender shook her head. "Not really. We just have to stir it until it's ready."

"Oh." Claudia looked disappointed.

"I mean, you can if you want," Lavender offered.

"Okay!" Claudia She thought for a minute then exclaimed, "I got it!" She cleared her throat: "Hey, hey, you, you, Stace doesn't like your girlfriend! She thinks you need a new one! Hey, hey, you, you! Stace could be your girlfriend! I know that you like her! I know that it's not a secret! Stace could be your girlfriend!"

"Actually, Ron doesn't have a girlfriend," Lavender offered. "Though I have to say I'm surprised because he IS awfully cute." A dreamy expression crossed her face as she continued stirring.

Whoa, step away from my man, I saw him first, I felt like telling her but kept my mouth shut.

"I think it's done," Parvati said and Lavender agreed. She filled the contents into a glass bottle.

"Now what do we do with it?" I asked.

"Now we just have to find the right time to give this to Ron. I reckon dinner will be our best bet since that starts soon."

"How long will it take before he starts to feel the effects?" I asked.

"This particular potion takes ten minutes before the person who drinks it starts to feel any desire," Parvati explained.

Ron was already sitting with Harry and Hermione when we went to the Great Hall to eat dinner later that evening. Lavender winked at me as she and Parvati headed over to him. "Here, Ron, I brought you some pumpkin juice." She sat the bottle down in front of him.

"Uh, thanks, Lavender," he replied.

Giggling, Lavender and Parvati joined Claud and me at the other end of the table.

"Is he drinking it?" I hissed. I tried to look down the table, but there were too many heads blocking my view.

"Hello, are you the Muggle from New York City?" I heard a voice say. A girl with curly brown hair and blue eyes sat next to me.

I nodded and flipped my hair back. "That's right. Born and raised. Stacey McGill."

She smiled at me and shook my head. "Gillian Owens, fourth year. My mother is a witch from London; my dad is a Muggle from New York. He works on Wall Street."

"My dad works on Wall Street!" I cried. "Though my mom isn't a witch; she works at a department store."

"Oh my God," cried Parvati. "I think he's going to drink it! Oh, wait, false alarm. He reached for the pepper shaker instead."

"What are you doing?" asked Gillian.

"We made a love potion for Ron Weasley so he'll fall for Stacey," Lavender explained to her.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Gillian asked.

Parvati looked at her, surprised. "Like you've never done something like this before, Gillian! You're the most boy-crazy girl at this school. Don't think we've never hear you talk about what a fine piece of Slytherin meat Draco Malfoy is and how you'd like to do certain things to Oliver Wood and Cedric Diggory."

"Yeah, well that's different," Gillian replied. "Ron is one of my best friend's brother and he's totally into Hermione."

"Wait, I thought you told me that Hermione has a crush on him." I turned to Lavender.

"Yeah, it goes both ways, they just don't know it yet or won't admit it," Gillian explained. "Anyway, if you have Ron falling all over you, Hermione is going to be pissed and believe me, you don't want to make Hermione angry. She's a very clever witch."

Suddenly I felt very guilty. I thought about how I felt that summer in Sea City with the Pikes when I was into Scott, this hunkalicious lifeguard and how he had hurt my heart when I saw him with another girl. Or the time I found out my way-hot teacher who I had a crush on showed up to one of our school dances with his girlfriend. And that one time I had a crush on my super sexy ski instructor from Montreal when SMS visited this ski lodge in Vermont only to find out he was married and had a baby. And of course, I can't forget the time...well, the point was that I knew how Hermione would feel if her crush was all over another girl.

"And they really do like each other?" I asked.

Gillian nodded. "Oh, yes. Exhibit A: in first year, well, I wasn't here during their first year because I'm a year younger than them, but in second year Hermione was petrified and was in the hospital for most of the school year. When she finally recovered, the first thing she did was hug Harry. Do you know what the second thing she did was?"

"Uh, hug Ron?" I guessed.

Gillian shook her head. "Wrong! They just shook hands!"

"Um, okay?"

"Well, obviously she liked him because she was too shy too hug him! Exhibit B," Gillian continued, "in their third year Hagrid showed them a Hippogriff during a Care of Magical Creatures class and Hermione was nervous and she grabbed Ron's hand! Exhibit 3: During their fourth year was the Yule Ball and Hermione was pissed that Ron didn't ask her out and Ron was being a lovesick fool, following Fleur Delacouer all over the school. Ron was a real prick to her at at the dance and she spent most of the dance crying on the staircase."

"Gosh," I said "I feel terrible! And I can't let Ron drink that potion!" I stood up but noticed that Ron and his friends were gone. And that the bottle was empty.

At that moment, Professor Dumblestood up and clinked his class. "Attention students and visitors! I have a very special announcement to make. "In honor of Stoneybrook Middle School visiting us, Hogwarts will be teaching three Muggle studies classes so you can better connect with your visiting friends. They will be Entering the Internet, Pop Culture in the Muggle World, and Intimate Relations. We encourage all of you to sign up for all three of these wonderful classes! Actually, you are required to take all these classes or your House will lose fifty points for each person who does not attend them. That is all! Cheerio!"