Saturday 8th July 2006

Dear Diary,

Today was the BEST DAY EVER!

Professor Smith arrived in the FIREPLACE! In a puff of green flame!

I had been sitting in the living room waiting anxiously at the time and it made me jump. She explained how she'd done it. Apparently it's a thing called the flew floo network. All you have to do is stand in the fireplace, say where you want to go, and throw some floo powder by your feet. It's lucky we have a large fireplace or it wouldn't have worked.

Then we got to travel in the fireplace. Dad went first, then me, then mum, then Professor Smith. It was quite disorientating and I almost fell over when I landed.

We went to a place called Diagon Alley which is apparently a secret magic place in the centre of London. It was AMAZING! The street was full of people in robes and there were so many different shops selling all kinds of magical things. I felt kind of out of place in my jeans and t-shirt.

I wanted to go straight into the shops, but first we had to stop at Gringotts bank so mum and dad could exchange some money for wizarding money. Wizarding money's really weird. They don't have any notes, only coins, and they're really confusing because they don't add up nicely like normal money. Dad said it was like the old currency with shillings and things. Hope fully it won't take me to long to remember how it works.

There are 3 coins, the least valuable being the Knut which is bronze. There are 29 Knuts in a Sickle (which is silver), and 17 Sickles in a Galleon (which is GOLD!). It seems so random!

Anyway, once we had got enough money, we got to go in the shops. We bought loads of things including robes, a whole stack of textbooks, a cauldron and potion ingredients. Even a quill and ink! When I asked Professor Smith why they didn't sell normal ink pens or biros she seemed confused and asked what a biro was!

The coolest shop was the wand shop. I had to wave a few different wands before one chose me. It's really cool! It's 10 ¾ inches long and apparently made of cedar wood and has unicorn hair in it to give it its magical power. I really wanted to just wave it around lots and see what happened, but Professor Smith told me I shouldn't mess around with it. It's currently sitting on my bedside table in its box to keep it safe, and I keep opening the box to look at it.

Once we'd gotten the wand, I tried to persuade my parents to let me go into the pet shop, but they still won't let me have a pet. I pointed out it was on the list that we were allowed them, but they still wouldn't agree. They said maybe when I'm older. It's not fair!

We had lunch at a place called The Leaky Cauldron. The food was really nice (I had roast chicken), but they didn't have any normal drinks like coke or sprite so I decided to try pumpkin juice which was just weird.

After lunch Professor Smith described the arrangements for getting to Hogwarts on my first day. Apparently the train goes from Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station in London. The platform is magically hidden and you have to walk through a magical gateway in a wall to get to it. It sounds really cool.

I'm really excited, but I'm also kind of scared. I'll be away from home all the way from 1st September till Christmas! Everything's going to be completely different and new. I won't even be able to call my parents if I get homesick because apparently electronics don't work at Hogwarts because there's too much magic, so I have to leave the mobile my parents bought me as a present for my SATs results at home! I'll be able to send them letters by owl post (real live OWLS!), which sounds cool, but isn't quite the same as being able to hear their voice instantly. In some ways wizards sound a bit old fashioned.

I'll miss my friends aswell. They've all been on holiday so they don't know anything about me not going to senior school with them yet, but I'll have to tell them something soon.

I think my parents, although they're excited for me, are also kind of dreading me leaving, because then it'll be just the two of them on their own for most of the year. They haven't said anything to me, but I heard them talking this evening after dinner when I was getting ready for bed.

So that I can be as prepared as possible, I'm going to take some of my textbooks with me on our holiday to France. Hopefully if I understand more about magic I'll be able to fit in easier and not fall behind just because I wasn't brought up in the wizarding world.

I've already read a bit of 'Hogwarts – A History'. Hogwarts sounds AMAZING! Apparently there's a ceiling that's enchanted to look like the night sky! And ghosts! (The nice kind, not the scary kind.) And staircases and paintings that move!

Hogwarts was founded by four different wizards and the school houses are named after them and there's a magic hat that choses which one you go in. I wonder which one I'll be in.

Mum just knocked on my door and told me it's time to go to sleep so I have to stop writing now. Good night!

Love Iris.

xxx