3rd November, 1991

I woke up to someone knocking frantically on my bedroom door.

"Blargh," I declared. "Who's there?"

"It's me!" shouted the 14-year-old Mimi, letting herself in. "Happy birthday, Jade!"

Oh, right.

It's my 11th birthday.

"Thanks," I groaned. "But did you realise it's 8:30 am?"

"Exactly," Mimi said happily. "The perfect time to wake up and do your make-up, don't you think?"

"I don't wear make-up! I'm eleven years old!"

Mimi shrugged. "I started wearing make-up at age 3!"

"Yeah," I replied sarcastically, "Make-up complete with arsenic."

She pouted. "Still make-up. Also, Maria said she wanted to see you."

"Fine. I'll be back soon." I walked out the door to the reception area where Maria was waiting for me.

"A letter arrived in the post for you this morning," she told me, handing me a small envelope with Jade Edwards, Room 4, Mahon Orphanage on it.

Could it be the Hogwarts letter Dumbledore mentioned? I asked myself.

I walked outside to open it.

I read the letter.

It said that I’d been accepted into Hogwarts and had a list of stuff I needed to buy.

There was a note attached.

Dear Jade,

Hagrid will be coming to take you to Hogwarts later today.

Professor Dumbledore

And on the 1st of September I had to get the train from Platform 9 ¾ . Wait, what? 9 ¾? Oh well. I guess this Hagrid guy will know what to do.

And it said that they awaited my owl - Dumbledore explained about owl mail, but I didn't have an owl myself. I hoped Hagrid would help.

I went back inside, pocketing the letter as I did so.

Maria asked, "Was it from the school?"

I replied, "Yeah. Just a list of stuff I need. And someone's coming to take me there later."

She nodded, so I went back to my room. 

"Jade, it's almost 9 am! Have breakfast!" She gave me a bowl of breakfast.

When I was finished, she gave me a pile of presents.

"Here. Open these."

Maria had given me a jade bracelet with 'Jade' engraved on it.

Mimi gave me a watch the colour of jade. I got a book about a bunch of orphans from Lana (age 20) and a figurine of a guy jumping on a broomstick, reminding me of Quidditch.

Then I remembered Hagrid.

"Uh, Mimi, I'm moving out of the orphanage," I began, "and so -"

"WHAT?" she gasped.

"I was offered a place at this school, you see, so I'm moving there when school starts on September 1st. And somebody's coming to take me to look at the school or something. Today."

She glared at me for a minute or two before relenting.

"Oh, whatever. But I'll miss you. After all, I'll only have Theo for company, and what good is a boyfriend when it comes to girl stuff?" 

"Yeah, I'll miss you too. But I wouldn't know about boyfriends - I've never had one."

"What about Alex?"

"Excuse me? Alex is a friend, not a boyfriend."

BOOM! Right then, a huge noise reverberated through the orphanage, making the whole building shake.

It was someone knocking at the door.

"I'll get it," I said quickly, racing out to the entrance.

I opened the door. A giant of a man was standing in the doorway.

"Er - hello," I greeted him hesitantly. "Who are you?"

"Morning! I'm Rubeus Hagrid - but just call me Hagrid. Everyone does," he said, pulling a piece of paper from one of his pockets. "I'm here for - er - Miss Jade Edwards and Master Alex Johnson. Could yeh find them?"

"Ehm, well, I'm Jade Edwards. I'll go get Alex," I told him, rushing back into the building to find Alex.

Alex? A wizard? I thought to myself in confusion.

When I reached his room, I knocked frantically.

A bored voice said, "Come in."

"Alex, are you a wizard?" I gasped increduously.

Alex nodded. "Yup. Why, are you a witch?"

I returned the nod.

"Come on, Hagrid's here to take us shopping, or something," I said, practically dragging Alex to the front door.

"Here he is," I said to Hagrid when we reached the entranceway again.

"Excellent, will yeh follow me? We're going ter London." He walked very quickly down to the areas that were actually civilised and then, finally, the train station.

"Here, Jade, Alex, could yeh sort out the money? I'm not too good with this Muggle gold."

Once we'd done as he asked, we got on the train to London. Once again, he walked extremely quickly - we were actually running to keep up with him.

Finally, we entered a dingy-looking old pub.

"The Leaky Cauldron."

It didn't sound all that amazing, but Hagrid sounded almost reverent, so I figured it was pretty important.

The barman stopped cleaning the bench and looked at Hagrid questioningly.

"Sorry, Tom, I'm only passing through. Hogwarts young 'uns," he added importantly, gesturing to us. I nodded to Tom and then Hagrid led us out the back of the bar.

There was a brick wall there, but before I asked what Hagrid thought he was doing, he muttered some numbers under his breath, eventually tapping one of the bricks with a flowery umbrella.

The bricks shuffled around until they formed an archway. At the top of the archway read the words 'Diagon Alley'.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley. Yeh'll get yer school supplies here. But first, we have to go to Gringotts. Wizard's bank," he added at our bewildered looks.

Alex voiced the question on both of our tongues.

"But we're orphans! We wouldn't have money, would we?"

"Oh, don't yeh worry. I've been given vault keys and numbers for the both of yeh."

By this time, we'd reached the bank. "Oh, I should also warn yeh, it's run by goblins," Hagrid added, pushing the door open.

He strolled casually over to one of the goblins.

"We're wantin' ter visit vaults - hang on a sec - vaults 102 and 91."

"Keys?" asked the goblin in a bored tone.

Hagrid reached into another of his many pockets and put a couple of keys onto the desk in front of the goblin. The goblin led us onto a cart. Once we were 'comfortable', the cart set off at breakneck speed down a steep incline.

When we had both gotten our money, we left again. Both Hagrid and Alex looked rather sick by the time we came out of the bank.

We went back out to Diagon Alley. 

We got all our books, potion ingredients, cauldron and clothes first, and then I got my owl - a Barn Owl who I called Lily - and my wand, which was 12 1/2 inches, aspen, phoenix feather core, reasonably supple.

We were told (by Hagrid) about the four houses at Hogwarts: Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. 

From what Hagrid told us, I decided I would most like to be in Slytherin or Ravenclaw.

Finally, after an exciting trip, we headed back to the orphanage.

"Uh, Hagrid?" I began. He nodded for me to continue. "On my letter, it says I have to get the train from Platform 9 3/4. But how are we supposed to get onto the platform?"

"Oh, that's easy. All yeh have to do is run at the wall between Platforms Nine and Ten, that takes yeh onto the platform."

"Oh." So basically, I had to run through a wall to get there.

Sounds like fun.

When we got back home, we said goodbye to Hagrid.

"Goodbye, Jade, Alex, see yeh on the first of September. Oh, and happy birthday, Jade," he added.

I smiled and, for the first time, looked forward to the 1st of September.