The first ten minutes of the car
ride to the airport were filled with my parents' questions and concerns and
advice; the last twenty were quiet.

With a few hastily wiped away
tears, a hug from my dad and a kiss from my mom, I was left alone to board the
plane.

I had been on a plane only once before.
I was six, and we were headed to Disneyland. In my lack of experience, I saw no
harm in chugging several glassfuls of orange juice. My stomach later changed my
view on the matter.

Now I avoided any drink other
than water. I fiddled with the photograph in my lap of my great aunt Cresselda Noreen
Elkins as I nibbled on the mini pretzels brought by the stewardess. My only
living magical relative who I had conveniently never met, Cresselda lives in
Montgomery, Wales and is my mother's aunt. When my mother wrote to her about my
acceptance letter arriving, Cresselda enthusiastically agreed to pick me up
when I landed in London and take me to Diagon Alley before putting me on the
train to Hogwarts. As friendly as she seemed from her response letter, I was nervous
to meet her, as my family has a curious tendency to not be able to mention her
name without a slight raise of eyebrows. Still, my excitement over the purchase
of a wand and hopefully a toad, cat or owl prevailed over any apprehensiveness.
As I imagined walking for the first time into the highly-revered wand shop
Cresselda had called ‘Ollivanders’ in her letter, I drifted slowly into sleep.

The journey was long. It
consisted of dozing on and off, sketching herbs I had read about into my
notebook, watching movies on the screen built-in to the back of the seat in
front of me, and going over my First Year supplies list. I was groggy at first
when we landed, having just awoken from my fourth nap of the flight, but the
sight of the tiny elderly Welshwoman dressed in a plum-coloured blouse and
pencil skirt in the airport lobby snapped me into attention. It seemed that
Cresselda had spotted me, too, as she cried out in a lilting accent with
surprising strength for such a small person, "POPPY DEAR!" Every
person in the vicinity turned.

She stayed put where she stood
across the lobby, so I was forced to make my walk of shame over to her as a
hundred pairs of eyes bored into my back. She was beaming from ear to ear.
"Oh, my love! You have grown into such a beautiful young lady!" She
grabbed my arm as soon as I was I reach and pulled me closer to her, looking me
up and down. "The muggle school pictures your mothers sends me of you each
year do not do you justice!"

My ears pricked up at the word ‘muggle’,
and I immediately scanned the surrounding area to make sure no one had heard.
Cresselda must have seen this, because she laughed. "Oh, don't worry,
dear," she said, a twinkle in her eye, "they think I'm crazy."

Φ