July had stayed and went making way for August to come. Then, sweet,
beautiful August came with it the bright sunshine and saved its gentle
breezes until its departure. The letters, the books, and the wand were
thrown in the corner of my closet covered with papers, magazines, clothes,
and many, many other stuffs. So far my summer was very normal, and I had a
lot of fun. I got a full-time summer job besides the regular babysitting
job, and I opened a bank. Currently, I had over two thousand dollars in my
bank account. When I wasn't working, which was during the weekend, I went
out with my friends, Jenna and Stacy. We went to the movies, the beach,
went on picnics, and spent a lot of good times together. I had so much fun
with my friends that I had completely forgotten about the hidden magical
world. In fact, I probably wouldn't have even remembered it if an owl from
the Headmistress hadn't arrived to my window one-night mid-August. I was
fast asleep from an exhausting day at the beach playing volleyball and
water gun fights. Suddenly there was an unusual scratching sound coming
from the window that woke me up. Sleepily, I sat up and saw at my window
stood a gray blur. Regaining my conscious and clear vision, I recognized
that it was an owl. I opened the screen to let it in. The owl flew in,
dropped a letter at my feet, and immediately out of my window. Tired and
wanting to rest, I picked it up and tossed it on my desk, but curiosity got
the better of me. I turned on my desk lamp and opened the letter. It ran
this way:
" Ms. Tamy,
Have you received the envelope enclosing the two tickets to London from the Ministry of Magic and the Council of Magic's Department of Muggles and Wizards Transportation? If you had not received the necessary tickets, send a word to me, and I will sort the matter out. If you did received the tickets needed, then please be remembered that the school term start on August 31st. I am hoping of seeing you there at the start of year banquet.
Should there be any difficulties don't hesitate to send me an owl.
Professor Gonelle."
I looked at my calendar; it was the 19th of August. I only got two more weeks to tell my parents. I still had to make one more trip to Saleem Alley to buy the rest of my supplies. I was too tired to worry too much, so I let it drift away and went back to sleep. Next day at breakfast, I sat at the table looking down at my food not touching anything. I was too worried to eat anything. My parents noticed this. "What's wrong?" asked my mom.
"Huh? Um. nothing." I lied. I didn't know how to tell her, my dad, and my brother that in two weeks I'm going to Hogwarts School, a school nobody knows exists. Even witches and wizards didn't know where it was.
"Why haven't you touch any of your breakfast?" my mom asked again.
"School starts in two weeks and I haven't buy my supplies yet?" I replied. My mom and dad said something, but I couldn't hear anything they said after that. I was trying to find some excuse to go back to the wizard market place. I hadn't bought the rest of my supplies or my uniform yet. I had to, or I couldn't go to Hogwarts without those supplies. All day I wander around like a zombie carrying a huge burden over my chest dazed. Days and days inched by slowly like years had passed by, I still hadn't worked up the nerves to tell my parents. Whenever I got close to tell them, my throat would dry up and all I could do was stammered a "Nothing". I became moodier and grouchier as each day passed until I would yell at anyone who dared to say hello to me.
Finally, three days before my departure, I worked up a plan of what I was going to do. My parents won't like it. They might hated me or disown me for it, but I couldn't think of anything else. There were no other alternatives. I have already decided to go, and I didn't have much time left. On the morning of August 30th, I woke up much more early than usual. Slowly, secretly, and very quietly, I crept out of bed, got dressed and got packed. I laid an envelope, which contained a letter I wrote last night, on my especially made bed. I envelope contained everything I wanted to say to them and all explanations I wasn't able to tell them face-to-face. I got out of the house as quietly as I could while dragging a briefcase full. While I was outside the door of my house taking one final look of goodbye and a map in my hand, I ran away from the house as quickly as I could fearing that I might had second thoughts and turned back. As the sun slowly rise, I walked smelling the sweet morning dew that pushed all the horrible thoughts, fear, and misfortunes from my mind. I walked as people waking up and sleepily taking the newspaper from their lawn, or yawning wearily as they open their shops, restaurants, or offices, or driving to work drinking their morning coffee. I hummed as more and more people appeared on the streets zooming by from the not so deserted any more streets. I kept on walking as the streets became more busy with people hustling and bustling as the sun rose higher and shone brighter. So far my mood was really delightful as I turned to the road of Hillside. A small sign with the words "Open" spread across hung over on the inside. I opened the door and stepped inside hoping that my last visit wasn't a dream, and it wasn't; inside were only a few sleepy customers enjoying their morning coffee. As I entered the coffee-fumed room, the same old kind lady who owned the shop approached me.
"Good morning, dear," greeted she and invited me to a chair beside one of the table, "It's nice to see you again. It had been such a long time since I saw you last. Breakfast, dear?"
"Yes, please!" I replied after noticing that my stomach had been growling for food. "I'll have some eggs, bacons, and orange juice, please."
"Of course!" said she. Then, the lady took out a wand and waved it at a place in front of me. Everything I order mysteriously popped out. She summoned a cup from another table to mine, and filled it with orange juice.
"Thank you!" I said, and took up the knife and fork and started eating. The food was delicious even though was came out of nowhere.
"What bring you here at this hour in the morning?" she asked as I chewed my food.
"I have some last minute shopping for school." I replied.
"Oh?"
"Yeah! I have to buy my uniform and other supplies. The school year starts tomorrow and my plane leaves today. I'm hoping I can catch the plane before it leaves without me?"
"The what?"
"The airplane."
She gave me a quizzical look.
"It's a big metal thing that look like a bird that fly. You can often see it in the sky. Muggles use it to get from one country to another and more often to far away places over the ocean." I tried to explain. She still looked confused, but this time fascinated.
"Ooh, really? Muggles have so much strange and intriguing ideas don't you think so?" said she.
"Uh! Yeah!"
"Where are you going to school, my dear?"
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Hogwarts? Your parents must be really talented witch and wizard in order for you to be accepted to Hogwarts."
"Why is that?"
"Well, it's a well-known fact that Hogwarts only accept the best witches and wizards in training there are in the world. When students finished school there, they are known as the best of the best. Because it is so famous and with so much high quality of an education, the original founder of the school kept the school hidden from outsider. Naturally, nowadays no one knows where it is, not even the students or even the teachers. The only ones that knows are the Headmasters or Headmistress."
"Wow, I did not know all that."
"Yes, dear. I've always wanted to go to Hogwarts, but then again I guess everyone want to. They can't accept anyone or everyone. So, I'm happy to have attended Ultemecia Academy of Witchcraft-it's the best school in the country."
Several more people came in. The lady owner stood up and told me, "I need to tend my customers. It was nice to see you again. Should I not get the chance to talk to you before you go, visit me when you get back and tell me all about your time at Hogwarts."
She left me and joined the group of people just came in. The kind owner showed them up to a whipped and conjured up some breakfast; she happily talked to them as she served. I looked at my watch and it told me that it is a little over ten o'clock; I got ample of time before my planes leaved. Finishing my breakfast without haste, I leaved two gold coins on the table not knowing how much the breakfast cost. I stood up and started to go, but something stopped me. I realized that I don't want to drag a large brief case full of books and heavy things around. I looked around to see if there's anyplace I could put them until I came back. As if she was reading my mind, the lady owner called to me, "Just leave them there! I watch them for you, dear."
Following her advice, I left with just my bag pack and walked out once more into the old cobbled street. As usual, it was full of people in robes, gowns, and cloaks carrying wands and cauldron complaining about the price of dragon livers, unicorn horns, dried shivelfigs roots, or smashed griffin claws. Several even wore long pointed black hats, which made them look even more like witches and wizards then ever, except those that wore scarlet or yellow hats. They looked like yellow daisies, or red flowers than witches and wizards. As I walked down the street, I pulled out my supplies list to see what more I needed to buy for school; it said that I needed school uniforms, a cauldron, a telescope, a pair of protective gloves, and a Potion making kit. The hustling and bustling street was full with Apothecary shops, where I bought my Potions making kits, my protective gloves, and the cauldron. The Apothecary was already a very gloomy and creepy place as it was without the floating jars of livers, animals, and fouling smell of dead and spoiled things. Then, there were the Divination shops, where I bought my telescopes. The shop was full of books on fortune telling, stars chart, and weird magical gadgets and foretold the future. The sweet shops, where I bought many, many candies and sweets. The sweet shops were my favorite. There were Bettie Bott's Beans of Every Flavor, and they meant every flavor; Multi-Tastes Wands, they were wand-shaped sugar candies that kept changing flavor; Explosive Bubble Gums, which were normal bubble gum, but they burst really loud; Live Chocolate Frogs, people cast a spell or a charm on it to make it alive; Everlasting Gummi Bear, I hadn't tried; and even Edible Stories, Edible Stories were little books made of candies that contain some small and very short stories, and though they were very short, they were extraordinarily funny. I spent the longest time in the candy shop, even longer than the bookshop, Words of Wisdom. Long last, I left the candy shop with half a cauldron full and heavy of candies and sweets in one hand and a Multi-Taste Wand in the other looking for a clothes shop to buy my uniforms.
Finally at a dead end of a street called Werewolves Lane, I found a big shop with large glass windows full of clothes and a large letters engraved in silver, "Needle and Threads" on top of a giant size double doors. Upon entering the shop, I saw many, many more clothes: gowns, robes, cloaks, dresses, scarves, and other I couldn't identify. Some gowns and robes in dummies that kept turning this side and that to let customers see it glorious clothes. Other dresses, other gowns, cloaks, and others weird clothes floating about three feet off the ground in rows and columns. There were several small stools lining side by side in the back of the shop, but the shop owner was nowhere in sight. Nervously, I walked around to see if there was any one a round, and then from behind a rack of cloth hanger came a tall, slender witch dressed in a dark maroon gown and a dark robe over it. Seeing that I was confused, she approached me and asked, "May I be of any help?"
"I came to buy uniform for school." I replied.
"For Hogwarts?"
"Yes, how d-"
"I received a letter from the Headmistress a while ago. I was wondering when you'd show up to buy your uniform; there aren't many shops in Saleem Alley that does uniform like we do. I was about write to the Headmistress to inform here about you and ask if there was anything amiss."
Before I could reply, she led me to a small stool and instructed, "Stand up here pleased." I tried to stand as still as I could when she measured me, but it was hard to stay still when the thing that normally don't float in mid air all by itself was measuring me all by itself. It made me a little nervous. Standing in the stool holding my arms out like a scarecrow not being able to move was most painful and especially dull. It felt like I was standing there for years and years, but at last hours later, she was finally finished with measuring and do all that she needed to do to make my uniform. With one eave of her wand, the scissors and the clothes formed into clothes right before my eyes neatly folded and stacked on the stool that I stood on. Amazed, I paid her, and with a sincere thank I left the shop with my uniform.
I came out of the shop with three more bags in my cauldron. I had bought five gowns, three robes, two daywear hats, a cloak, and a winter cloak made out of the finest wool I had ever felt. I was very sure that there weren't a Muggle anywhere on earth can made a finer cloak than the one that I had now in my cauldron. The cauldron was almost too full to carry and dreadfully heavy. Because of the weigh of the cauldron, I almost turned back to Merlin's Goblet, but a shop caught my eyes. It was the most glamorous shop in Saleem Alley. The whole shop was glittering like stars in the night sky, and above the shop words appeared as if an invisible pen was writing it, "Ink's Splotch". Ink's Splotch was a writing utensils shop. There were quills made of countless birds' feathers, scrolls and parchments of many kinds of woods-some I had never even heard of-, inkbottles of many colors; there were even invisible ink, silver inks, and inks that flashes in many different colors. There were quills made up of eagles feathers, phoenixes, griffins, hawks, peacocks, and a lot more. Not being able to resist the temptation, I bought several scrolls and parchments, two ink bottles-one changed from gold to silver and the other changed into a different color every time you dipped the quill into the bottle-, and two quills, a phoenix's feather and an eagle's feather. The cauldron was too full, and I only have two galleons, a few Sickles, and several Knuts left in my moneybag. Fearing that I might find another interesting shop, I head back to Merlin's Goblet as fast as I could. A lot more people were in the Alley now than there were in the morning when I left Merlin's Goblet. It was more difficult to pass the rowdy crowd.
When I reached the shop, I checked my watch to see how long I had spent shopping. My watch told me that it was already one o'clock and twenty minutes, and that meant that I spent almost five hours in Saleem Alley. When I set my bags down beside my suitcases under the table, I noticed that my stomach was growling for food. I wasn't even aware of how hungry I was amid all of the excitements. I called the shop lady to order some lunch. Like before, with just a waved her wand a burger and a side order of fries filled my plate and apple juice in my glass. The lady didn't have time to come over and talk to me, because she was busy talking to a girl about my age-I think. While they were talking, I noticed that once the lady pointed at me; this made a little nervous and very curious at what they might be talking about that might involved me. I surveyed the girl. She wasn't dressed like other witches or wizards, even witches or wizards her age. The girl wore a normal pink shirt with the words "Totally" across it, and a pair of blue-jean shorts. At first glance, no one would notice anything odd about her at all, but when I looked closer, I saw that she was carrying a cauldron very much like mine. It might be made of finer material, but a great deal similar to mine. The cauldron was full of books, and weird shaped packages, too. I was too busy observing her to notice that she was coming over to me.
When she reached my table, she took a seat across me, and she said to me holding out a hand, "Hi! I'm Gabrielle. The lady owner told me that you are going to Hogwarts Wizarding School. Is that true?"
I nervously took her hand and replied, "Hello! I'm Alice. Nice to meet you! Yes, I am going to Hogwarts."
"Really? I'm going to Hogwarts, too. Will this be your first year there?"
"Yes. It is."
"Me, too." She screeched. She was sort of very excited.
"The lady also said that she always sees you alone and was wondering if you have a ride to take you there."
"Well, I know how to get there. I just need a ride to get to the airport."
"The airport? Is that the place you go to go on the big metal thing? What are they called? A plane, am I right?"
"Yes."
"This is my first time taking a plane. As you probably already know, the Flu Powder Network run by the Council of Magic's Department of Muggle and Wizard Transportation was hexed. Now, everyone who wants to get over or across the ocean has to use the Apparition Network or the Muggle way of traveling over the ocean. Not many people want to use Apparition, because it is a very dangerous thing apparating over such a long distance. Naturally a lot of wizards and witches like me are forced to use muggle transportation. This makes the Councils of Magic and the Ministries of Magic go crazy. The Heads of both Departments of Muggle and Wizards Transportation are working overtime and going mad.
" Ms. Tamy,
Have you received the envelope enclosing the two tickets to London from the Ministry of Magic and the Council of Magic's Department of Muggles and Wizards Transportation? If you had not received the necessary tickets, send a word to me, and I will sort the matter out. If you did received the tickets needed, then please be remembered that the school term start on August 31st. I am hoping of seeing you there at the start of year banquet.
Should there be any difficulties don't hesitate to send me an owl.
Professor Gonelle."
I looked at my calendar; it was the 19th of August. I only got two more weeks to tell my parents. I still had to make one more trip to Saleem Alley to buy the rest of my supplies. I was too tired to worry too much, so I let it drift away and went back to sleep. Next day at breakfast, I sat at the table looking down at my food not touching anything. I was too worried to eat anything. My parents noticed this. "What's wrong?" asked my mom.
"Huh? Um. nothing." I lied. I didn't know how to tell her, my dad, and my brother that in two weeks I'm going to Hogwarts School, a school nobody knows exists. Even witches and wizards didn't know where it was.
"Why haven't you touch any of your breakfast?" my mom asked again.
"School starts in two weeks and I haven't buy my supplies yet?" I replied. My mom and dad said something, but I couldn't hear anything they said after that. I was trying to find some excuse to go back to the wizard market place. I hadn't bought the rest of my supplies or my uniform yet. I had to, or I couldn't go to Hogwarts without those supplies. All day I wander around like a zombie carrying a huge burden over my chest dazed. Days and days inched by slowly like years had passed by, I still hadn't worked up the nerves to tell my parents. Whenever I got close to tell them, my throat would dry up and all I could do was stammered a "Nothing". I became moodier and grouchier as each day passed until I would yell at anyone who dared to say hello to me.
Finally, three days before my departure, I worked up a plan of what I was going to do. My parents won't like it. They might hated me or disown me for it, but I couldn't think of anything else. There were no other alternatives. I have already decided to go, and I didn't have much time left. On the morning of August 30th, I woke up much more early than usual. Slowly, secretly, and very quietly, I crept out of bed, got dressed and got packed. I laid an envelope, which contained a letter I wrote last night, on my especially made bed. I envelope contained everything I wanted to say to them and all explanations I wasn't able to tell them face-to-face. I got out of the house as quietly as I could while dragging a briefcase full. While I was outside the door of my house taking one final look of goodbye and a map in my hand, I ran away from the house as quickly as I could fearing that I might had second thoughts and turned back. As the sun slowly rise, I walked smelling the sweet morning dew that pushed all the horrible thoughts, fear, and misfortunes from my mind. I walked as people waking up and sleepily taking the newspaper from their lawn, or yawning wearily as they open their shops, restaurants, or offices, or driving to work drinking their morning coffee. I hummed as more and more people appeared on the streets zooming by from the not so deserted any more streets. I kept on walking as the streets became more busy with people hustling and bustling as the sun rose higher and shone brighter. So far my mood was really delightful as I turned to the road of Hillside. A small sign with the words "Open" spread across hung over on the inside. I opened the door and stepped inside hoping that my last visit wasn't a dream, and it wasn't; inside were only a few sleepy customers enjoying their morning coffee. As I entered the coffee-fumed room, the same old kind lady who owned the shop approached me.
"Good morning, dear," greeted she and invited me to a chair beside one of the table, "It's nice to see you again. It had been such a long time since I saw you last. Breakfast, dear?"
"Yes, please!" I replied after noticing that my stomach had been growling for food. "I'll have some eggs, bacons, and orange juice, please."
"Of course!" said she. Then, the lady took out a wand and waved it at a place in front of me. Everything I order mysteriously popped out. She summoned a cup from another table to mine, and filled it with orange juice.
"Thank you!" I said, and took up the knife and fork and started eating. The food was delicious even though was came out of nowhere.
"What bring you here at this hour in the morning?" she asked as I chewed my food.
"I have some last minute shopping for school." I replied.
"Oh?"
"Yeah! I have to buy my uniform and other supplies. The school year starts tomorrow and my plane leaves today. I'm hoping I can catch the plane before it leaves without me?"
"The what?"
"The airplane."
She gave me a quizzical look.
"It's a big metal thing that look like a bird that fly. You can often see it in the sky. Muggles use it to get from one country to another and more often to far away places over the ocean." I tried to explain. She still looked confused, but this time fascinated.
"Ooh, really? Muggles have so much strange and intriguing ideas don't you think so?" said she.
"Uh! Yeah!"
"Where are you going to school, my dear?"
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Hogwarts? Your parents must be really talented witch and wizard in order for you to be accepted to Hogwarts."
"Why is that?"
"Well, it's a well-known fact that Hogwarts only accept the best witches and wizards in training there are in the world. When students finished school there, they are known as the best of the best. Because it is so famous and with so much high quality of an education, the original founder of the school kept the school hidden from outsider. Naturally, nowadays no one knows where it is, not even the students or even the teachers. The only ones that knows are the Headmasters or Headmistress."
"Wow, I did not know all that."
"Yes, dear. I've always wanted to go to Hogwarts, but then again I guess everyone want to. They can't accept anyone or everyone. So, I'm happy to have attended Ultemecia Academy of Witchcraft-it's the best school in the country."
Several more people came in. The lady owner stood up and told me, "I need to tend my customers. It was nice to see you again. Should I not get the chance to talk to you before you go, visit me when you get back and tell me all about your time at Hogwarts."
She left me and joined the group of people just came in. The kind owner showed them up to a whipped and conjured up some breakfast; she happily talked to them as she served. I looked at my watch and it told me that it is a little over ten o'clock; I got ample of time before my planes leaved. Finishing my breakfast without haste, I leaved two gold coins on the table not knowing how much the breakfast cost. I stood up and started to go, but something stopped me. I realized that I don't want to drag a large brief case full of books and heavy things around. I looked around to see if there's anyplace I could put them until I came back. As if she was reading my mind, the lady owner called to me, "Just leave them there! I watch them for you, dear."
Following her advice, I left with just my bag pack and walked out once more into the old cobbled street. As usual, it was full of people in robes, gowns, and cloaks carrying wands and cauldron complaining about the price of dragon livers, unicorn horns, dried shivelfigs roots, or smashed griffin claws. Several even wore long pointed black hats, which made them look even more like witches and wizards then ever, except those that wore scarlet or yellow hats. They looked like yellow daisies, or red flowers than witches and wizards. As I walked down the street, I pulled out my supplies list to see what more I needed to buy for school; it said that I needed school uniforms, a cauldron, a telescope, a pair of protective gloves, and a Potion making kit. The hustling and bustling street was full with Apothecary shops, where I bought my Potions making kits, my protective gloves, and the cauldron. The Apothecary was already a very gloomy and creepy place as it was without the floating jars of livers, animals, and fouling smell of dead and spoiled things. Then, there were the Divination shops, where I bought my telescopes. The shop was full of books on fortune telling, stars chart, and weird magical gadgets and foretold the future. The sweet shops, where I bought many, many candies and sweets. The sweet shops were my favorite. There were Bettie Bott's Beans of Every Flavor, and they meant every flavor; Multi-Tastes Wands, they were wand-shaped sugar candies that kept changing flavor; Explosive Bubble Gums, which were normal bubble gum, but they burst really loud; Live Chocolate Frogs, people cast a spell or a charm on it to make it alive; Everlasting Gummi Bear, I hadn't tried; and even Edible Stories, Edible Stories were little books made of candies that contain some small and very short stories, and though they were very short, they were extraordinarily funny. I spent the longest time in the candy shop, even longer than the bookshop, Words of Wisdom. Long last, I left the candy shop with half a cauldron full and heavy of candies and sweets in one hand and a Multi-Taste Wand in the other looking for a clothes shop to buy my uniforms.
Finally at a dead end of a street called Werewolves Lane, I found a big shop with large glass windows full of clothes and a large letters engraved in silver, "Needle and Threads" on top of a giant size double doors. Upon entering the shop, I saw many, many more clothes: gowns, robes, cloaks, dresses, scarves, and other I couldn't identify. Some gowns and robes in dummies that kept turning this side and that to let customers see it glorious clothes. Other dresses, other gowns, cloaks, and others weird clothes floating about three feet off the ground in rows and columns. There were several small stools lining side by side in the back of the shop, but the shop owner was nowhere in sight. Nervously, I walked around to see if there was any one a round, and then from behind a rack of cloth hanger came a tall, slender witch dressed in a dark maroon gown and a dark robe over it. Seeing that I was confused, she approached me and asked, "May I be of any help?"
"I came to buy uniform for school." I replied.
"For Hogwarts?"
"Yes, how d-"
"I received a letter from the Headmistress a while ago. I was wondering when you'd show up to buy your uniform; there aren't many shops in Saleem Alley that does uniform like we do. I was about write to the Headmistress to inform here about you and ask if there was anything amiss."
Before I could reply, she led me to a small stool and instructed, "Stand up here pleased." I tried to stand as still as I could when she measured me, but it was hard to stay still when the thing that normally don't float in mid air all by itself was measuring me all by itself. It made me a little nervous. Standing in the stool holding my arms out like a scarecrow not being able to move was most painful and especially dull. It felt like I was standing there for years and years, but at last hours later, she was finally finished with measuring and do all that she needed to do to make my uniform. With one eave of her wand, the scissors and the clothes formed into clothes right before my eyes neatly folded and stacked on the stool that I stood on. Amazed, I paid her, and with a sincere thank I left the shop with my uniform.
I came out of the shop with three more bags in my cauldron. I had bought five gowns, three robes, two daywear hats, a cloak, and a winter cloak made out of the finest wool I had ever felt. I was very sure that there weren't a Muggle anywhere on earth can made a finer cloak than the one that I had now in my cauldron. The cauldron was almost too full to carry and dreadfully heavy. Because of the weigh of the cauldron, I almost turned back to Merlin's Goblet, but a shop caught my eyes. It was the most glamorous shop in Saleem Alley. The whole shop was glittering like stars in the night sky, and above the shop words appeared as if an invisible pen was writing it, "Ink's Splotch". Ink's Splotch was a writing utensils shop. There were quills made of countless birds' feathers, scrolls and parchments of many kinds of woods-some I had never even heard of-, inkbottles of many colors; there were even invisible ink, silver inks, and inks that flashes in many different colors. There were quills made up of eagles feathers, phoenixes, griffins, hawks, peacocks, and a lot more. Not being able to resist the temptation, I bought several scrolls and parchments, two ink bottles-one changed from gold to silver and the other changed into a different color every time you dipped the quill into the bottle-, and two quills, a phoenix's feather and an eagle's feather. The cauldron was too full, and I only have two galleons, a few Sickles, and several Knuts left in my moneybag. Fearing that I might find another interesting shop, I head back to Merlin's Goblet as fast as I could. A lot more people were in the Alley now than there were in the morning when I left Merlin's Goblet. It was more difficult to pass the rowdy crowd.
When I reached the shop, I checked my watch to see how long I had spent shopping. My watch told me that it was already one o'clock and twenty minutes, and that meant that I spent almost five hours in Saleem Alley. When I set my bags down beside my suitcases under the table, I noticed that my stomach was growling for food. I wasn't even aware of how hungry I was amid all of the excitements. I called the shop lady to order some lunch. Like before, with just a waved her wand a burger and a side order of fries filled my plate and apple juice in my glass. The lady didn't have time to come over and talk to me, because she was busy talking to a girl about my age-I think. While they were talking, I noticed that once the lady pointed at me; this made a little nervous and very curious at what they might be talking about that might involved me. I surveyed the girl. She wasn't dressed like other witches or wizards, even witches or wizards her age. The girl wore a normal pink shirt with the words "Totally" across it, and a pair of blue-jean shorts. At first glance, no one would notice anything odd about her at all, but when I looked closer, I saw that she was carrying a cauldron very much like mine. It might be made of finer material, but a great deal similar to mine. The cauldron was full of books, and weird shaped packages, too. I was too busy observing her to notice that she was coming over to me.
When she reached my table, she took a seat across me, and she said to me holding out a hand, "Hi! I'm Gabrielle. The lady owner told me that you are going to Hogwarts Wizarding School. Is that true?"
I nervously took her hand and replied, "Hello! I'm Alice. Nice to meet you! Yes, I am going to Hogwarts."
"Really? I'm going to Hogwarts, too. Will this be your first year there?"
"Yes. It is."
"Me, too." She screeched. She was sort of very excited.
"The lady also said that she always sees you alone and was wondering if you have a ride to take you there."
"Well, I know how to get there. I just need a ride to get to the airport."
"The airport? Is that the place you go to go on the big metal thing? What are they called? A plane, am I right?"
"Yes."
"This is my first time taking a plane. As you probably already know, the Flu Powder Network run by the Council of Magic's Department of Muggle and Wizard Transportation was hexed. Now, everyone who wants to get over or across the ocean has to use the Apparition Network or the Muggle way of traveling over the ocean. Not many people want to use Apparition, because it is a very dangerous thing apparating over such a long distance. Naturally a lot of wizards and witches like me are forced to use muggle transportation. This makes the Councils of Magic and the Ministries of Magic go crazy. The Heads of both Departments of Muggle and Wizards Transportation are working overtime and going mad.