Dear David Michael, Karen, Andrew, and Emily Michelle,

Hi! How are you guys? Do you miss me? I am on a train called the Hogwarts Express. You guys would love it! They serve candy and other treats for all the passengers. Some of the treats are a bit odd-tasting, though. Mary Anne found a huge book about the place we're going to visit, so we've been looking through that. Maybe Mom and Watson can take you guys here someday! Be good!

Love you big sister,

Kristy

Claudia, Stacey, Dawn, and I were sitting in one of the train's compartments, chatting. Mary Anne and Mallory had decided to go off and explore.

"Look at that view!" exclaimed Stacey looking out the window as lush green fields whizzed by us. "How dibble!"

"This is almost as fresh as the Magic School Bus!" exclaimed Claudia. Her eyes brightened as a woman wheeling a cart by stopped at our compartment.

"Chocolate frogs?" she asked us. "Bertie Botts Every-Flavored Bean?" She held up a bag filled with jelly beans.

"Ooh, are those like Jelly Bellys?" Claudia asked. "I'll take some of those…and did you say chocolate?"

"Do you have anything that doesn't have any sugar in it?" Dawn asked wrinkling her nose.

"That will be ten knuts," the woman told Claudia handing over the treats. She frowned at Claud's get-up.

"Knuts?" repeated Claudia. "Don't you use pounds over here?" She paused to flash us "see how smart I am!" look and then turned back to the woman, "I only have American money. Will you take that?"

"Damn Muggles," I thought I heard the woman mumble. But she held up her hands. "We'll sort out the currency later."

"What are Muggles?" Stacey wondered once she had left.

Claudia opened the bag of jelly beans and passed offered some to me. I took a handful and put them in my mouth.

"Oh, EWWWW!" I cried as I spat out the chewed up beans on the floor.

"Kristy, that's disgusting!" Dawn said.

"Well, I'm sorry, but those things are nasty!" I cried. "I can taste vomit and urine and dirt in my mouth!"

Claudia, who was about to stuff a bunch in her mouth, just took an orange one tentatively to her nose and sniffed it. "It doesn't smell like anything." She then proceeded to place it on her tongue and began to eat. "Tastes like orange," she shrugged.

"Try that puke-colored one," I said nodding.

She did and immediately spat it out. "Gross! Maybe these will be better…you can't go wrong with chocolate."

"I beg to differ," Dawn muttered as Claudia opened the package with the chocolate frog, which actually leapt out, making all of us shriek.

"Why is it MOVING?" cried Stacey, covering her head for protection.

"Oh my Lord, it's alive!" cried Claudia. "It's a real frog!"

"A real frog!" Dawn cried, outraged. "You mean those beasts took a real frog and dipped it in chocolate? OUTRAGEOUS!! Wait until I have a word with the British Tourism Board about this!"

(Dawn is very passionate about the environment and hates seeing animals being hurt. She absolutely refuses to dissect animals in our biology class).

More shrieking ensued when the frog leapt on top of Claudia's pointy witch hat for a couple of seconds. The door opened and the frog leapt out of the room, not before landing on Alan Gray's shoulder. He was standing next to Pete Black.

"Ladies, we heard screaming, "Alan told us. "Have no fear because your knights in shining armor are here to rescue you!"

"Oh, barf," I said. "Alan, go away."

Alan Gray is the most immature boy at SMS. No, scratch that. He is the most immature boy in the world!

"We're fine now, thank you, Alan," Claudia said.

"Well, would you ladies like some company?" Pete asked.

Before I could protest, he and Pete had sat down across from each other.

"Claudia, you have a wart on your nose!" Alan told her.

"I know!" she snapped. "It's part of my outfit, thank you very much!"

At that moment, Mary Anne and Mallory returned from exploring. Mary Anne was holding a thick, hardcover book and looked excited. "Look what I found under one of the seats in one of the compartments!" she cried, holding up the book.

"Hogwarts, A History," I read the title on the front.

"It tells everything there is to know about Hogwarts!" Mal said, just as excitedly as Mary Anne. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! How dibble is that?"

"They sure wrote a thick book on a place that only exists for fun," commented Stacey.

"Maybe it's real," Alan replied.

"Don't be ridiculous!" scoffed Dawn. "There's no such thing as magic!"

"Excuse me, but don't you believe in ghosts?" Alan asked pointedly.

"It's been proven that ghosts exist!" Dawn cried. "My fool-proof ghost busting kit has never failed me once!"

"I don't know about you guys, but weren't you suspicious when we went through that wall at the train station? And I just saw that chocolate frog jump on me." Alan looked around at all of us.

"They're effects," I told him. "It's all for show."

"I think it would be cool if we were meeting real wizards and witches," Alan said, shrugging. "Then maybe I could learn to turn you lot into toads! I'd turn Stacey into a rat, of course, since she's from New York."

"Haha, very funny," I said as Stacey rolled her eyes. (See what I mean about Alan being immature?)

"What does it say in that book?" Pete asked Mary Anne.

"Well, we didn't read all of it, of course," she told us as she and Mal sat down, "but we found out that students go there for seven years, from the time they're eleven until they're seventeen. It's like a boarding school, so they stay there for the whole school year."

"Tell them about the four Houses," Mal prompted her.

"Oh, yeah." Mary Anne flipped to a marked page in the book. "It says here that each student is sorted into one of four Houses when they begin school: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. Students who are brave are sorted into Gryffindor; students who are smart are sorted into Ravenclaw; students who are cunning are sorted into Slytherin; and students who are loyal and hard-working are sorted into Hufflepuff."

Alan gave a very undignified snort. "Sounds like they put all the dorks in Hufflemuff."

"Hufflepuff," Mary Anne corrected him.

"Hey, does it say anything about Muggles?" Stacey asked, remembering what the woman with the cart had called us.

"Let me see in the index," Mary Anne muttered as she ran her finger down a page. "Aha, yes, "Muggles" are non-magical folks."

Suddenly we felt the train stop.

"I think we're here," I said.