Dear Mr. Diary

August 30^th

Dear Diary,

I can't believe what happened earlier today!! Contact with the wizarding world here, in Britain!! Finally!! Here's how it happened:

I was sitting in Kari's bathroom, helping her dye her hair midnight blue for her sweet-sixteen. (God, how many times can one person dye their hair? And now it's blue. She's nuts!!)

I undid my ponytail and piled my long, curly brown hair into a messy bun. "Karsy, don't you miss Salem? Not even a little bit?"

"No, I don't miss it at all! I thought we talked about it yesterday..." she answered.

"Are you being serious or cynical?" I asked her.

She gave me this 'what-do-you-think' kind of look and I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

Suddenly we heard her dad shouting for her to get the mail. We raced downstairs and Kari picked up the pile of letters from the floor. (Of course, Kari was scolded for dying her hair, again!) I decided to go home for lunch and told Kars that I would call her later.

When I got home my mom called me into the kitchen and once I reached her she handed me a letter. A thick parchment envelope addressed to me in old-fashioned script on the front.

I gasped. Only the wizarding world uses parchment! I ripped open my letter and quickly scanned the contents. My mom eyed me curiously as I jumped up in excitement. I handed her the letter and while she read it to herself I called my best friend. I quickly told her about the letter and she ordered me to get my "big, fat ass over ASAP!" Once my mom finished reading I grabbed her by the hand and we marched next door, to the Kylisto household.

My mother entered the kitchen to meet Kari's mom and I ran upstairs to the well-known room. When I entered, Kari threw a letter at me, a letter identical to the one that I had received just a few moments earlier!

After a few minutes of jubilation I realized that we had to reply. So I had a great idea. I grabbed a pen out of the mess in Kari's desk drawer and wrote at the bottom of the letter, 'We'd love to join, but how do we get there?' Hey, if it worked on the letters from Salem it should work on the letters from Hogwarts, too.

Anyway, after I wrote the replies we reread the letters over and over again. Ten minutes later we heard the doorbell ring and Kari's mom yelled for us to come downstairs. I looked at my partner in crime, "Do you think...?"

"It might be," she answered, without me having to finish the sentence.

We rushed downstairs and were greeted by the sight of a rather strict looking witch wearing square glasses and a tartan robe.

"Are these the girls?" the woman asked in a thick Scottish brogue. Kari and I both nodded. "I'm Professor McGonagall. You must be Kari Kylisto and Arwen Ovadia." We nodded again. She, as in this McGonagall woman, smiled and asked where our parents were. My mom and Kari's parents entered the room and introduced themselves.

"Well," Professor McGonagall began, as we all walked into the living room. "I gather that you have received your letters and are ready to leave immediately?"

I smiled rather nervously at her. "Actually we only got the letters ten minutes ago. We haven't had time to do anything yet."

Kari piped up. "Yeah... can you pick us up tomorrow?" she got up, kneeled in front of the teacher, and looked up at her with big, sad, puppy dog eyes. Her mother, who is so used to such Kari-ish behavior, shook her head and told her to get up and sit down on the couch.

"Moo, I think it is humanly impossible to stand up and sit down at the same time," Kari offered an argument, but after looking at her mother, stopped.

Anyways, Professor McGonagall smiled again. "Alright, I shall send someone to pick you up first thing tomorrow morning. Though, I do want to speak to you about Hogwarts first." She gave Kari, who was fooling around, a stern glance. The woman talked for two hours straight. After getting our parents approval and understanding (and after a slight performance of a victory dance from our good friend, Kari) the witch Disapparated and left us alone to be lectured.

Despite the lectures and having to go home and pack it was indeed a great day!!

Can't wait till tomorrow!!

Love,

Arwen

***

September 1^st

Dear Mr. Diary,

Yesterday was awesome! Seriously, wow, the shops here in Diagon Alley are amazing! Plus, plus, plus, plus, we met one of the most famous people in the wizarding world today, Harry Potter! Actually, only I met him... Arwen didn't get much of the hotness of his eyes, ha-ha!!

Well let us start with the morning... Mr. Hagrid (a gigantic man with an extremely bushy beard) picked us up from my place. He took us to, what seemed like, a forgotten old pub.

We went through the pub, out the back and came face to face with this endlessly tall, red, brick wall. Mr. Hagrid tapped a certain amount of bricks with his umbrella and an arch way was formed!! Oh, the awe to magically enhanced things!

First thing we did when we got there was go to Gringotts, the bank here. It's run by goblins, scary little creatures. There we opened an account for each of us and got our money exchanged. When we left the bank-of-all-creepiness I asked curiously, "Why is the place called Gringotts? I barely saw any people grin there." I got no answer, but instead I received a whack on the head from 'Wen.

Hagrid steered us to what Arwen refers to as 'heaven', Flourish and Blotts bookshop. We got all our necessary schoolbooks from there. As we traveled through other stores we bought everything else that we needed; including our owls, Sandrilene and Angel. Sandrilene, or Sandry, ('Wen's owl) is white with a black stripe down her middle. Angel, my b-e-a-u-tiful owl, is black with white wing tips.

After we had possession over all the essentials that we need to start off the school year we went to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, a gigantic, splendid, extraordinary, joke shop. That's when I stated, "Now this is what I call Heaven!"

Arwen and I looked at each other; I smiled and cracked an evil laugh, "Okay, 'Wen!! You go that way," I pointed to my right. "And I'll go this way," I added pointing to my left. "Now... Raid the place naked!!!"

I walked over to a display sporting a large neon sign saying "Skiving Snack-boxes." I love the word 'skiving' and upon reading the description I decided to take a few packs. I took a basket and threw all the snack-boxes and some more very intriguing items that I had found during the thirty-some minutes that we were in the shop, stopping only every few moments to show Arwen a new discovery.

After I was sure that I had everything I needed/wanted I made my way to one of the redheads standing at the counter.

"Hello!" I greeted cheerfully.

There was some small talk with the clerk- actually one of the store keepers, Fred Weasley, and I asked him if they do deliveries to Hogwarts. He confirmed that they did.

When I finished paying for everything I turned around, and bumped into someone. I started yelling at the tall, dark-haired boy with glasses who had bumped into me and made me drop all of the things that I was carrying. "Why don't you watch where you're going freak?"

"Sorry," the boy stated angrily. I looked up and our eyes connected.

Suddenly I realized who I had bumped into. "Harry Potter?" I gasped. "Always a pleasure to meet famous people in a joke shop." I laughed. I put out my hand, "I'm Kari Kylisto. Nice to meet you."

He smiled nervously and shook my hand. He helped me pick up the merchandise off the floor as I babbled continuously until Arwen and Mr. Hagrid called me over. I said a quick goodbye, bowed out, and before he could say anything I was out the door.

Once I had reached my companions, I started jumping. "You'll never guess who I just met!!" When Arwen hesitated I burst out, "Harry Potter!"

'Wen laughed and asked skeptically, "Are you sure?"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh," I answered.

"Lucky you!" she said jealously and clapped my shoulder as we walked back to the pub.

Three in the morning... I have got to get the least bit amount of sleep. I have to wake up soon for the first day of school! Good night.

Loove,

Kari