During the next month, the days just dragged by. Izabella spent much of her time re-packing her trunk, adding a few extra things that she normally would not take to school and deciding not to take other things. Finally, the end of August arrived and she would be on her way to England the next evening.
A little nervous and much too excited to sleep, Izabella spent most of the night thinking about what Hogwarts would really be like, she had read parts Hogwarts, A History, that her grandmother had given her after they learned that she would be transferring there. Izabella also wondered what the teachers and students would be like. Most of all, she thought about finally being able to see her father every day.
She was out of bed before the sun rose, once again going through her trunk, she felt as though she was forgetting something very important. She went to Lily Dale for lunch with her friends from school, Jasmine, her best friend, and Casandra to say good-bye. Jasmine gave her a small gift; Izabella opened the package and held up what looked like a gyroscope. "A muggle toy," said Casandra, "you gave her a muggle toy?"
Izabella turned it over in her hands, looking at it closely. It was silver and gold; it did look like a toy that a muggle child would play with.
"It's not a toy and it definitely is not for muggles." Jasmine said calmly. "It's a sneakoscope."
"A what?" said Casandra.
"It's called a sneakoscope," explained Jasmine, "it gives off a whistling sound when someone untrustworthy is around. When my father was in England about twenty years ago, someone there gave it to him. Father said with everything that is happening over there now that I should give it to you"
"What's happening over there?"
"Casandra, don't you ever pay attention to current events?" replied Jasmine.
Casandra huffed and walked away, Izabella ran after her, "I am going to miss you, Cassie, " Izabella said, "I will write to you."
"I'll miss you too Izabella." They hugged and Casandra walked off. Izabella returned to where Jasmine was standing. "I just don't get her sometimes," Jasmine told Izabella.
"I know, me either. I have to go now, Grandmother is making a special dinner tonight and I have to make sure I have everything packed."
"What time do you leave?"
"At nine," she sighed, "I am going to miss you so much." Izabella hugged Jasmine.
"Don't go falling for one of those English Wizards while you're there," Jasmine joked.
Izabella laughed, "Of course not."
When Izabella arrived home, she showed her grandmother the sneakoscope. "It's a very good thing to have, especially going into a new situation like you are. It was very nice of Jasmine's father to give it to you."
They both were quiet over dinner; afterwards Izabella helped clean up. Then she went up to her room and read more of Hogwarts, A History. At nine PM, she pointed her wand at her trunk, "locomotor," it glided through the air as she headed down the stairs.
There was a taxi already waiting to take her to the airport, she tucked her wand into her bag, opened the door and began to drag her trunk out of the house. The driver jumped from the front seat and ran up the porch steps, Izabella gave a small smile when he tried to lift the trunk and it didn't move. As he tried once more to lift it, she reached into her bag, holding her wand she again whispered locomotor, this time the driver had no problem lifting the trunk and carrying it to the taxi.
When her trunk was finally stuffed into the taxi, Izabella got into the back seat, she saw her grandmother looking out the front window, waving goodbye, and then the taxi drove off.
After driving a few miles in silence, the driver asked, "Where are ya headin'?"
"To England," she paused, "to boarding school."
"Ya don't seem to be takin' much with ya."
Not knowing what say, she thought of her father, "Everything else that I need is already there."
Arriving at the airport, Izabella again reached into her bag, helping the driver to lift the trunk from the taxi onto a cart. She tried to pay the driver but he said that it was already taken care of.
She pushed the cart through the airport until she reached the gate that her flight would leave from. She presented her ticket, checked her trunk and boarded the plane.
Amazingly, the plane was delayed only thirty minutes, but the flight itself was uneventful; Izabella slept almost the entire seven hours of the flight. After the plane landed, she picked up her trunk, and made it through customs without any problems.
She had forty-five minutes before the train left for Hogwarts.
Once outside the airport, she found a taxi to get her to King's Cross The driver, a big burly man, picked up her trunk without Izabella having to help. "Where to, Miss?" he asked
"King's Cross," she answered.
At King's Cross, the driver found a trolley for Izabella's trunk and placed her trunk on it. "Need me to push it in for yeh, Miss?"
"No, thank you," she said as she paid the driver in muggle money.
Izabella pushed her trolley inside and looked at her ticket, then up and down the platform for number nine and three quarters, she didn't see it. Izabella saw people around her age pushing trolleys with trunks on them. They all seemed to be heading in the same direction. Following a small group whose trunks had the Hogwarts Crest, Izabella found what she was searching for, the way to platform nine and three quarters. She watched them as they walked into the brick well that separated platforms nine and ten. Without hesitation, she walked through the barrier, as though she had been doing it forever.
She pulled her trunk onto the train and down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment. When she found one, she pushed her trunk though the door and placed it on a luggage rack and taking the seat closest to the window she sat down very out of breath.