"Bravo, another Bond fan!" my father exclaimed approaching the boy to shake hands; he had this bizarre obsession with muggle action movies. The television was his favorite muggle invention, and his close second was the DVD player.
"Sean Connery is the only Bond I can watch, it just goes downhill after that," James answered. This caused my father's my father's maniacal smile grew and he shook the boy's hand.
"I'm Andrew, this is my wife Juliette, my daughter Christine and my son Andy."
"Pleased to meet you," James replied with a smile, "As you hopefully already know, I'm here to show you around Diagon Alley and get you acquainted with Hogwarts for the coming term." He grinned and acknowledged my brother.
"Are both of you attending?"
"No," Andy and I answered at the same time, and I finished, "Only I am."
"Well, you're looking forward to a great year, people have been ecstatic about the exchange since last winter," our guide told us, "You are a seventh year, correct?" I pondered this and then remembered that in the UK schooling went by years after American sixth grade, so I was indeed a seventh year. I nodded as a reply.
"Before I tell you about the school, I think it's best we start our shopping," James told us, tapping on an arrangement of bricks with his wand. I watched the wall disappear and a large market appear before me.
"You already have a wand I assume?
"Yes," I responded, "10 and 3/4 inches mahogany and dragon heartstring."
"Broom?"
"Nimbus 2020."
"Excellent, do you fly often," James inquired with a wild grin.
"I was keeper for my school's Quidditch team," I told him turning red with a bit of pride, "We made it to nationals two years in a row."
"I'm a Chaser, do you play?" James asked Andy.
"I'm a Chaser too," Andy answered, he engaged James in a conversation about the best rotation for throwing a shot that did not touch the rings at all.
"I'm not sure about any keeper openings for this season, depends on the house you're in-," he finished his sentence short, "Houses, I probably should explain those to you. I listened intently as James explained the four houses at Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Each house corresponded to traits within students, Gryffindors were generally brave and loyal, Slytherins cunning, Ravenclaws extremely witty, and Hufflepuffs, well they were generally nice people. He was a Gryffindor. I soaked in all of this information as my parents gazed at the surrounding village.
"Bah!," I exclaimed, quickly remembering we left all of our stuff outside that bar.
"Hannah will pick it up," James promised, and I took his word as he led us towards a tall building labelled Gringotts Wizard Bank.
"You're all American, and you'll need to exchange your money."
"I've been here before," my father yelped, "On business a few years ago, I believe I opened a vault." After entering, my family piled into a small cart and descended into the depths of the bank. My father clambered out of the cart and opened the vault, returning in a few minutes with a small sum of various sized coins.
"This is a Galleon, it's worth the most and it's the biggest," my father showed me a gold coin, "Followed by a sickle, there are 17 sickles in a Galleon," this time he showed a smaller silver coin, "And then a Knut, there are 29 Knuts in a Sickle," he finished showing me a very small bronze coin. I quickly kept the conversions handy in my mind, 493 Knuts to a Galleon…
"That was quick," our guide noted when we emerged only 10 minutes later.
"He works with currency," my Mom told James; my father walked along looking at each coin in the sunlight mesmerized by the intricacy of foreign money. We passed a robes shop and I stopped to look inside. Young girls and boys were being measured for their robes, they looked no older than eleven.
"You read the list," James said, stopping next to me, "Do you wear robes across the pond?"
"Nope," I answered, "Uniforms but not robes, I feel like you all must sweat so much when it's warm."
"It's only warm for the first few weeks, then you learn to love the robes," James confessed, grinning again. We walked inside and the shopkeeper was astonished at how old I was. If I hadn't told her I was getting my first robes ever, she would have just assumed I was an average seventh year student.
"A transfer," she asked me as she drew a tape measurer down my arm, "That is definitely something new." In about half an hour I left with three sets of class robes and new shoes. I still am not sure how I feel about this new uniform, robes seem much too constricting. We passed cauldrons and I got one, the bottom was quite sturdy and it was extremely heavy, along with various potion ingredients. Our longest trip was at the book store, Flourish and Blotts. My class list was extensive, and I left with so many books. Standard Book of Spells Grade 7, Advanced Charms, Animal Transfiguration, Advanced Ancient Runes Grade 7, Practical Herbology, Advanced Arithmancy Grade 7 and Potions Grade 7 (Advanced). The pile looked ridiculous in my arms and I didn't know how I would manage to carry them around in just a small rucksack.
"You're definitely going to be in most, if not all of my classes," James told me as we indulged in frozen delight outside of an ice cream shop, "Except Arithmancy, I'm in Care of Magical Creatures instead."
"Why did you want to come here so badly?" I was astounded by his question, because even over the past month and a half I still hadn't come up with an answer. I could lie and say my life back home was miserable, so I came up with some botched version of the truth,
"Um, I wanted to try something new," this was a terrible answer, the real reason was I actually had no idea, but something in my gut told me not to pass up the opportunity.
"While we're here I'll take the time to tell you a bit more about the school. This year I'm a Prefect, which means I have a bit of control over my house when it comes to rules. From your schedule you'll either be a Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, you seem quite smart so I'm erring on the side of Ravenclaw. Gryffindors and Ravenclaws get along really well, so we'd be able to spend some time together and I can introduce you to my friends." James told me all about his family, his younger brother Albus, who was a fourth year, and his sister Lily who was a second year. His parents both held positions in the ministry of magic but were highly involved in the school. He talked highly of his cousins, Hugo and Rose, Hugo in his second year and Lily her fourth, as they were practically his siblings as well.
Here I had a moment when I finally picked the reason I switched schools. My time at Islewood was fantastic, I did extremely well and was prepared for the world outside of school, but I never experienced true bonding within a school. Something inside of me said that Hogwarts would be different, and I let out a sigh of relief when James reinforced my premonitions.
"It's getting quite late," James stated me after telling me a bit of history about the school, and he was right, the sun was setting rapidly over the horizon, "We should get back to the Leaky Cauldron, I'm sure my family would love to meet all of you."