Ayla’s eyes widened in amazement as she read this extraordinary letter as well as the stationary and uniform lists which were also in the envelope. Feeling that there was still something in the envelope, she extracted another letter, this time written on plain paper not parchment. She read it slowly, looking over the words and was rather shocked.

Dear Miss Pascal,

I do not know if you know this but you will soon find out. You are five years older than most of the First year students, so for their comfort and for yours we shall put you in Sixth year. As you may already know Hogwarts only offers seven years of education and you may well feel rather behind on classes. However, the teachers will endeavour to help you as much as possible and I am sure that you will try to keep up on your studies. Please do not inform any other students of this fact. You will be introduced as an exchange student from Dundee’s School of Magic, in Australia. Please do not hesitate to come to me if you have any problems adjusting, the password to my office is ‘Auror’

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster of Hogwarts

Ps. You may be wondering if your parents know about this arrangement and I tell you that the time you will spend here will not affect the time in Australia. In other words, you will be sent back to Australia when the time is right, and to your parents you will seem to have never left at all.

Ayla rubbed her eyes and stared at the letters again disbelievingly, one minute she was in the car with her parents driving to a country town where they were going to spend the weekend and the next she was here being told that she was enrolled in Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was too much to take in, and on top of that, she was put up 5 years and would not be able to understand a single thing.

She took a couple of deep breaths, looked up and recoiled back in shock. The old bar in front of her was named the Leaky Cauldron, just like the one mentioned in the letter. She hesitantly walked in and saw many strange people dressed in what looked like performance robes. Nervously she went up to the bar and asked the bartender how to get to Diagon Alley.

The bartender peered over the counter at her and after deciphering her atrocious pronunciation realised what she was talking about, ‘Go up to that wall and tap the third brick from the right while saying Alohomara,’ he told her. As Ayla walked off she heard the bartender muttering to his companion, ‘Bit old to be starting at Hogwarts, isn’t she.’

Ayla walked up to the wall. Tapping the third brick with her nail, Ayla muttered ‘Alohomara.’ The wall suddenly shifted and she could see into an alleyway filled with many stores. Pinching herself hard, Ayla wondered whether this was all a dream and she was still really in the car on the way to…Ouch… no it was real all right, her arm now hurt like hell. Briefly, her mind wandered back to her parents. Could she really believe this Dumbledore person, perhaps her parents were calling the police right now. Ayla agonized for a minute but decided that she would just go along with the situation, Dumbledore sounded trustworthy. Consulting the list of books that she was supposed to need for this school, she wondered if she had any money to buy them. Her bag felt abnormally heavy so she peered into it. Ayla sighed, at this moment nothing would surprise me, she thought to herself. The bag was filled to the brim with gold and silver coins

Looking down at her list, Ayla noted that she needed a wand. Looking down the alleyway, she saw a sigh saying Olivenders Fine Makers of Wands. Ayla headed towards the sign still marvelling at the fact she was a witch and could probably perform witchcraft. When she entered the small dingy shop, an old wizard with pale staring eyes came up to her.

‘My name is Mr Olivender and I suppose you are here for your wand. I have been waiting for you, Dumbledore told me you were coming. He has taken the pains to get everything else for you, all you need now is a wand.’ The man grasped Ayla’s elbow and steered her towards the back of the shop.

‘But … why am I here?’ Ayla stammered, resisting. She wrenched her elbow from him and glared at the small man.

‘Why indeed,’ Mr Olivender murmured, ‘but all will be revealed shortly.’ He held a hand up to stop Alya interrupting. ‘Am I right to say that you like snakes,’ Ayla nodded numbly, ‘Now it isn’t strictly in the rules but you are allowed to keep a snake. Dumbledore has already chosen one for you, all you have to do is name it.’ He seemed to stop his rambling with an effort and picked up a wand, ‘Beechwood and phoenix feather, ten inches inflexible. Try it!’

Ayla picked up the wand and waved it around, feeling rather stupid. ‘Is there a point to this?’ she asked irritably, ‘shouldn’t I be saying Abcadabra or something, not just waving it around.’

Mr Olivender looked at her horrified, ‘You must never say treat my wands that way!’ his voice was adamant as he grabbed another box of the shelf, ‘Try Maple and dragon heartstring, 12 inches, flexible.’

Ayla waved that one around for a while before it was snatched out of her hands. She sighed to herself as the man scurried around picking up other boxes and shoving other bits of wood into her hand. Ayla supposed that she had missed something while watching the movies. She was almost sure that you had to say Abcadabra.

Soon it felt like she had tried every wand in the shop, when Mr Olivender brought out another wand, this time in a carved wooden box. He took off the lid almost reverently; the wand inside was beautiful and shiny. He handed it to Alya saying ‘Prototype, Birch wood and Balisk fang, ten inches flexible.’

As soon as Alya touched the wand, it grew warm with in her fingers and she brought it down creating a shower of silver sparks. ‘Wow,’ she exclaimed, waving it around a bit more to test it. The room was filled with dancing light as green, gold and silver sparks shot out of the wand.

‘Magnificent’ Mr Olivender cried as the sparks danced around the walls creating a mosaic of light in his dim room, ‘Now you will be staying in the Leaky Cauldron, which is also an Motel, until the term starts. Take a mug… taxi to Kings Cross Station on September the first.’ He handed Ayla her wand box as well as silver cage containing a snake and many bags of wizarding equipment and a train ticket.

The next few days passed as a blur for Ayla as she spent all day exploring Diagon Alley, and reading as much as she could about the wizarding world so she would fit in more. Soon it was September 1st, and Ayla took one last look at the Leaky Cauldron, which had become like a second home before boarding a taxi to Kings Cross Station.

When she got there, Ayla checked her ticket and her eyebrows almost shot out of her head as she read, Platform 9 ¾. Shrugging, she wheeled her trolley towards the barrier between Platform 9 and 10. She saw many people around with owls and cats, which looked rather strange in a train station, so she supposed she was in the right place. Watching carefully as some of the others walked towards the barrier she noticed that they seemed to walk right through it. Holding her breath, Ayla wheeled her trolley towards the barrier between Platform 9 and 10, breaking into a nervous run when she was within three feet of it. Feeling a slight impediment in the air, Ayla opened her eyes and found herself on the other side of the barrier. .

In front of her was an old-fashioned steam train, with the letters Hogwarts Express on it, and many students were milling around the platform, talking. Above her was a sign proclaiming the platform as, Platform 9 ¾. Ayla stood there looking rather lost when two boys and a girl came up to her and introduced themselves. ‘ Hello.’ A tall freckled boy said, ‘My name’s Ron, his name’s Harry and her name’s Hermione. I’ve never seen you around before. What year are you in?’

‘Sixth year,’ Ayla said hesitantly, ‘I’m a … exchange student from Australia’ She crossed her fingers and prayed that she had gotten the information correct. She didn’t know if these wizarding types were nice or not, and frankly she didn’t want to find out. If they were anything like the witches in the old fairy tales, Ayla shivered and hoped that they weren’t.

‘Cool,’ Hermione said brightly, smiling at Ayla, ‘ I’ve always wanted to know what it was like there, the customs of the witches and wizards. Do you know what house you will be in?’

‘Well… what houses are there?’

‘There is Gryffindor for the brave people, Ravenclaw for the smart people, Hufflepuff for the hard workers and Slytherin, for the well… nasty…evil people.’ Harry explained, ‘We’re all in Gryffindor. I hope that you’ll also be in our house!’

‘Oh,’ Ayla said, thinking that they sounded a little biased against Slytherin. She boarded the train with the three Gryffindor’s and sat in a compartment with them.

Not long after they had entered the compartment, a pale boy with blond hair and a pointed face entered the same compartment with two heavy-set thug-like boys behind him.

‘Sorry Potter,’ the pale-faced boy sneered, not looking the least bit apologetic, ‘No more seats.’ He settled himself down on one of the seats, wearing a look of disdain upon his face. ‘Who are you?’ He asked Ayla curiously.

‘Ayla,’ she replied ‘Who are you?’

‘Draco Malfoy’ He drawled ‘I haven’t seen you before, which house are you in?’

‘Dunno’ She muttered slowly, ‘I’m an …uh…exchange student.’

The rest of the trip passed in silence, as everybody seemed to be absorbed in their own thoughts. The lunches passed and near the end of the trip everyone changed into their robes with Ayla grimacing at the unusual clothes. When they arrived at the station, they all boarded musty coaches which took them past the front gates which were flanked by winged boars. The coaches rumbled up the driveway towards the front door stopping with a slight screech.

Everyone shivered with the sudden blast of cold air that assaulted them as they exited the coaches. Hurrying up the steps, Ayla followed in the footsteps of Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Entering the Great Hall, Ayla gasped at the amazing sight of the candles floating in mid sir. She looked up and saw the night sky. Hermione grinned at the look on her face, ‘It’s enchanted to look like that,’ she whispered to Ayla. Ayla nodded to show her understanding and looked to the middle of the hall.

In the middle of the hall was a three-legged stool on which was placed a hat. When everyone was seated it began to sing.

‘Our coach must have been late,’ Ron muttered as the hat was finishing, ‘We missed Dumbledore’s speech!’

The hall filled with applause at the last line as Professor McGonogall started to read out the list of names of the first years as they made their way to the stool to try on the hat. When she had finished reading out their names, she cleared her throat and said, ‘Now this year we have an exchange student from Dundee’s School of Magic in Australia. Pascal, Ayla.’

Ayla slowly made her way down the hall from the Gryffindor table, where she had been sitting with the trio, to the three-legged stool in the middle of the hall. Gulping at the many curious looks that were directed her way, Ayla placed the hat upon her head and sat on the stool.

‘Well well, Ayla where shall we put you?’ A voice spoke in her head.

‘How should I know?’ Ayla replied silently ‘They all sound the same to me!’ She fidgeted with her robes as she said this, afraid that the hat would refuse to sort her.

‘Well you have the brains, but you also have ambition. You are loyal to your friends but you are not afraid to stand up to your enemies. You like snakes though and you certainly have a nasty streak. Better be SLYTHERIN!’ The last word was shouted out to the whole hall. Ayla slowly lifted the hat off her head and made her way to the Slytherin table amidst cheers from them, and boos from all the other houses. Her gaze flitted to Harry, Rom and Hermione who were looking at her like if she had been some sort of spy or something.

‘Welcome to Slytherin!’ The boy who had spoken to her on the train said as he shook Ayla’s hand, ‘As I have already told you, I’m Draco Malfoy, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle. Pansy will introduce you to the girls.’ He was much nicer to her now than when they were on the train and Ayla couldn’t help noticing that his grey eyes seemed be looking her over. She blushed.

‘I’m Pansy,’ a brown haired girl said warmly, ignoring the speech Dumbledore was now making, ‘These are my friends Millicent, Blaise, Clara and Myra.’

‘I’m Ayla,’ Ayla smiled nervously around at everybody, ‘um…umm can I ask a question?’ She looked at Pansy, as if for permission.

‘Sure,’ Pansy said carelessly, reaching for the potatoes that had just appeared on the table.

Ayla looked at the potatoes with surprise but decided not to say anything. ‘Why do the other houses … um… seem to …uh …dislike Slytherin so much? You guys seem really nice and everything.’ Ayla stammered, unsure of their reaction. She looked down at the table until she heard an answer.

‘Well for one thing many of them are mudbloods! Imagine that! Having no wizarding descent!’ Draco winced as he exchanged commiserating looks with the other Slytherin’s, ‘We Slytherin’s pride ourselves on being purebloods. I’m sure that you’ll understand.’ He looked at Ayla who nodded quickly, unsure of what he was talking about. She made a mental note to check up Mudbloods and purebloods in her wizarding books. ‘They are also rather nasty and mean as you may have noticed so we just don’t associate with them.’ Draco added.

‘I understand,’ Ayla said as if she really understood, while thinking that Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn’t been all that bad. ‘So do you have any house colours or…’ she trailed off looking at everyone.

‘Yes,’ Millicent said with a warm smile that transformed her, ‘Our house colours are green and silver, our house animal is the serpent. Just look at your robes.’ She looked pointedly at Ayla’s robes.

Ayla stared down at her plain black robes, which were suddenly not so plain anymore. They had a Snake embroidered on them, obviously the Slytherin emblem. ‘It’s really pretty,’ Ayla commented while staring at it upside down.

Just then, dinner ended and Ayla followed the Slytherin’s to a stretch of bare wall next to what seemed to be dungeons. ‘Serpent tongue,’ Draco Malfoy hissed to the wall as it slid open to reveal a common room and many dormitories. ‘That’s our password,’ he explained to Ayla, ‘you have to say it to get inside our common room.’

Ayla stared around the room which was a long underground hall like room, lit by round green lamps and there was a fire crackling in the fireplace which was surrounded by carved chairs. Pansy gestured for her to follow her and led Ayla to her dormitory.

‘You’ll be in our dormitory,’ Pansy explained gesturing towards the four-poster beds with silver and green curtains. Ayla was pleasantly surprised as she stepped onto the floor barefoot. The stone like floor felt like warm plush carpet. She flopped on her bed and promptly fell asleep, tired from the exertions of the day.

Meanwhile up in the Gryffindor common room on the seventh floor, Hermione was feverishly looking through her’ Appraisal of Magic in Australia’ book. ‘It’s not there’ she said at last, holding the book up triumphantly, ‘Dundee’s school of magic is not there. Ayla’s a fraud!’

Ron clenched his fists, ‘How dare she trick us!’ he fumed angrily, ‘that Slytherin! We’re going to confront her tomorrow!’ The others nodded and all agreed that, yes, they were going to confront the Slytherin tomorrow.

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