Thank you, Camille and Vana for revealing that you were not figments of my creative genious and were in fact real people. All well, I hope that any readers I might possibly have somehow managed to aquire don't love me any less. Although they might after this chapter...

As we came in the front door, I couldn't seem to keep the smile off my face, everything, well, almost everything, seemed so wonderful. I ran in to show my father all my new things, my shiny new set of silver weighing scales, a pocket-size brass telescope, my new robes and all my new books. As I went through the books, I was reminded of the missing one with the strange title. Preparing Yourself: A Guide to Dark Magic…

"Mom?" I called, "We'll have to look for this book." I said.

"Alright, why don't you leave the list on the counter and I'll see if I can order it."

"Ok…" I said and hurried to show my dad my wand, quickly forgetting about the book, once again.

The wand reminded me of the woman's words. 'This wand will turn your wildest dreams into reality.' What was that supposed to mean? I thought about seeing if Sylvia or Camille had had a similar experience, but then remembered what we had promised today. If I saw them again before leaving, I was sure to say goodbye. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stand parting with my friends again.

Instead, I got to work organizing my things in my new trunk and marking my calendar for the day that I left for school. I was trying my best to look forward to it, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to control the sinking sensation in my stomach that came every time I thought about leaving. As I carefully rolled my parchment and stuck it in the corner of the trunk, my cat, Fen, came to rub against my leg.

"Hey, fuzzy… I sure will miss you sweetie," I whispered, reaching down to scratch the big, orange tiger cat behind the ears. He looked at me with his big blue-ish green eyes, sorrowfully. Because of these big eyes, we'd thought he was a girl. Thus the name Muffin, then, because of my misspelling, he'd turned into Muffen, with an "e" instead of an "i", and when it was discovered, that he wasn't a girl, I'd called him Fen, though the rest of my family still insisted on Muffen.

One look into those eyes made me want to cry. "Oh, Fen… What will I do without you?" He bumped my elbow roughly with his head. Falling forward, I glanced into my trunk, and momentarily recalled that I had to check my list to make sure I'd gotten everything. This reminded me of something else. I jumped up so fast that Fen hissed and his fur stood on end. I ran into the hallway and grabbed my list of the table.

"Yes!" I cried, "Yes!" There, at the bottom of the list! "Students may also bring an owl or a toad or a… Cat! Yes! A cat!" Fen wandered out of my room and stood by my ankle, looking up questioningly.

"Hey, Fen, how would you like to come with me?" I asked, he rubbed my leg enthusiastically, which I took as, 'I don't understand a word you're saying but the answer is yes anyway.' Grinning widely, I ran off to show my parents.

Getting my parent's permission to bring Fen to Hogwarts took a lot of begging on my part. Of course, I would've brought him anyway, but I'd much rather have done it with their permission.

"But, honey, he'd be much happier here! This is his home! He's lived here for all of his life! I don't think it's a good idea to bring him…" my mother argued, but the truth of the matter was, I knew that for Fen, this wouldn't be home without me.

The days passed and my departure date drew nearer and nearer. I sat in my room, thinking about school. I looked through my trunk for the thousandth time. I carefully took out each book. I had skimmed a few of them; I hadn't really been sure how much we were supposed to read over the summer, and although I would have felt more prepared if I had read more, I doubted that anyone else would read all of their books.

Suddenly I realized that I had in fact forgotten something, despite the countless times I'd checked and rechecked. The book! We'd never ordered the book! I ran upstairs to my mother.

"Mom! We never ordered the defense against the dark arts book! You know, the one Carol couldn't find!"

"Oh, right! Don't worry, I'll go see if I can find it right now," she got up and went off in search for the book. As the days went on, our search got more and more desperate. Finally, we gave up. The book was no where to be found. None of the nearby or even not-so-nearby wizarding bookstores had it and none of the companies we talked to had ever heard of it.

"Just explain to your teacher that you couldn't find it. Apparently they don't have it here in the U.S." my mom said.

"Alright…" I sighed, but I was still nervous about coming to school without one of my books.

All too soon, it was August 30th and, at 6:30 A.M. my trunk, bags, Fen, Regal, our family owl, my mother and I all piled into the car and drove off toward the airport.

As unmagical as taking a plane to a famous wizarding school might seem, it was by far the most practical way. Neither my mother nor I could apparate and the government still refused to set up portkeys for students traveling overseas. The drive to Logan Airport only took about forty minutes, but by the time we'd eaten breakfast and gotten through security (the airport staff tend to get a little suspicious when you are carrying a large, formidable, grey owl…) it was 8:05. We hurried to catch the plane, which was boarding at 8:10 and finally managed to safely find our seats and take off. It took a long time to explain to the stewardess that although Fen was coming on the plane, he was not considered a carry-on item, and that Regal was, in fact, part of a program to reintroduce great grey owls to England.

My mother had suggested I bring Regal just until I got the hang of the place and managed to find the school owlery. Regal looked annoyed and hooted at the stewardess in an irritated, but dignified way. Quite taken aback, she finally allowed the owl to board the plane as long as he didn't make too much noise.

The flight was, for the most part, uneventful. People gave us dirty looks and whispered about mistreatment of animals and at one point Fen got annoyed at sitting in his cage for so long and knocked over his water bowl, spilling it all over my legs.

When we finally got everything to a pet-friendly hotel, although, owls were apparently not considered pets, and Regal had to be let out of his cage before we went inside, it was about 7:00 our time and midnight in England. Although it was still early for me, I tried my best to sleep. I wanted to be well-rested for the journey on the Hogwarts express tomorrow.

As I considered this, nervousness once again rose in the pit of my stomach. What would it be like? I didn't know anyone! I'd never been away from home for more then four weeks at a time! I tried reassuring myself. I was confident and friendly. I could make friends in no time. It didn't work. The next morning, when my mom woke me for the drive to King's Cross station, I hadn't slept a wink.

Ugh, sorry for that boring, pointless chapter. I had a case writer's block and how interesting can packing and taking a plane trip be? Well, review anyway!